Vatican plans computer archive of documents

Vatican plans computer archive of documents

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican will open its archives to Italian state officials and academics for a computer-driven project that will catalog all available documents on the Inquisition in Italy.

“Such a vast operation, never before undertaken, is of great importance to respond to new directions of international research on the control of religious ideas in medieval and modern Europe,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.

Under an agreement signed Nov. 9, archivists will survey documentation held by the Vatican, the Italian government, Italian libraries and private collectors.

The Inquisition, begun by Pope Innocent III at the end of the 12th century in response to the alleged heresies of the Cathars, or Albigensians, and the Waldensians, spread throughout Europe and led to the expulsion of Jews and Moors from Spain. Torture was permitted to secure proof of heresy, and if accused heretics did not repent, officials of the Inquisition could turn them over to civil authorities for execution by hanging or burning at the stake.

In 1542, Pope Paul II established the Roman Inquisition, a supreme inquisitorial tribunal aimed at combating Lutheranism and Calvinism and later concerned with witchcraft.  (TAB)