Vatican's Secret Archives no longer officially secret

Vatican’s Secret Archives no longer officially secret

Thursday, October 31st, 2019

The Vatican Secret Archives, containing millions of documents spanning 12 centuries, are no longer officially “secret”.

Pope Francis has renamed the priceless archives, which include letters concerning King Henry VIII’s request to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn, which led to the English church breaking away from Rome in 1534.

They also hold the original acts of the 1633 trial of the astronomer Galileo by the Roman Inquisition, which condemned him as a heretic for teaching that the Earth revolves around the sun. Read more

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