Vatican archives show alliance against Turks

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

An unprecedented exhibition of Vatican documents that opened Feb. 29 in Rome includes a letter from a Russian czar to the pope speaking against a “the Turkish threat,” and a 16th-century agreement
against the Ottomans called the “Holy Alliance.”

Vatican archives documenting centuries of European history, including Galileo Galilei’s trial documents and Martin Luther’s excommunication went on public display for the first time Feb. 29. The exhibit, entitled “Lux in Arcana,” at Rome’s Capitoline Museums includes a request from Henry VIII of England for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and the “Dictatus Papae” of Pope Gregory VII, an 11th-century document asserting the spiritual and terrestrial powers of the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

The exhibition also includes a letter from Russian Czar Aleksey Romanov I to Pope Clement X, in which he demanded the pope use his spiritual influence over European kings to establishment an alliance against “the Turkish threat.”

An important document related to the Battle of Lepanto (known in Turkish as the İnebahtı Naval War) and dated Oct. 7, 1571, is also on view at the exhibition, according to a report from Turkey’s state-run broadcaster TRT’s English channel’s website. The document describes the agreement Pope Pius V brokered between Spanish King Philip II and the Venetian duke to cooperate against Ottoman forces, which became official on May 15, 1571, and was known as the “Holy Alliance.”

The exhibition, which includes 100 documents dating from the eighth century through the 20th, will be open to the public until Sept. 9.