Really, I’m not joking about the last part. The Vatican will be publishing the minutes of the trials of the order of the Knights Templar (limited edition, 799 numbered copies and costing €5900 each), and the lost paperwork is no joke:
The most titillating part of the documents is the so-called Chinon Parchment, which contains phrases in which Pope Clement V absolves the Templars of charges of heresy, which had been the backbone of King Philip’s attempts to eliminate them.
Templars were burned at the stake for heresy by King Philip’s agents after they made confessions that most historians believe were given under duress.
The parchment, also known as the Chinon Chart, was “misplaced” in the Vatican archives until 2001, when Frale stumbled across it.
And I thought that my desk was messy….700 years.