Just a brief sidebar, please. If you will, clarify on "bald faced manipulation." Are you talking about the 9th century "Donation of Constantine". Is there more than that?
I gave you two: "The Donation of Constantine" and the "Isidorian Decretals..." add to that the "Liber Pontificalis," and the "The Apostolic Constitutions" (I believe that is the correct title). All of these are blatant forgeries designed toward papal supremacy and church hierarchy, upon which the Roman church, at least, rests, and upon which canon law is (remains) reliant.
To the degree that the Orthodox leaned upon these same documents (or by acceptance thereof from Rome, they stand complicit.
To continue with more examples would require me to research the subject again, as my mind is like a steel sieve. But the list of forgeries is easily in the hundreds of items, and may be in the thousands.