Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler Paolo Gabriele went on trial yesterday accused of leaking confidential Vatican memos that revealed cloak-and-dagger politics among the Pope’s closest aides.

A once loyal servant who said he grew disgusted by the ‘evil and corruption’ he witnessed, Gabriele told investigators he was acting as an ‘agent’ of the Holy Spirit to help the Pope

Gabriele sat quietly in court for the start of a closely-watched case which if convicted could see him receive up to four years in prison for aggravated theft. The 46-year-old father of three looked wan in a pale grey suit and white shirt.

The pontiff’s personal secretary GeorgGanswein, who was Gabriele’s superior, will be called to testify against his former charge, the court said.

Ganswein, 56, was Gabriele’s direct superior and confronted the butler about the leaks early in May after being tipped off by theVatican police. After a first session of just over two hours, mainly addressing preliminary legal questions, the court fixed the next hearing for Tuesday.

A once loyal servant who said he grew disgusted by the “evil and corruption” he witnessed, Gabriele told investigators he was acting as an “agent” of the Holy Spirit to help the Pope put a weary Roman Catholic Church back on track.

Gabriele is accused of passing investigative reporter Gianluigi Nuzzi copies of secret papers earlier this year under the codename Maria.

The trial is playing out in a 19th-century courtroom tucked away behind the apse of St Peter’s Basilica in a corner of the city state that is strictly off-limits to the millions of visitors who visit the Vatican every year.

Television cameras are banned and only 10 journalists are allowed access.

The Vatican has said the 85-year-oldGerman Pope is deeply hurt by the betrayalof confidence by someone he “knew, loved and respected”.

Gabriele has confessed and written a letter begging the pope for forgiveness, but that is not legally considered definitive proof for a conviction because he could have lied.

Many commentators have said they expect the Pope to pardon Gabriele.But many also question whether he really acted alone or as part of a wider group of disgruntled Vatican employees who could even include high-placed prelates. An investigation into the ‘Vatileaks’ scandal is ongoing.

Gabriele has spent his entire adult life as a Vatican servant, starting out as a cleaner at the Secretariat of State — the main administrative body of the Catholic Church — and becoming butler to the Pope in 2006.

He served the Pope his meals and clothed him and was a constant presence in official photographs, adjusting the Pope’s cloak, holding his umbrella or riding with him onthe popemobile through crowds onforeign trips.

The leaked letters offer an extraordinary glimpse into the inner workings of the Holy See. The batch includes letters from a former head of the Vatican governorate alleging he was forced out of his post for tackling widespread fraud.

The scandal has been an embarrassment for the Vatican, though more for the apparent ease with which sensitive papers clearly intended to be read only by the Pope anda few confidants could be leaked, than for their content.

Vatican gendarmes arrested Gabriele on May 23 and raided his home behind theVatican walls, finding copies of confidential documents and gifts intended for the Pope including a gold nugget and a €100,000 cheque.

Gabriele, one of only 594 citizens of the Vatican, was well known and generally liked in the tight-knit community that inhabits the historic city state, but there were also voices of criticism cited in court documents.

“He was very closed,” one of the Pope’s four housekeepers was quoted as saying by investigators. “He always seemed to be competitive and seeking approval for his behaviour. He was judgemental in daily life,” she said.

Vatican police also ordered psychological examinations of Gabriele during his 53days in custody, which concluded he was“an impressionable subject able to commita variety of actions that can damage himself and/or others.”

The only recorded interview that Gabriele has given was in February with Gianluigi Nuzzi, the investigative journalist who published the leaks.

Gabriele spoke in the darkness, his voice muffled and his identity hidden.

The butler expressed frustration with a culture of secrecy in the Vatican – from the mysterious disappearance of the daughter of a Vatican employee in 1983 to a quickly hushed-up double murder and suicide by a Swiss guard in 1998.

“There is a kind of omertà against thetruth, not so much because of a powerstruggle but because of fear, because of caution,” Gabriele said in the interview, usingthe term for the code of silence of the Sicilian mafia.