Forgery

The monasteries of the 12th century were factories of forgery. They were notorious for practising fraud whenever it suited them. If they needed to assert a right, a privilege, an appointment to an official position or the ownership of a parcel of land, whatever they wanted it was always well within their capability to supplement the apparently missing documentation with a copy of their own making. In an age where the majority of the people were illiterate there were few who could challenge the authenticity of these spurious creations.

Donation of Constantine

A document in which Constantine purportedy declares that he has retired to his palace on the Bosporus leaving Rome wide open for the bishops of Rome and their successors to rule, fully enriched with the grant of imperial lands. This document is the one upon which all  the medieval popes based their rights of supremacy upon.



See: Donation of Constantine

False Decretals

See: Canon Law and The Canonical System

Glastonbury Abbey

See: Michael Wood (2001). In Search of England: Journeys Into the English Past. University of California Press. pp. 52–. ISBN 978-0-520-23218-1.

The Canterbury Forgeries

These asserted the primacy in England of the archiepiscopacy of Canterbury over that of York. 

Brooke, C. N. L. (1950). The Canterbury Forgeries and Their Author.

Z. N. Brooke (1989). The English Church and the Papacy: From the Conquest to the Reign of John. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-36687-8. pp. 122–.
 

Stephen Morillo (2007). The Haskins Society Journal.  R.F. Berkhoffer III:  The Canterbury Forgeries Revisited Boydell Press. pp. 36–. ISBN 978-1-84383-336-9.

The Canterbury Forgeries

R. W. Southern

The English Historical Review

Vol. 73, No. 287 (Apr., 1958), pp. 193-226

http://www.jstor.org/stable/556965

Some Observations on a Papal Privilege of 1120 for the Archbishops of York

M Cheney - Journal (The) of Ecclesiastical History London, 1980 - Cambridge Univ Press

Dr Jean Truax (2012). Archbishops Ralph d'Escures, William of Corbeil and Theobald of Bec: Heirs of Anselm and Ancestors of Becket. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-1-4094-6180-7.

 ... the “Canterbury forgeries.” ... p. 60-

Chapter 4: Roman Holiday: William of Corbeil and the Canterbury Forgeries p. 73-

Appendix 1: The Canterbury Forgeries p. 189

The Canterbury Forgeries

R. W. Southern

The English Historical Review

Vol. 73, No. 287 (Apr., 1958), pp. 193-226

Published by: Oxford University Press

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/556965

Stephen Morillo; Diane Korngiebel (2007). The Haskins Society Journal: Studies in Medieval History. 18 Chapter 3 Boydell Press. pp. 36–. ISBN 978-1-84383-336-9.

"The Canterbury Forgeries Revisited" (pp. 36-50)

Robert F. Berkhofer III

John II, Bishop of Rochester

What became of the bishopric of Rochester in the period following the death of Bishop John I in June 1137? Was he replaced by Bishop John II? This latter was a bishop so obscure it is still being debated whether he ever existed. Many documents prepared by the monks of this exist exist purportedly authorised by him.

Multiplicem Nobis

The famous letter of Gilbert Foliot to Becket.

See: 

Gilbert Foliot's letter to Becket (Summer 1166): Multiplicem nobis

Long branded as a forgery especially by Berrington, but now accepted as genuine. 

See:

G.P.R. James (1841). A History of the Life of Richard Coeur de Lion, King of England, 1. Saunders and Otley. pp. 215–29.

David Knowles (1951). Episcopal Colleagues. Cambridge University Press. pp. 171–. ISBN 978-0-521-05493-5.

The Magna Carta of Becket 1166

A charter purportedly protecting the freedoms of Christ Church of Canterbury.

David Wilkins (1715 & 1737). Concilia Magnae Britanniae Et Hiberniae Gosling, Gyles, Woodward, Davis. pp. 437–.

https://archive.org/stream/conciliamagnaebr01wilk#page/437/mode/1up

Cheney, C. R. (1963), Magna Carta Beati Thome: another Canterbury‐Forgery. Historical Research, 36: 1–26.

MTB 555 Vol. VII Materials for the History of Thomas Becket
https://archive.org/stream/materialsforhist07robe#page/n83/mode/1up
MTB 556 Vol. VII Materials for the History of Thomas Becket
https://archive.org/stream/materialsforhist07robe#page/n86/mode/1up

References

TF Tout, Medieval Forgers And Forgeries. Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, v (1919), pp. 208-34.

Flight, C. (1991). John II, Bishop of Rochester, Did Not Exist The English Historical Review, 106(CCCCXXI), 921-931.

Monumenta Germaniae Historica (Deutches Institut für Erforschung des Mittelalters) (1988). Fälschungen im Mittelalter: internationaler Kongress der Monumenta Germaniae Historica, München, 16.-19. September 1986. Martin Brett: Forgery at Rochester: Hahnsche Buchhandlung. ISBN 978-3-7752-5159-4.

Rochester - Kemble

The English Bishops at the Lateran Council of 1139
Reginald L. Poole
The English Historical Review
Vol. 38, No. 149 (Jan., 1923), pp. 61-63
http://www.jstor.org/stable/551892

The English Bishops at the Lateran Council of 1139
William Hunt
The English Historical Review
Vol. 38, No. 152 (Oct., 1923), pp. 557-560
Published by: Oxford University Press
Article Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/551928

What Is Wrong with a Forgery?

Alfred Lessing

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

Vol. 23, No. 4 (Summer, 1965), pp. 461-471

http://www.jstor.org/stable/427668

Forgery and the Literacy of the Early Common Law

Bruce O'Brien

Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies

Vol. 27, No. 1 (Spring, 1995), pp. 1-18

http://www.jstor.org/stable/4052668

James J. Spigelman (2004). Becket & Henry: The Becket Lectures. James Spigelman. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-0-646-43477-3.

G.P.R. James (1841). A History of the Life of Richard Coeur de Lion, King of England, 1. Saunders and Otley. pp. 225–.

Alfred Hiatt (2004). The Making of Medieval Forgeries: False Documents in Fifteenth-century England. University of Toronto Press.  ISBN 978-0-8020-8951-9.

Joe Nickell (2009). Real or Fake: Studies in Authentication. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 167–. ISBN 0-8131-7330-2.

On Fakes and Forgeries
Gilbert Bagnani
Phoenix
Vol. 14, No. 4 (Winter, 1960), pp. 228-244
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1085864


Anthony Musson (2001). Expectations of the Law in the Middle Ages. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 105–. ISBN 978-0-85115-842-6.


Greta Austin (2009). Shaping Church Law Around the Year 1000: The Decretum of Burchard of Worms. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 199–. ISBN 978-0-7546-5091-1.

Philippa M. Hoskin; Christopher Nugent Lawrence Brooke; Richard Barrie Dobson (2005). The Foundations of Medieval English Ecclesiastical History: Studies Presented to David Smith. Boydell Press. pp. 20–. ISBN 978-1-84383-169-3.

Dr Jean Truax (2012). Archbishops Ralph d'Escures, William of Corbeil and Theobald of Bec: Heirs of Anselm and Ancestors of Becket. Appendix 1: The Canterbury Forgeries: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 236–. ISBN 978-1-4094-6180-7.

Philippa M. Hoskin; Christopher Nugent Lawrence Brooke; Richard Barrie Dobson (2005). The Foundations of Medieval English Ecclesiastical History: Studies Presented to David Smith. Why Forge Episcopal Acta?: Boydell Press. pp. 18–. ISBN 978-1-84383-169-3.