 The Knights Templar, a military order of the Roman
Catholic Church, are back in the news again, almost 700 years after
they were suppressed by papal edict.
They were originally formed to protect Christians in the Holy Land during the early Crusades.
The Templars are the stuff of legend, and their exploits have provided the plots for many films and popular novels.
The Knights, who wore a distinctive white mantle
decorated with a red cross, became very wealthy, owned property all
over Europe and the Middle East, and started up a primitive
international banking system.
They caused deep controversy, even in their own time. They helped to finance wars waged by several European monarchs.
Some believe the Templars were the custodians of the fabled Holy Grail.
Disentangling fact and fiction about them is difficult.
In France, a Grand Master of the Order and other knights
were burned alive by order of King Philip IV, after the Order was
accused of heresy, blasphemy and sexual misconduct.
Now the Vatican has decided to shed some new light on this often obscure period of late medieval history.
To the delight not only of scholars but also of Templar
buffs around the world, who have been captivated by Dan Brown's
stories, they are publishing facsimile reproductions of the original
account in Latin of the investigation and trial into the alleged
misdeeds of the Knights Templar. It took place in Rome between 1307 and
1312.
The document, known as the Chinon parchment, shows that
Pope Clement V found the Templars not guilty of heresy, but guilty of
other lesser infractions of Church law. Nonetheless he ordered the
disbandment of the order.
The Vatican's Secret Archives, one of the world's great
repositories of historical documents, is selling a limited edition of
800 numbered copies of the Chinon parchment.
It is printed on synthetic parchment, comes complete
with a reproduction of the original papal wax seal, and is packaged in
a soft leather case together with a scholarly commentary.
Each copy will cost just over 5,900 euros ($8,000; £3,925).
Rosy Fontana, spokesperson for Scrinium, the publishing
and merchandising company handling the sale, says one copy will go to
Pope Benedict XVI while most of the remaining 799 copies of this luxury
limited edition have already been reserved by libraries and collectors
around the world.
Scrinium has already published two other digitally
mastered and hand-finished collections of colour reproductions of
precious documents from the Secret Archives.
The Chinon parchment was recently rediscovered by Barbara Frale, a Vatican historian who works in the Secret Archives.
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