'Your Holiness, annul the king's wedding': In a secret cabinet in the Vatican lies the document that 500 years ago sparked the Anglican schism
In the office of the Prefect of the Apostolic Archives of the Vatican, among the paintings of the Caravaggio school, tomes and manuscripts, close to the entrance door is a large cupboard against the wall containing a unique piece, a treasure: a parchment dating from 1530 written in Latin, with the title “Sanctissimo in Chris”, notes Corriere della Sera, picked up by Rador Radio Romania.
The document is the petition addressed to Pope Clement VII by English dukes, marquises, viscounts, barons, bishops, archbishops, abbots and theologians to declare the marriage between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon annulled.
The request was refused, which led to the Anglican schism in England.
Charles saw the document several years ago
It seems that King Charles and Camilla would be aware of the existence of this document, which would have been shown to them during a private visit to the Vatican, a few years ago, when Charles was only a candidate for the British throne. Unfortunately there are no images of that moment.
Now that the English royal family has returned to Rome, that hidden scroll becomes the symbol of a historic reconciliation.
It is truly the “skeleton in the closet” of a past of religious wars that the meeting between Leo XIV and the king records in history and archives. For the first time since the Anglican Reformation, a British sovereign prays in public alongside a Pope in the Sistine Chapel.
And Charles, who is also the leader of the Anglican Church, received the title of “Royal Brother”, royal brother, in St Paul's Basilica Outside the Walls. In a way, these gestures will definitively consign to history that yellowed scroll, which, until today, has continued to have a sinister relevance.
The question we inevitably ask is why it was kept in that secret and anonymous place, the heart of papal memory. And how it managed to survive almost intact into the third millennium. There are apparently one or two copies in England, but the original is the one in the Apostolic Archives, formerly the Secret Archives.
The reason may be that this 1530 document stands as a kind of testimony to the Catholic Church's ability to survive invasions and attacks on its integrity.
When Napoleon's troops sacked papal Rome at the beginning of the 19th century, they began by searching for the text of the excommunication that the then pontiff had issued against Bonaparte, in the process also looting many treasures that they took to Paris as war booty.
“He sent them to the gallows or imprisoned them”
But the petition for Henry VIII was saved. Being large enough, it was folded and hidden in a makeshift secret drawer behind a huge wooden throne, which is still today in front of the office of the Prefect of the Apostolic Archives.
This is why Napoleon's soldiers did not find it, while today, some privileged few can still admire it.
Eighty-five red wax seals and as many cords hang from the parchment, about a meter by half a meter written in Latin in “a pleading but intimidating tone.” When the former prefect of the Archives, Monsignor Sergio Pagano, replaced in July 2024 by Father Rocco Ronzani, was asked what they represented, his answer was detailed and a little disturbing, especially the ending.
“These are the signatures of the petitioners, accompanied by their seals,” explained the prefect of the Vatican, illuminating with a small electric flashlight those lines of ink, almost intact and perfectly legible. But some seals were empty. Perhaps because over five hundred years they had deteriorated, or been lost?
Not really. “The seals of those who refused to comply with Henry VIII's request are missing.” And how did the king react to the refusal of the nobles? “He sent them to the gallows or imprisoned them.”
