During the 1300's, an alcoholic priest en-route from Bethlahem to the Vatican losses all of his writtings in a drunken bet. His understudy has just a few days to create a story that will change the world.

The Vatican did not exist as such in 30AD.
Mel Brooks already did something similar, however we live in different times.
I am not sure Life of Bryan would be green lighted in today's very religious climate.

Thanks for everyones input.
At the moment it is just a very small idea. I'm going to take all the advice given, but as it stands at the moment i find Claude's input the most useful.
Thanks again.

This seems like a tough story to crack as you could offend people very easily, especially if you make it seem like what's written in the Bible was created on a lark by a drunken priest.

An angle that I could see being funny while not mocking is to focus on the younger character and make Jesus's miracles/actions up for debate, but not something necessarily made up.

I would use the term priest-in-training or seminary student instead of novitiate in the logline since most will not know that word and will take them out of the story.

"A seminary student at the Vatican is sent to Jerusalem to verify the incoherent writings of an alcoholic priest detailing miraculous deeds by someone named Jesus."

This take puts your timeline closer to 30 AD around the time of Jesus instead of 1300 AD. That would probably change a lot of elements to the story, but on the plus side you get to have Jesus be a character! Maybe like Jeff Bridge's The Dude Lebowski. "That woven tapestry really tied the manger together!" I'm already laughing.

You seem to want to get comedy out of Jesus being dull, which could be funny. But it doesn't make sense for stories about Jesus to be dull. They should be supernatural stories, so why would they be dull? Instead, why not make Jesus the dullest person when he is NOT performing miracles. The legend more interesting than the man sort of thing. So, when the seminary student meets Jesus, he doesn't think this is the guy who turned water into wine. But he has to prove it one way or another to verify what the priest wrote about him. Then you can set up a farce where the student is trying to get Jesus to perform miracles.

Who is the lead character? The priest or the understudy. (It will affect how you write the logline)

As slingink said. What new twist is there on the origins of Christianity that hasn't already been popularized and commercially exploited in books and films?

Also the correct spelling is Bethelehem, not Bethlahem, And I believe the term for a young man serving under a priest is novitiate -- not understudy. Picky details, but the the devil is in the details. It helps to get the factual details right in order to establish the credibility of the fabulous ones.

Monty Python's "Life of Brian" is funny because under the guise of humor it makes some shrewd psychological insights about the myth making process that enveloped the historical Jesus. (A myth making process that takes place in all religions, btw.) This premise, under the guise of humor, aims to show that, that... well, what?

Thanks for the input.

I'm very flexible on the time line.
In short i see this as a comedy.

After many years of collating and recording information about Jesus' life, the priest discovers how ordinary and boring he was, which turns him to drink. His appreantice is a bit of a dreamer.

After the priest loses the documents he goed missing.

He is to be at the vatican on a set day. He enters with the only book left which he, nor anyone else can read. On hearing about the banishment he makes out he can read the book. As he found the story of Jesus rather dull, he imbelishes the stories, merging them with folk tales he heard on his travels. The vaticn buy it and get him to translate the whole book.
The imaginative tales he writes end up being everything we know about Jesus.
when the drunk preist returns after winning back his records, he sets out to expose his former assistant. Only to be doubted, as his version is to dull. His records are destroyed and he is bannished.
out of spite, the hero names a charector after the priest - judas.

The only story that would make sense here is that the priest uncovers something scandalous. But this doesn't make a whole lot of sense since the Jews had already claimed "Scandal!" for over a thousand years. So...did he simply confirm the Jews' thoughts on Jesus?

We've already seen the "Jesus had a wife" and "Jesus had a kid" stories. How is this different? That needs to be in the logline. How about Jesus operated an opium cartel? :-)

And if this story is ultimately about the understudy, then the understudy needs to take front-and-center in the logline.

And think about the journey. It's a long freaking way by camel or horse from Bethlehem to Rome. They likely would have taken a ship. Also, they likely would have stopped at Cyprus, which would be a great place for this priest to lose his writings. Then the understudy's real effort could play out on the sea and as they stop at the other islands along the way. There's your story world.

One example:
1300's Mediterranean, returning from Israel to Rome, the understudy of an alcoholic priest has a week to recall and record their lost scandalous discoveries about an unknown side of Jesus.

Although, looking back at your original logline, if his task is just to "create a story that will change the world," then why the urgency? Why does he have "just a few" days? IS there some pressing matter back at the Vatican?