(25 Oct 2007) SHOTLIST
1. St Peter's Basilica viewed through columns
2. Various copies of "Processus Contra Templarios" book on table
3. Close up title on inside cover: "Processus Contra Templarios"
4. Pan right of book on table
5. Close up scrolls
6. Various ancient documents reproductions on table
7. Close up reproductions of Templar Order wax seals
8. Close up of reproductions of ancient writing
9. SOUNDBITE: (Italian) Marco Maiorino, Vatican Secret Archive officer:
"The documents are in the Vatican archive, but there is nothing unreleased, nothing new has been discovered, because all the documents were published and well known, and we have known about a particular parchment since the 1890's."
10. Reproduction of ancient drawing of Pope Clemente V with Knights Templar
11. Close up of book
12. Close up stamp of Vatican Secret Archives with pan right to ancient language
13. Various clergy gathered inside Vatican Old Synod Hall
14. SOUNDBITE: (Italian) Barbara Frale, Vatican Secret Archive officer:
"The documents we are going to present right here have a very important historical importance in order to better interpret the trial against the knights templar."
15. Cutaway of journalists
16. SOUNDBITE: (Italian) Barbara Frale, Vatican Secret Archive officer:
"The order of Knights Templar has been sacrificed in order to avoid the opening of a scission which could have led to create a French autonomous church separated by Rome's church."
17. Close up of ancient text
18. Reverse fade of red cross of Knights Templar
19.Close up of page of text
20. Close up of holder of ancient text with seals of Knight Templar
21. Close up of seal showing detail
22. Reproduction texts on table
23. St Peter's basilica through columns
STORYLINE
It's not the Holy Grail, but for fans of "The Da Vinci Code" and its tantalising storyline about the Knights Templar, it could be the next best thing.
Ignored for centuries and discovered in the Vatican secret archives in 2001, a parchment about the early 14th-century heresy trial preliminary investigation of the ancient Christian order is the basis of a limited edition volume being released by the Vatican Secret Archives on Thursday.
Only 799 copies of the 300-page volume "Processus Contra Templarios" (Latin for "Trial against the Templars") are for sale, each priced at 8,377 US dollars, with an 800th copy going to Pope Benedict XVI.
"The documents we are going to present right here have a very important historical importance in order to better interpret the trial against the knights templar," said Barbara Frale, the Vatican's Secret Archive officer.
The "Parchment of Chinon", is nearly 1 metre (yard) wide and details the 1308 decision by Clement to save the Templars and their order.
The original parchment, with its writing in Latin, is allegedly in remarkably good condition considering its 700 years.
These documents report, by transcription, the interrogations conducted by the Church against the operations of the Knights Templar between June and August 1308, prior to the heresy trial of 22 March 1312.
The parchment shows that Pope Clement V initially absolved the Templar leaders of heresy, though he did find them guilty of immorality, and planned to reform the order.
However, pressured by the French king Philip IV (Philip the Fair), Clement later reversed his decision and suppressed the order in 1312.
The military order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was founded in 1118 in Jerusalem to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land after the First Crusade.
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