Vatican archive yields Templar secrets

Vatican archive yields Templar secrets
By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

The Knights Templar, a military order of the Roman Catholic Church, are back in the news again, almost 700 years after they were suppressed by papal edict.

聖殿騎士團，為羅馬天主教會的軍事修會，被教皇勒令鎮壓的700年後，又重新躍上了新聞。

They were originally formed to protect Christians in the Holy Land during the early Crusades.

他們起初成立於十字軍東征的早期，其目的是要保護聖地的基督徒。

The Templars are the stuff of legend, and their exploits have provided the plots for many films and popular novels.

聖殿騎士像神話一般，他們的英勇輝煌事蹟為許多電影及暢銷小說提供了各式各樣的情節。

The Knights, who wore a distinctive white mantle decorated with a red cross, became very wealthy, owned property all over Europe and the Middle East, and started up a primitive international banking system.

身著綴有紅色十字紋飾特殊白袍的騎士，累積的財富越來越多，擁有的財產遍及整個歐洲與中東，並且建立了一套早期的跨國銀行系統。

They caused deep controversy, even in their own time. They helped to finance wars waged by several European monarchs.

即使在那個時代，他們也引起了極大的爭議。他們資助過幾個從事戰爭的歐洲君主。

Some believe the Templars were the custodians of the fabled Holy Grail.

還有些人相信聖殿騎士是傳說中的聖杯守護者。

Disentangling fact and fiction about them is difficult.

要把事實與想像從他們身上區分開來並不是那麼容易。

In France, a Grand Master of the Order and other knights were burned alive by order of King Philip IV, after the Order was accused of heresy, blasphemy and sexual misconduct.

在法國，修會被指控為異端、褻瀆上帝、淫亂等不當行為之後，國王菲力四世下令將修會的宗師及其他的騎士活活燒死。

Faithful reproduction

Now the Vatican has decided to shed some new light on this often obscure period of late medieval history.

現在，梵蒂岡決定將對中世紀晚期這段常是晦澀不明的歷史做些清楚的解釋。

To the delight not only of scholars but also of Templar buffs around the world, who have been captivated by Dan Brown's stories, they are publishing facsimile reproductions of the original account in Latin of the investigation and trial into the alleged misdeeds of the Knights Templar. It took place in Rome between 1307 and 1312.

他們將當時以拉丁文記述1307至1312年間發生在羅馬，對聖殿騎士團種種可疑罪行進行調查及審判的原稿複製品出版成冊。對此舉感到欣喜的不只有學者，還有著迷於丹布朗小說的全球聖殿騎士迷。

The document, known as the Chinon parchment, shows that Pope Clement V found the Templars not guilty of heresy, but guilty of other lesser infractions of Church law. Nonetheless he ordered the disbandment of the order.

從文獻，史稱的「奇農羊皮紙」，得知當時的教宗克雷芒五世裁定聖殿騎士並非異端而無罪，但卻判違背其他較小的天主教會戒律而有罪。他仍然下令解散騎士團。

The Vatican's Secret Archives, one of the world's great repositories of historical documents, is selling a limited edition of 800 numbered copies of the Chinon parchment.

教廷的機密檔案館，是世界上最重要的文史典藏館之一，目前正販售八百份奇農羊皮紙的複製品限量版。

It is printed on synthetic parchment, comes complete with a reproduction of the original papal wax seal, and is packaged in a soft leather case together with a scholarly commentary.

這是以人造羊皮紙印製，並附帶有一個教皇臘封章原樣的複製品，和學者的評論一同包裹在柔軟的皮套裡。

Each copy will cost just over 5,900 euros ($8,000; £3,925).

每一份要價約5,900歐元。

Lucky find

Rosy Fontana, spokesperson for Scrinium, the publishing and merchandising company handling the sale, says one copy will go to Pope Benedict XVI while most of the remaining 799 copies of this luxury limited edition have already been reserved by libraries and collectors around the world.

Rosy Fontana，負責處理銷售的出版經銷商「Scrinium」發言人說，其中一份將歸教宗本篤十六世，剩下的799份精美限量版已經被世界各地的圖書館及收藏家預購一空了。

Scrinium has already published two other digitally mastered and hand-finished collections of colour reproductions of precious documents from the Secret Archives.

Scrinium已出版另外兩款收藏品，數位精選及手工打造機密檔案館珍藏文獻的彩色複製品。

The Chinon parchment was recently rediscovered by Barbara Frale, a Vatican historian who works in the Secret Archives.

奇農羊皮紙是在不久前由任職於機密檔案館的教廷歷史學家Barbara Frale所發現。

She says she stumbled across the document in a box containing other papers five years ago, having been lost for centuries after it was wrongly catalogued.

她說自己在五年前偶然發現了這卷文獻，夾雜著其他的文件被放在同一個箱子裡，自從被歸類錯的幾世紀以來一直都找不著。

The document is half a metre (20 inches) wide by two metres long - the size of a small dining table.

這份文獻約有半尺(20英吋)寬、兩尺長，差不多是一個小餐桌的大小。

According to Ms Frale, one of the accusations against the Templars was that they practised blasphemous initiation rites such as spitting upon the cross.

據Frale女士說，聖殿騎士被控的其中一項罪名是他們實行一些褻瀆上帝的入會儀式，像是唾棄十字架。

They justified this, according to the document, by claiming this was part of a ritual of obedience in preparation for possible capture by Muslim armies.

根據文件記載，他們為自己辯護，聲稱此乃部份順服的儀式，為可能被穆斯林軍隊俘虜時所做的的準備。

King's secrets

Both the Vatican's Secret Archives, and its adjoining Library (at present closed to scholars while it undergoes restoration) are housed in Renaissance buildings not far from the Sistine Chapel.

教廷機密檔案館與毗鄰的圖書館(圖書館目前正整修中不開放學者使用)兩館都棲身於文藝復興時代、離西斯丁教堂不遠的建築當中。

Together, the two collections of books, manuscripts, and letters cover tens of kilometres of shelf space, much of it underground for security reasons and to protect the archive against fire.

兩館所典藏的書籍、手稿和信件所占的陳列空間加起來就有十幾公里，而且為了安全的考量絕大部份都是設置於地底，同時保護檔案免於祝融之災。

The official archives of the Holy See were systematically organised for the first time only in the 17th Century.

羅馬教廷的官方檔案第一次被有系統的編排只有在17世紀。

In the early days of the Church, popes did preserve manuscripts concerning their reign. But the fragility of papyrus documents used before the invention of paper, and the frequent changes of residence of popes before the 11th Century, means that most of the earliest Church archives have been lost.

早期的天主教會，教宗會保存在位期間所有相關的手稿。但在紙張發明之前，所使用的是容易損壞的紙莎草紙文獻，再加上十一世紀以前教宗的住所頻頻更換，換句話說，大部份最早期天主教會的檔案都早已亡佚。

Among other treasures from the Archive, sometimes shown to VIP visitors, are letters from King Henry VIII of England to Anne Boleyn, his future wife, stolen from London by a Vatican spy to provide evidence of the King's disloyalty to Rome. There is also correspondence between Lucrezia Borgia and her father Pope Alexander VI.

在檔案館的其他典藏中有時候是開放讓VIP級的訪客參觀，這裡面有英國國王亨利八世寫給他未來的妻子安妮博林的信件，被教廷派去的間諜從倫敦偷出來以證明國王對羅馬的不忠。另外還有Lucrezia Borgia與她父親教宗亞歷山大六世的信件。

There are no immediate plans for the publication of any of these unique documents.

目前並沒有將這些珍貴的文件出版的計劃。

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7044741.stm
Published: 2007/10/15 10:53:39 GMT

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