So When Did The Pope Become Hot Shit?

[Minimalist]

So ever heard of the Donatio Constantini (The Donation of Constantine?)

http://www.christian-history.org/donatio...ntine.html

The Donation of Constantine has not been held up as legitimate since corrupt Roman popes of medieval times. It was, however, a shock to Martin Luther to discover that the Donation of Constantine (and the Isidorian Decretals) were forgeries. It led him to debate whether the pope was antichrist himself.

The Donation gives authority of the western Roman empire to the bishop of Rome, specifically to Sylvester. It mentions Rome, Italy, and "all the western regions." Then it adds that Constanine was returning to Constantinople to rule the east, since there is no point in a secular emperor ruling where God has planted the head of the Church.

The xtian forgery mill was working overtime with this piece of shit. 

This thing purported to be a division of the Roman Empire with Constantine giving the fucking pope... who as far as I can see was essentially a nobody at that time...(he did not even attend the Council of Nicaea) and a much later church scholar determined that this thing was an 8-9th century forgery (750-850 AD.) 

This brings up the interesting question of why someone in the church, 300 years after the Western Empire fell, felt it necessary to try to give the pope a little boost for his holy ass? 
Apparently the bullshit story about st peter wasn't enough so they had to bring in Constantine for legitimacy.