Jun 3, 2020
Image: Former seal of the Vatican Apostolic Archive - wikipedia.org
The Catholic Church will never show its entire hand – the religious organization is known for its secretiveness according to magellantimes.com. Its hush extends to its Vatican City-based archives, which contain 53 miles of shelving and 35,000 volumes, which delineate their contents. Among this incredible stockpile are religious relics, as well as historical documents that highlight turning points in the timeline of mankind. Here are just 20 of the pieces rumored to be stashed in the Vatican.
20. The letter that started the Protestant reformation
Theology professor Martin Luther did not agree with the way that the Catholic Church promised its followers they could ascend to heaven. Purchase a plenary indulgence, it said, and it will reduce the punishment you or your loved ones receive for their sins. So in 1517 Luther penned the 95 Theses, a disputation of everything the Catholic Church had wrongly presented to its followers
In sharing the 95 Theses, Luther had inadvertently begun the Protestant revolution, although he still considered himself a member of the Catholic Church after sharing his opinions. In a letter now encapsulated in the Vatican vaults, then-Pope Leo X responded to Luther’s complaints and banished him from the church. This opened up Luther to start his own religion.
19. A potential link between Pope Pius XII and the Nazis
Brown University historian David Kertzer had the chance to explore the Vatican vaults, and he confirmed some of the information contained within the Catholic Church’s storage center. Based on what he read, he revealed that Pope Pius XI had asked Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to protect Catholic interests in the country. In exchanged, he promised to turn a blind eye to Mussolini’s state-led anti-Semitic campaigns.
Pope Pius XII took over from his predecessor in 1939, and it’s possible that he may have had links to the Nazis. It’s rumored that the head of the Catholic Church had supported Hitler in a way similar to Pius XI vouching for Mussolini. Kertzer wondered if the Vatican vaults had hidden away the evidence to preserve the image of the religious institution. However, he also noted that the staff treated history without bias because they’re professionals in the field.
18. The papal bull that split North America between Portugal and Spain
When Christopher Columbus pitched his journey around the world, King John II of Portugal didn’t think he had calculated his journey properly. But the explorer – buoyed by support from Spain’s Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand – made it to the New World and back. That’s when King John II sprung into action, saying that Columbus had violated a treaty, and that Portugal was entitled to some of the land he had discovered.
To solve what could have become a major conflict – both Spain and Portugal laid claim to the new land – Pope Alexander VI stepped in. He issued a papal bull, the name given to decrees issued by the Catholic Church’s highest-ranking member. In it, he divvied up the discovered land between the European countries.
17. Evidence of a predicted apocalypse
In 1917 three young cousins who worked as shepherds in Portugal claimed to have met a fourth person on their countryside jaunts: the Virgin Mary. Legend has it that the figure entrusted the trio with three secrets, but shepherd Lúcia Santos revealed only two of them in 1941. The third, she said, wasn’t ready to be shared.
In 1943 a bishop demanded that Santos write down the last tidbit, but she implored the church not to open it until 1960. Rumors have swirled as to what the third secret could be. Some say that it could have to do with a nuclear holocaust or impending natural disasters. But others believe Santos’ scribbles – contained in the Vatican vaults – reveal details about the apocalypse.
16. King Henry VIII’s annulment request from his first marriage
While married to Catherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII of England had a long-standing extramarital relationship with Mary Boleyn, who supposedly birthed two of his children. Then he became enamored with Mary’s sister, Anne, who refused to engage in an illicit affair with him. So the King had to come up with a way to end his marriage to Catherine so that he could have the object of his affection.
Henry VIII’s solution was to send a petition – signed by 85 clergymen from his country – to Pope Clement VII. The document implored the Catholic leader to annul the king’s marriage, but the religious leader wasn’t swayed. He denied the request but apparently held onto the letter, as it sits in the Vatican vaults today.
15. The Chronovisor
Although he died in 1992, Father Pellegrino Ernetti had seen a lot in his lifetime. In fact, he claimed to have caught a glimpse of Roman senator Cicero’s 63 B.C. speech, Jesus’ Last Supper and an oration delivered by Napoleon. He did so, he said, with a device called a Chronovisor, which allowed him to look back on the past as though he was watching TV.
Ernetti’s friend, François Brune, didn’t listen when people tried to discredit his pal’s Chronovisor either. Instead, he claimed that Pope Pius XII and Mussolini deemed the device to be a threat – it could reveal all of their secrets, they thought – so they had it destroyed. Nevertheless, some wonder if the strange device still sits in the Vatican vaults today.
14. One of the final messages penned by Mary Queen of Scots
Having once been Scotland’s sovereign, Mary Queen of Scots had fallen far by the time she sent her letter to the Vatican. In 1566 she had married her half-cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and less than a year later, he lay murdered in their garden. When the widowed queen remarried the suspected killer, James Hepburn, fourth Earl of Bothwell, the public rose up against the couple. This forced Mary to flee to England.
But Mary, Queen of Scots’ cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England, didn’t take too kindly to her visitor. That was especially true when she found out that Mary had been plotting to kill her in 1856. As she awaited execution, the Scottish queen reached out to Pope Sixtus V and begged the religious leader to save her life. He didn’t step in, though, leaving Mary to die by beheading on February 8, 1587.
13. Notes on Galileo’s trial
In Galileo Galilei’s lifetime – which spanned the 16th and 17th centuries – most people believed that the universe centered around the Earth. The Bible seemed to confirm this theory, with passages about how the third planet from the Sun would never move. But the Italian-born astronomer thought that it and the rest of the solar system actually orbited around the Sun instead.
Galileo’s findings landed him in court, defending his beliefs against those held by the Catholic Church. The astronomer denied any wrongdoing, but he ended up on house arrest for the rest of his life. Although the court also ruled that his teachings on heliocentrism could no longer be shared, but the Vatican does contain some notes taken at Galileo’s 1633 trial.
12. Alien skulls
Catholics don’t seem to have strong opinions about the idea that life exists on planets other than Earth. In fact, many accept the notion because they believe that God has already shown himself to be endlessly creative. Perhaps that ingenuity wasn’t saved solely for the green planet after all.
As it turns out, the Vatican vaults might have some further proof that the universe does, indeed, include aliens. Within the vaults, some say that the Catholic Church has hidden the skulls of otherworldly creatures. That type of evidence of extraterrestrial life would probably be more explosive than, say, a UFO sighting.
11. A letter informing the Pope of a Swedish queen’s conversion
Queen Christina reigned over Sweden from 1632 until 1654. Her departure from the throne occurred for a number of reasons. For one thing, her over-the-top spending nearly brought the country to financial ruin. Christina also decided to abdicate after choosing to drop her Lutheran faith and become a Catholic.
After leaving her royal duties behind, Christina announced her decision in a letter to the Pope himself. She then moved from Sweden to Rome, and she remains one of very few women to be buried at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City. The message she sent to the Pope is still in the Vatican vaults nearly 400 years later.
10. A letter from the Dalai Lama requesting protection for missionaries in Tibet
The seventh Dalai Lama of Tibet reigned over the country as its spiritual leader from 1720 to 1757. Meanwhile, Pope Clement XII held the highest rank in the Catholic Church, and he earned a reputation for growing the papal purse. In doing so, he gathered enough funds to spruce up basilicas and build Rome’s famous Trevi Fountain too.
Although they lived worlds away from one another, the Dalai Lama reached out to Pope Clement XII when Catholics in Tibet needed his protection. Namely, the spiritual leader requested security measures for a group of Franciscan missionaries who had traveled to his country. The letter that he sent to request help sits in the Vatican vaults to this day.
9. Records of what the Illuminati will do next
In 1776 the Bavarian Illuminati formed in an attempt to quell superstition and religious influence over the lives of everyday people. They also hoped to fight the government’s abuses of power. So when leaders caught wind of their aims, they shut down the Illuminati and vilified its aims. However, some say that the group continues to operate today, masterminding the events that make headlines worldwide.
For many years, conspiracy theories have linked the Illuminati to the Catholic Church too – some believe that the secret organization makes every single one of the organization’s appointments. On top of that, they say that the Vatican vaults contain records of what the Illuminati believe will happen in the future.
8. The Chinon parchment
From 1119 until 1312, the Knights of the Templar served as the Catholic Church’s military order. Although they spent much of their existence in public favor, they lost support after their participation in the Crusades. Namely, the church lost hold of some of the Holy Land, which pushed the Knights out of favor.
Things went from bad to worse for the Templars when France’s King Philip IV lost trust in them and began arresting members and burning them at the stake. Pope Clement V responded to the king’s pressure and disbanded the order. The Chinon Parchment chronicles the trials against the military order on charges such as heresy and blasphemous behavior during the Crusades. Interestingly, the Vatican vault-based paper was only rediscovered in 2001 in a box with other nondescript documents.
7. The doctrine confirming that Mary immaculately conceived Jesus
In the Christian faith, original sin stems from Adam and Eve and their decision to eat the Garden of Eden’s forbidden fruit. That choice has had a ripple effect, according to the Church – now humankind has a propensity for sinning. But the Virgin Mary stands alone as a woman without original sin, according to the concept of the Immaculate Conception.
Catholics have long held this belief regarding the Immaculate Conception, but it wasn’t written down until 1854. Pope Pius IX penned the papal bull that confirmed the conception of Mary sans original sin. Today, Catholic practitioners celebrate what’s known as the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 each year thanks to this paper, which remains protected within the Vatican vaults.
6. Religious documents dear to the Essenes
Ancient philosophers made record of the Essenes, a mystical sect of the Jewish faith who lived in their own community separate from society. But the Bible’s New Testament makes no mention of the group, which has led some to believe that they actually wrote the Bible. Indeed, many of their beliefs align with the actions of Jesus himself: they emphasized charity and goodwill, as well as the importance of baptism.
hile sifting through the Vatican vaults in 1923, bishop Edmond Bordeaux Szekely discovered an ancient document written in Aramaic. He claimed that he had his hands on the tenets of the Essenes. However, no one else has reported finding such evidence within the vaults. In fact, there’s not even a record of Szekely’s visit, so the manuscript’s existence isn’t confirmed.
5. A work-related complaint from Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni’s artistic influence was so monumental that he only needs to go by one name – Michelangelo. Indeed, he painted and sculpted in a way that forever changed the creation of Western art. Some consider him to be the greatest artist of all time and an example of the term Renaissance man: someone who’s extremely talented in multiple areas.
Among Michelangelo’s most famous work is his paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which sits within the borders of Vatican City. As such, Michelangelo seemed to have insider information about the conditions at the Catholic capital. He wrote a letter to the Pope to inform him that the Vatican’s on-site guards were about to walk off the job, as they hadn’t received their paychecks in three months. Of course, that message remains in the church’s vaults.
4. Potential details about Jesus’ bloodline
It may seem as though the Catholic Church knows every detail about Jesus’s life, but there’s a lot that’s unclear about him. Namely, there’s no record of what he did during his childhood through his early 30s, when he became a more prominent religious figure. As such, some people believe that he had a family of his own before his eventual crucifixion.
f Jesus had children, then his bloodline still might be traceable today. Consequently, some theorists believe that the Vatican vaults have more specific details of his family life hidden away. Such information would be explosive for the church, to say the least. So if it exists, it makes sense that it would be locked into the vault.
3. Letters from Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis asking for the Pope to take a Civil War side
In April 1861 the Civil War broke out in the United States. The conflict began mostly because of a geographical disagreement about slavery – the country’s northern contingent was against the practice, while the south wanted to continue it. Abraham Lincoln led the Union with its abolitionist aims, while Jefferson Davis served as the Confederacy’s commander-in-chief.
As it turns out, both Lincoln and Davis wanted outside reassurance that they were doing the right thing. Both Civil War leaders wrote to Pope Pius IX requesting that he announce which side was in the right – the north or the south. The Pope never provided support to the Confederacy, though, and he pushed for emancipation alongside the Union.
2. Proof that Jesus wasn’t crucified
The crucifixion of Jesus stands as one of the most essential parts of the Bible and, therefore, the Catholic faith. Indeed, Jesus’s death on the cross exemplifies some of the religion’s most central tenets, including atonement and salvation. Yet some believe that his death didn’t occur in this manner and that the Vatican has hidden the proof in its vaults.
Archaeologist Michael Baigent, for one, believed that Jesus and Pontius Pilate faked the crucifixion. Killing the prophet wasn’t in Pilate’s best interest – Jesus encouraged his followers to pay their taxes, after all. So Baigent claims they simulated Jesus’ death with a mixture of drugs including hashish, then removed his body from the tomb. The archaeologist felt documentation of this existed, meaning that it could be hidden in the vault.
1. The Pope’s letter that gave the green light for the Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade kicked off in 1202, when Christians from the West decided to move on Jerusalem. They couldn’t tackle the Muslim-held holy city right away, though – they first had to take down the Egyptian Ayyubid Sultanate, as it was the religion’s strongest hold at the time. The effort didn’t go as planned, though, and the Crusaders ended up taking down the Greek-held Constantinople instead of Egypt.
Pope Innocent III issued the papal bull in 1198 for a Fourth Crusade, and he called for an offensive that would recapture the Holy Land from its Muslim leaders. However, when the plan went off the rails, the Pope condemned the operation as a “work of Hell” because the siege of Constantinople was so violent. His original letter allowing for the Crusade remains in the vault, though.
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