Across the millennia, there were many learned men who contributed to the development of science and society in general without being well known or famous for their accomplishments. One such person was Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464).
The son of a
fisherman, Nicholas was born in 1401 in Kues, a small town by the Moselle River
in southwest Germany. Catholic Cardinal, philosopher, theologian, astronomer,
mathematician, and jurist, Nicholas was most famous for his denunciation of the
Donation of Constantine as a forgery.
As a
scientist, studying plant growth, he established that air had weight. His
concept of the infinite made possible the theory of relativity in the twentieth
century.
Before Copernicus
and Newton, he hypothesized that the Earth revolved on its axis around the sun.
He even worked out the specifics of the Gregorian calendar long before 1582
when Pope Gregory XIII implemented them into practice.
One of the
first maps of Europe is attributed to him. He is alleged to have discovered, as a collector of rare manuscripts,
the Natural History of Pliny the Elder, and many lost comedies by the Roman
Plautus.
He endowed
an old people’s home in Kues, and left it its entire personal library which was
quite extensive for the time. Books were very expensive and rare then and only the
rich could afford to own them. This fabulous collection survived intact to this
day.
The eighth
century document called the Donation of Constantine was an alleged edict by the
Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in 315 A.D. who stated that “Silvester and his
successors,” are to rule over the city of Rome and all the provinces,
districts, and cities of Italy and the West … forever.”
Pope
Silvester, the Christian Bishop of Rome, had baptized Constantine and cured him
of his leprosy. Constantine, ever so grateful, donated half of his empire to
the church forever. Following this edict, Constantine allegedly “vacated the
Lateran Palace and carried away the first 12 baskets of earth from the site on
the Vatican Hill of what was to become the Basilica of St. Peter.”
Nicholas of Cusa
researched the eighth century document of the Donation of Constantine and found
it to be a forgery. It contained many historical errors:
1. It talked about the city and the
power of Constantine even though Constantine was still in Rome in 315 A.D. and
his capital had not yet been established.
2. It called the Bishop of Rome a pope two
hundred years before the title came into use.
3. It appeared that Constantine called
himself the conqueror of the Huns, fifty years before they set foot in Europe.
4. It recorded the only mention that
Constantine had given the church half of its empire; such a generous donation
would have been mentioned in other records again and again.
5. Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, Emperor Constantine’s
contemporary biographer, had never heard of the Donation.
Nicholas of
Cusa presented his findings in 1433 to the Council of Basel, and they were
accepted immediately. He was anointed Cardinal by Pope Nicholas V and, even
though he worked tirelessly on behalf of the papacy, he is remembered mostly
for his scientific and academic endeavors.
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