Vatican City - The Vatican has authorised the publication of a limited-edition facsimile of the 1530 appeal by the Peers of England to Pope Clement VII asking for the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
The 950 x 458mm parchment, bearing 81 red wax seals encased in tin caskets, is a key document in events leading to the schism between Rome and the Church in England. The reproduction, which is likely to cost €50,000 a copy, is being made by Scrinium, a Venice-based publisher.
The facsimile, to be unveiled in Rome next month, was shown in advance to Vatican-accredited journalists, including The Times, together with the rarely seen priceless original, which is kept in a purpose-built display cabinet in the office of Monsignor Sergio Pagano, the Prefect of the Secret Archives.
Ferdinando Santoro, the head of Scrinium, said that the facsimile would be accompanied by a scholarly commentary. Monsignor Pagano said any profits from the venture would be used to help to restore and conserve other historic documents in the Secret Archives’ 85km of shelving.
Vatican historians say that whatever the later causes of the schism, the “most immediate and determining cause” was Henry VIII’s “wish to get rid of his legitimate wife, Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and aunt of the future emperor Charles V, in order to marry Anne Boleyn.”
However, Professor Marco Maiorino, a Vatican historian of papal diplomacy, said the king’s other motive was to ensure the succession, since Catherine, of whose six children only Mary Tudor survived, had failed to provide him with a male heir. He also pointed out that although some of the signatories to the petition had Protestant leanings, others were Roman Catholic, including two archbishops (one being Cardinal Wolsey, the papal legate) and a number of bishops and abbots.
“The schism came later,” he said. “They were loyal to the sovereign, but at this point the spiritual supremacy of Rome was not in question.”
He recalled that some of the signatories had later met tragic ends, including Lord Rochford, Anne Boleyn’s brother, who signed on behalf of their father, then absent abroad, and was executed together with his sister in 1536 after they were accused of an incestous relationship.
Luca Bechetti, the conservationist, restored the original with his father Bruno, said there had originally been 85 wax seals but four were missing. He had identified all the surviving seals and heraldic emblems, and noted that some signatories had been mis-identified by historians because they had used the seals of their predecessors.
Monsignor Pagano said the document, which is being entitled Causa Anglica for the sale, was the fourth treasure from the Secret Archives to be reproduced. It follows facsimiles of the papal Bull announcing the first Jubilee or Holy Year in 1300, a 16th-century Venetian document on relations with the Church of Rome, Munificentia Venetiarum, and the Chinon Parchment, the record of the trial of the Knights Templar in the 14th century, in which they were exonerated of heresy.
Professor Maiorino said there was a second copy of the Henry VIII parchment at the National Archives at Kew, but it lacked the wax seals, was in much poorer condition and in parts was illegible. He said he had succeeded in deciphering the last signature on the document, that of John Bell, one of the clerical advisers to Henry on matrimonial matters.
Scrinium said 200 facsimiles would be produced, with the first copy to be given to Pope Benedict XVI. The document, which weighs 2.5kg, will be supplied in a glass container. The original container, in which the document was brought to Rome via Venice by a courier, had not survived. It was believed, however, to have been a wooden casket with a double lid, in which the wax seals were covered by a woollen cloth.