Oxford Bookworms Library 1: Henry VIII and His Six Wives

In 1881, under Pope Leo XIII, the Archives were opened to be freely consulted by scholars, thus becoming the most important center of historical research in the world.БЂ«Some material has been made available on the Internet. More than six hundred archival sources extending over more than fifty-two miles of shelves, covering over eight hundred years of history, can now be visited on the Vatican website (www.vatican.va). БЂњThe oldest document dates back to the 7th century, while uninterrupted documentation is maintained from the year 1198 onwardБЂ¦ It i possible to see Michelangelo BuonarottiБЂ™s letter to the Bishop of Cesena (January 1550), the minutes of the trial of Galileo (1616-33),БЂ«letters about Henry VIII and his desire to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he could wed Anne Boleyn, and the parchment in which Pope Clement V granted absolution to the leaders of the Knights Templar (August 17-20, 1308), after they were burned at the stake. Widespread belief that the Vatican archives are crammed with dark secrets arose in 2003 with the publication of Dan BrownБЂ™s novel The Da Vinci Code and later with the movie based on it ...»