The So-Called “Vatican Secret Archive” Isn’t Very Secret

There are all kinds of conspiracy theories floating around about what the Roman Catholic Church might be hiding in the notorious Vatican Secret Archive. Many people believe that the Secret Archive may hide secret, incriminating information about the origins of Christianity—or certainly at least shocking revelations about the history of the Catholic Church.

As it turns out, though, there’s not really anything “secret” about the so-called “Vatican Secret Archive”; its location is shown on every map of the Vatican and it is actually surprisingly easy to gain access to it. Indeed, thousands of scholars and journalists are allowed to access it every year. To gain access, you just have to prove your qualifications and provide a decent explanation for why you want access.

Nothing “secret” about its location

First of all, there is absolutely nothing secret about where the Vatican Secret Archive is located. Although many people seem to have the impression that the Secret Archive is underground, the building is, in fact, mostly above ground and clearly visible from the streets. It is located on the Cortile del Belvedere, or “Belvedere Court,” right next to the Apostolic Palace.

ABOVE: Photograph of the building that includes the Vatican Secret Archive

Furthermore, the Vatican Secret Archive is clearly marked on nearly every single map of Vatican City. You can easily find it just by doing a search on Google Maps. Just type in “Vatican Secret Archive” and the exact location will come up, along with a photograph of the exterior of the building.

ABOVE: Screenshot of the Vatican Secret Archives on Google Maps

Nothing “secret” about its contents

There’s also nothing secret about the documents kept in the Vatican Secret Archive either. The contents of the Vatican Secret Archive used to be kept mostly secret way back in the early nineteenth century because the Vatican feared that Protestant polemicists might try to use the documents in the archive to make the Catholic Church look bad.

Then, in 1879, Pope Leo XIII (reigned 1878 – 1903) appointed the German historian and cardinal Joseph Hergenröther (lived 1824 – 1890) as the first Cardinal-Prefect of the Secret Archive. Hergenröther immediately asked Pope Leo XIII to open up the Secret Archive to scholars and researchers. Pope Leo XIII decided that this was good idea. Thus, for the past 140 years, the Vatican Secret Library has remained accessible to scholars and researchers.

In the twenty-first century, any scholar, historian, or journalist with verified credentials can access the Vatican Secret Archive as often as they desire—as long as they make an appointment ahead of time, get approved by the Vatican, and follow the rules for how to handle the manuscripts. You don’t even have to be Catholic to see the documents in the Vatican Secret Archive; scholars of all nationalities and all religious or non-religious inclinations are allowed to see them.

Admittedly, the Vatican doesn’t just let anybody into the Vatican Secret Archive. For instance, if you’re just some random American tourist who wants to see the Vatican Secret Archive just so you can say you’ve seen it, the Vatican probably won’t let you in. They kept a lot of extremely old and important documents in there, so, naturally, they don’t want some random person barging in and handling those documents recklessly.

On the other hand, though, if you are a scholar with a degree from an accredited institution or a journalist working for a known media organization and you can give the Vatican a good reason why you want to visit their Secret Archive, the Vatican will probably let you in. They basically let in anybody who seems like they have a good reason to be there.

ABOVE: Photograph of Cardinal Joseph Hergenröther, the first Cardinal-Prefect of the Vatican Secret Archive, who is most directly responsible for the opening of the Secret Archive to scholars in the late nineteenth century

Literally thousands of scholars, historians, journalists, and other researchers visit the Vatican Secret Archive with the Vatican’s approval each year. You don’t really have to be anybody special to get in; you just need to prove that you have a good reason to be there. Here’s an article written by a scholar who has visited the Vatican Secret Archive many times in which he describes his experience when he visited the Vatican Secret Archive for the first time many years ago and talks about the process of how to get in.

Meanwhile, the Vatican Library has actually been working diligently for years to make the records in the Vatican Secret Archive more accessible—not just to scholars but to ordinary people as well. Ever since 2010, the Vatican has been working to digitize all of its important documents and make them freely available online for everyone to see. That way, scholars will be able to easily access these records without even having to apply for an appointment at the Secret Archive itself. Here is a link to their website.

For a long time, the records pertaining to the controversial papacy of Pope Pius XII (ruled 1939 – 1958) were not accessible to researchers because Vatican archivists were still busy indexing them. Just a few days ago, however, it was announced that these records will be made accessible to scholars starting March 2020. All eighty-five scholars who have already applied to see the records have been approved.

These newly-released documents will probably reveal more information about the Catholic Church’s largely behind-the-scenes role in the events of World War II. Pope Pius XII has been accused by a number of New Atheist authors—most notably Christopher Hitchens—of having been too friendly with the Nazis. As the atheist historical writer Tim O’Neill discusses in this detailed article from May 2019, however, sources that are currently available make it abundantly clear that Pius XII’s relations with Nazi Germany were, in fact, anything but friendly.

ABOVE: Photograph of Pope Pius XII taken in 1951. For many years, the records pertaining to his papacy were not accessible to scholars because they were still being indexed by Vatican archivists. Starting March 2020, however, they will be open to all researchers with verified credentials who apply to see them.

So, what is in the Vatican Secret Archive?

Now that I’ve established that most of the contents of the Vatican Secret Archive are, in fact, not “secret” at all but rather public knowledge, you are probably all wondering what exactly is in there. Honestly, most of the materials currently held in the Vatican Secret Archive are extremely boring to just about anyone who isn’t a die-hard history buff. It’s mostly full of old documents pertaining to papal history. There are a few documents held in the Vatican Secret Archive, though, that ordinary people might find interesting.

For instance, the Vatican Secret Archive contains the original handwritten manuscript of Decet Romanum Pontificem, a papal bull issued by Pope Leo X (ruled 1513 – 1521) on 3 January 1521 officially excommunicating the German Protestant reformer Martin Luther (lived 1483 – 1546). The Catholic Church’s excommunication of Martin Luther was a watershed moment in the Protestant Reformation, the historical movement within western Christianity that resulted in the development of Protestantism.

Today, there is estimated to be between 800 million and one billion Protestants worldwide, meaning Protestants make up just a little over a third of all Christians on the planet. Protestantism is currently the second largest branch of Christianity, after Catholicism. Needless to say, then, this document held in the Vatican Secret Archive holds immense historical significance.

ABOVE: Photograph of the handwritten manuscript of Decet Romanum Pontificem, the papal bull issued by Pope Leo X on 3 January 1521 excommunicating the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, a document now held in the Vatican Secret Archive

The Vatican Secret Archive also contains a letter written by the peers of England to Pope Clement VII in September 1530 requesting for the pope to annul King Henry VIII’s marriage to his first wife Catharine of Aragorn so he could marry Anne Boleyn. The pope’s denial of Henry VIII’s request would later lead to England’s split from the Catholic Church and the creation of the Church of England in the English Reformation.

Today, the Church of England is just one of several churches that make up the larger Anglican Church. There are currently somewhere around 85 million Anglicans in the world, including roughly two million in the United States. As you can imagine, then, this letter is one with a great deal of historical significance.

ABOVE: Photograph of the letter from the peers of England to Pope Clement VII requesting an annulment of King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catharine of Aragorn, now held in the Vatican Secret Archive

The archive also contains the original handwritten records of the 1633 trial of the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (lived 1564 – 1642) by the Roman Inquisition. Although Galileo was nominally on trial for heresy, the actual, unstated reason for his trial had more to do with the fact that he was kind of a bit of a jerk who had a habit of insulting and alienating his own allies, most notably Pope Urban VIII, but also other prominent members of the Catholic clergy.

Pope Urban VIII was actually initially one of Galileo’s supporters. Then, in 1632, Galileo published his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which presented the pope’s views through the mouth of a blathering ignoramus named “Simplicio” and strongly suggested that the pope was an incompetent buffoon. The pope was understandably quite offended by this portrayal and it was Galileo’s portrayal of the pope’s views more than anything else that led to his trial.

ABOVE: Photograph of one of the original documents from Galileo Galilei’s 1633 trial before the Roman Inquisition, now held in the Vatican Secret Archive

At the trial, Galileo was convicted of heresy and forced to recant his belief in heliocentrism. He was placed under a loosely-enforced house arrest for the rest of his life, during which time he was permitted to continue his research. Ironically, it was actually after his trial by the Inquisition that Galileo actually completed his most important and influential work: Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Galileo’s trial was used by Protestant polemicists as proof that the Catholic Church was repressive and opposed to science. In the late nineteenth century, it began being used by atheists and agnostics as evidence that religion in general was oppressive. Galileo’s trial, then, is more significant due to the political purposes it has been used for than the actual outcome of the trial itself.

ABOVE: Galileo Facing the Roman Inquisition, painted in 1857 by Cristiano Banti. Galileo’s trial has been romanticized as a case of “science versus religion,” but the actual reason for Galileo trial had more to do with his insulting portrayal of the pope than his belief in heliocentrism.

Why is called “secret”?

At this point, you may be wondering why the Vatican Secret Archive is even called “secret.” Well, the fact is, it isn’t—or at least not anymore. In October 2019, Pope Francis officially changed the name from Archivum Secretum Vaticanum to Archivum Apostolicum Vaticanum, meaning the official name of the archive is actually the “Vatican Apostolic Archive,” not the “Vatican Secret Archive.”

Even before Pope Francis officially changed the name, “Vatican Secret Archive” was always a bad translation of the actual name of the archive in Latin, which was Archivum Secretum Vaticanum. In Latin, the word secretus actually means something more like “private” or “personal.”

The name Archivum Secretum Vaticanum originally meant not that the archive was “secret” strictly speaking, but rather that the archive was for the pope’s personal use. In other words, maybe the name should have been translated into English as the “Vatican Private Library,” rather than the “Vatican Secret Library.”

Is there anything hidden in the Vatican Apostolic Archive?

There are still some documents that are in the Vatican Apostolic Archive that are not accessible to scholars because they are still being indexed. Most notably, the documents pertaining to the papacy of Pope Pius XII will not be made accessible until March of this year.

It is possible that there may be some documents pertaining to embarrassing secrets about historical popes that may be deliberately hidden somewhere in the Vatican, but, as of right now, we have little evidence to suspect the existence of such documents, especially since there are plenty of embarrassing details about historical popes that are described in the documents in the Vatican Apostolic Archive that are currently accessible to qualified scholars.

For instance, one of the documents held in the Vatican Apostolic Archive is a sixty-meter-long scroll bearing the complete transcript of the trials of the of the Knights Templar in 1307. The Knights Templar were a Catholic military order that flourished during the Crusades. In 1307, though, many prominent Templars in France, including Master Jacques de Molay, the leader of the Templars, were put on trial under false charges of heresy because King Philip IV of France was afraid that they were amassing too much power and wealth.

The Templars were convicted of heresy using evidence that is now believed to have mostly been forged under the orders of King Philip IV. The Templar leaders were burned at the stake and lower-ranking members of the organization were thrown in prison for life. If the Catholic Church was going to cover anything up, you’d think they’d want to cover something like that up.

Instead, the scroll recording the events of the Templar trials was among the documents the Vatican chose to put on public display as part of the Lux in Arcana exhibit at the Capitoline Museums in Rome in 2012. Indeed, the records from Galileo’s trial were also among the documents that were displayed as part of the exhibit.

ABOVE: Illustration from a late fourteenth-century chronicle depicting the leaders of the Knights Templar being burned at the stake for heresy

Conclusion

If the Vatican is trying to hide incriminating records in the Vatican Apostolic Archive, they are doing a really bad job of it. Anyone can find the Vatican Apostolic Archive on Google Maps, digital versions of many of the documents in the archive are freely available to anyone online, any scholar with credentials can gain access to the archive itself, and some of the Vatican’s most incriminating records have actually been put on public display.

It is possible that the Vatican may have incriminating records of some kind hidden somewhere, but, wherever those records are, they sure aren’t in the Apostolic Archive. While we’re at it, it’s worth noting that the Vatican almost certainly isn’t hiding records that Jesus was secretly married to Mary Magdalene either.