10 Fascinating Historical Artefacts (That Weren't Real)

From the 8th-13th Centuries, the Papacy really wanted to be as important as possible and a succession of Popes sought to become not just funny-hatted religious leaders, but temporal rulers of the Western world.

Fortunately they had a document that said they owned said Western world, courtesy of the Emperor Constantine. Connie had converted to Christianity on the battlefield in the 4th Century AD and according to the Donation of Constantine, he gave the whole Western Roman Empire to then-pope Sylvester I in 315.

The Donation of Constantine was used to argue why the Papacy should be even more powerful than it was, right up until the point it was exposed as definitely not in any way real in 1440. It was probably made in the 8th century at a monastery, to help Pope Stephen II bargain with the unfortunately named Frankish nobleman Pepin the Short.

The Catholic church quietly stopped mentioning the whole Constantine thing and concentrated on more pressing matters, like Protestantism suddenly existing.