Pope’s letter on Henry VIII’s marriage annulment to go on display

A new Vatican exhibition is to showcase around a hundred documents from the Vatican Secret Archives.

The exhibition, entitled ‘Lux in Arcana - the Vatican Secret Archives unveiled’, will be inaugurated next February in Rome’s Capitoline Museums.

Cardinal Raffaele Farina, archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church, said the exhibition would include pontifical documents of great importance and letters relating to significant aspects of the life of the Church in the world.

It will be the first time that many of the items have ever left the Vatican.

Some of the documents to go on display include Clement VII’s letter to the English parliament in 1530 on Henry VIII’s request for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the ‘Dictatus papae’ of Gregory VII outlining the powers of the pope, and the codex of Galileo’s trial for heresy.

Bishop Sergio Pagano, prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives, said the exhibition would offer the wider public their first chance to “enter the reality" of the Vatican Secret Archives.

“Among the millions of documents held in the Vatican Secret Archives we have chosen around 100 which illustrate the complexity of the overall holdings,” he said.

“Modern technology will enable visitors to enter the Pope’s archive and to understand the role it has played over the centuries at the service of the Holy See and the world of culture, preserving and handing down an enviable patrimony of knowledge.”