Libraries Acquire Facsimile Vatican Documents

August 2008—Raynor Memorial Libraries have acquired the Processus Contra Templarios, a milestone portfolio publication containing facsimile manuscripts of the previously unavailable hearing of the 1308 trial against the Templar Knights.  The centerpiece is based on a scrap of parchment known as the Chignon Parchment, which includes Pope Clement V’s acquittal of the Templars.  Of the 799 copies in the limited edition, Marquette’s is number 402, one of only six currently held by libraries in the United States.  The Processus is housed in the Libraries’ Department of Special Collections, where it may be examined upon request.

Founded in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096, the Knights Templar were a monastic order dedicated to the protection of Christians on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  The fall of Jerusalem to the Muslims in 1187 and a failure to recapture the city in subsequent crusades weakened general support of the order.  King Philip IV of France, interested in obtaining Templar wealth to revive his bankrupt country, seized the opportunity by charging heresy.  In 1307 the Knights were arrested, tortured into false confession, and burned at the stake amid rumors of heresy and obscene practices.  Although the order was officially disbanded in 1312, it has remained a topic of legend and popular fiction, including the 2003 bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code, and the 2005 film, National Treasure.

English-Italian Translation

A visually stunning, hand-sewn leather-bound portfolio, the Processus contains four parchments, three of which contain the confessions made to Pope Clement V by 72 templar knights under interrogation from June 28 to July 2, 1308.  The fourth parchment includes Pope Clement V’s absolution, which had been mis-catalogued and lost in the Secret Vatican Archives until its 2001 discovery by a medieval historian.  Also included is the “brogliaccio,” a private agenda with abstracts from the hearing, with marginal notes presumably made by the Pope during the hearing.  The Italian-English volume also includes replicas of three engravings by Domenico Marchetti and wax seals of the inquiring cardinals, made from molds kept at the Vatican Archive.

Cardinal Seals

This collection is an important resource to medieval and religious scholars and historians.  Dr. Wanda Zemler-Cizewski, Associate Professor of Theology, said "The fact that we have a facsimile with transcription and translations makes it possible to learn to read the 14th c. secretarial hand, to practice translation of legal-theological Latin, and to study the nature of the evidence, including the means by which it was obtained.  In the big picture, these documents correct the generally accepted view that the pope connived with the King of France to destroy the Templars, and offer a historian of the institutions involved (the papacy, the French crown, the Templars) a fresh resource to explore." Other classes and professors planning to include the Processus in their syllabus include Dr. Lezlie Knox (undergraduate and graduate students in medieval history and Latin paleography) and Dr. Steven Millen Taylor (professor of French; coordinator of the Medieval Studies minor).