In 2007, on this day the Reuters office at the Vatican City issued the following statement ~ The Knights Templar, the Christian military order accused of heresy and sexual misconduct, will soon be partly rehabilitated when the Vatican publishes trial documents it had closely guarded for 700 years. A reproduction of the minutes of trials against the Templars, ''Processus Contra Templarios -- Papal Inquiry into the Trial of the Templars'' is a massive work and much more than a book -- with a 5,900 euros (4,125 pounds) price tag.

'This is a milestone because it is the first time that these documents are being released by the Vatican, which gives a stamp of authority to the entire project,' said Professor Barbara Frale, a medievalist at the Vatican's Secret Archives.

'Nothing before this offered scholars original documents of the trials of the Templars,' she told Reuters in a telephone interview ahead of the official presentation of the work on October 25.

The epic comes in a soft leather case that includes a large-format book including scholarly commentary, reproductions of original parchments in Latin, and -- to tantalise Templar buffs -- replicas of the wax seals used by 14th-century inquisitors.

Speculation has arisen of a historic visit to Malta from Pope Benedict. An invitation from the Grand Master is yet to be issued, but there are understood to be no pre-conditions for such a visit.