The papal tiara is a crown that was worn by popes of the Catholic Church from as early as the 8th century to the mid–20th century. It was last used by Pope Paul VI in 1963, and only at the beginning of his reign.
The name tiara refers to the entire headpiece, including the various crowns, circlets, and diadems that have adorned it through the ages,Joseph Braun, "Tiara" in The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912 while the three-tiered form that it took in the 14th century is also called the triregnumJohn-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman (Oxford University Press 2004 ), p. 310Meredith P. Lillich, Rainbow Like an Emerald (Penn State Press 1991 ), p. 96 or the triple crown,"Homily for Inauguration for Pontificate", section 4 name=JPII and sometimes as the triple tiara.Charles L. Stinger, The Renaissance in Rome (Indiana University Press 1998 ), p. 64Clara Erskine Clement Waters, Saints in Art (Nova Publishers 2004 ), p. 31Frank J. Coppa, Politics and the Papacy in the Modern World (ABC-CLIO 2008 ), p. 1
From 1143 to 1963, the papal tiara was solemnly placed on the pope's head during a papal coronation. The surviving papal tiaras are all in the triple form, the oldest from 1572. A representation of the triregnum combined with two crossed keys of Saint Peter is used as a symbol of the papacy and appears on papal documents, buildings and insignia, and on the flag of Vatican City. Actual use of the papal tiara has declined since the reign of Pope Paul VI, the last pope to have a coronation ceremony. Starting with Pope Benedict XVI, popes have also stopped incorporating a papal tiara into their coats of arms.
History
Origins
The papal tiara originated from a conical Phrygian cap or frigium. Shaped like a candle-extinguisher, the papal tiara and the episcopal mitre were identical in their early forms.
Names used for the papal tiara in the 8th and 9th centuries include , , and .
Crowns A circlet of linen or cloth of gold at the base of the tiara developed into a metal crown, which by about 1300 became two crowns. The first of these appeared at the base of the traditional white papal headgear in the 9th century.James-Charles Noonan, The Church Visible, ()Bruno Heim, Heraldry in the Catholic Church, Humanities: 1978, (), p.50 When the popes assumed temporal power in the Papal States, the base crown became decorated with jewels to resemble the crowns of princes. Innocent III is represented with an early tiara in a fresco at Sacro Speco and on a mosaic from Old Saint Peter's, now in the Museo di Roma. A similar tiara, conical and with only one crown, is seen worn by pope Clement IV in frescoes from the 13th century in Pernes-les-Fontaines, France.
The second crown is said to have been added by Pope Boniface VIII as signifying both his spiritual and temporal power, since he declared that God had set him over kings and kingdoms. Boniface VIII's tiara is represented with two crowns in his statues and tomb by Arnolfo di Cambio. The addition of a third crown is attributed to Pope Benedict XI (1303–1304) or Pope Clement V (1305–1314), and one such tiara was listed in an inventory of the papal treasury in 1316 (see "Tiara of Saint Sylvester", below). The first years of the 16th century saw the addition of a small orb and cross to top the tiara.
The third crown was added to the papal tiara during the Avignon Papacy (1309–1378), giving rise to the form called the triregnum.Jane Hayward, Walter Cahn, Radiance and Reflection (Metropolitan Museum of Art 1982 ), p. 206 John Walsh, The Mass and Vestments of the Catholic Church (Benzinger Brothers 1916), p. 431
After Pope Clement V at Avignon, various versions of the three-crown tiara have been worn by popes also in Rome down to Pope Paul VI, who was crowned with one in 1963.
Tiara of Saint Sylvester Lord Twining wrote of a tiara of Pope Boniface VIII that became known as the Tiara of Saint Sylvester:
Twining also notes the various allegorical meanings attributed to the three crowns of the papal tiara, but concludes that "it seems more likely that the symbolism is suggested by the idea that took shape in the 13th and 14th centuries that the Emperor was crowned with three crowns—the silver crown of Germany at Aix-la-Chapelle, the iron crown of Lombardy at Milan or Monza and the golden imperial crown at Rome and therefore the Pope, too, should wear three crowns."Twining 1960, p. 378
Lappets () Like a bishop's mitre, a papal tiara has attached to it two lappets,Frank Leslie Cross, Elizabeth A. Livingstone (editors), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ), entry "Tiara", p. 1632Guido J. Deboeck, Flemish DNA & Ancestry (Dokus Publishing 2007 ), p. 70Suzanne Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica Majora (University of California Press 1987 ), p. 267Wendy Doniger (editor), Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions (Merriam-Webster 1999 ). entry "Tiara", p. 1096 a pair of streamers or pendants that in Latin are called or . These are usually attached at the rear of the tiara, again as on a bishop's mitre, although the mosaic of Pope Clement VIII wearing a triregnum shows them placed forward of the ears. All extant tiaras have them placed at the rear. The lappets, sometimes called "fanons" according to the 2nd definition of the word, are likely relics of the cord used to secure the original form of linen cap or turban around a bishop's head.
The 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia describes the lappets on a bishop's mitre as trimmed on the ends with red fringe.Cf. Symbols of a Bishop, miter
Abandonment of the tiara
Pope Paul VI was crowned with a tiara at the papal coronation. As happened sometimes with previous popes, a new tiara was used, donated by the city of Milan, where he was archbishop before his election. It was not covered in jewels and precious gems, and was sharply cone-shaped. It was also distinctly heavier than the Palatine Tiara previously in use. Near the end of the third session of the Second Vatican Council in 1964, Paul VI descended the steps of the papal throne in St. Peter's Basilica and ascended to the altar, on which he laid the tiara as a sign of the renunciation of human glory and power in keeping with the renewed spirit of the council. It was announced that the tiara would be sold and the money obtained would be given to charity. The tiara was purchased by Catholics in the United States and is now kept in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. It is on permanent display in Memorial Hall along with the stole that Pope John XXIII wore at the opening of the Second Vatican Council.
Paul VI's abandonment of use of one of the most striking symbols of the papacy was highly controversial with many Traditionalist Catholics, some of whom continue to campaign for its reinstatement. Certain voices went so far as to brand Paul VI an antipope, arguing that no valid pope would surrender the papal tiara.
His immediate successor, Pope John Paul I, decided against a coronation, replacing it with an "inauguration". It was codified in 1996 within the apostolic constitution (at n. 92). after which Benedict XVI and Pope Francis did not have a coronation rite with the Papal Tiara. After John Paul I's sudden death, Pope John Paul II told the congregation at his inauguration: "This is not the time to return to a ceremony and an object considered, wrongly, to be a symbol of the temporal power of the Popes."
Paul VI's 1975 Apostolic Constitution on the manner of electing the Pope, still envisaged that his successors would be crowned.Romano Pontifici Eligendo (1975), 92. Pope John Paul II, in his 1996 Apostolic Constitution , removed all mention of a papal coronation, replacing it with a reference to an "inauguration".Universi Dominici gregis (1996), No. 92. The use of Papal Tiara in solemn ceremonies was left by Paul VI.
Though not currently worn as part of papal regalia, the papal tiara still appears on the coat of arms of the Holy See and the flag of Vatican City. Later in his reign John Paul II approved depictions of his arms without the tiara, as with the mosaic floor piece towards the entrance of St Peter's Basilica, where an ordinary mitre takes the place of the tiara. Otherwise, until the reign of Benedict XVI the tiara was also the ornament surmounting a Pope's personal coat of arms, as a tasseled hat (under which a 1969 Instruction of the Holy See forbade the placing of a mitre, a second hat)Secretariat of State, instruction "Ut sive sollicite", 28, in Acta Apostolicae Sedis 61 (1969) 334-340 (English translation in L'Osservatore Romano, 17 April 1969): "The use of the crozier and mitre in the coat-of-arms is suppressed." surmounted those of other prelates. Pope Benedict XVI's personal coat of arms replaced the tiara with a mitre containing three levels reminiscent of the three tiers on the papal tiara, with a rare exception which the tapestry used during the Sunday Angelus incorporated the personal coat of arms with the papal tiara version in October 2010. Vatican spokesperson Federico Lombardi clarified that the tapestry was a gift “without any intention of changing the crest”, and will be modified to include the official coat of arms. The mitre was retained on Pope Francis' personal coat of arms. The Coat of arms of Pope Leo XIV also replaced the tiara with the triband mitre.
In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI promulgated the document that confirmed the choice of Pope John Paul II to refuse the tiara and the incoronation rite.
In May 2011, Pope Benedict XVI received a special tiara by Dieter Philippi, a German chief executive officer of a telecommunication company who had commissioned the gift from an artisan workshop located in Sofia. Pope Francis also received a gift of a tiara made by North Macedonian nuns in 2016. Neither of these gifted tiaras was ever worn by the recipient.
Each year, a large papal tiara is placed on the head of the famous bronze statue of Saint Peter in St. Peter's Basilica from the vigil of the Feast of the Cathedra of Saint Peter on 22 February until the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul on 29 June. This custom was not observed in 2006, but was reintroduced in 2007.
Design
Although often referred to as Papal Tiara, historically there have been many, and 22 remain in existence. Many of the earlier papal tiaras (most notably the tiaras of Pope Julius II and that attributed to Pope Silvester I) were destroyed, dismantled or seized by invaders (most notably by Berthier's army in 1798), or by popes themselves; Pope Clement VII had all the tiaras and papal regalia melted down in 1527 to raise the 400,000 ducats ransom demanded by the occupying army of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Over twenty silver tiaras exist, of which the earliest, the sole survivor of 1798, was made for Pope Gregory XIII in the 16th century. On 21 March 1800 as Rome was in the hands of the French, Pius VII was crowned in exile, in Venice, with a papier-mâché tiara, for which ladies of Venice gave up their jewels.
Many tiaras were donated to the papacy by world leaders or heads of states, including Queen Isabella II of Spain, William I (German Emperor), Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Napoleon I of France. The tiara provided by the last was made from elements of former papal tiaras destroyed after the capture of Rome, and was given to Pius VII as a 'wedding gift' to mark Napoleon's own marriage to Empress Josephine on the eve of his imperial coronation. Others were a gift to a newly elected pope from the See which they had held before their election, or on the occasion of the jubilee of their ordination or election.