Crown worn by popes of the Roman Catholic Church
The papal tiara is a crown that is 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, while the three-tiered form that it took in the 14th century is also called the triregnum or the triple crown, and sometimes as the triple tiara.
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 Coat 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. 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.
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:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;Under Boniface VIII (1294–1303) the hood of the was lengthened and the circlet was greatly enriched with precious stones, while toward the end of his papacy a second circlet was added. The increased length had the symbolical meaning of dominion of the over the earth, and demonstrated the meaning of the papal . In the inventory of 1295, the second year of Boniface's papacy, the head-dress, which is now usually referred to as a tiara, is described as enriched with 48 rubies balas, 72 sapphires, 45 or emeralds, numerous little balas rubies and emeralds and 66 large pearls. At the summit was a very large ruby.
Boniface VIII was succeeded in 1303 by Benedict XI, who took the tiara to Perugia. After his death in 1304 there was a period of eleven months before a new Pope succeeded. The Archbishop of Bordeaux was chosen and took the title of Clement V. He removed the papal seat from Rome to Avignon and the tiara was brought to Lyons from Perugia for his coronation on 14 November 1305. In the inventory which was taken in 1315–16 Boniface VIII's tiara is again described and can be identified by the mention of the large ruby, which is recorded as missing. It is described as having three circlets . It therefore must have been between the taking of the two inventories in 1295 and 1315 that the second and third circlets were added to the tiara. It was during this period that the fleur-de-lis was used to decorate the circlets. The tiara was kept in the Papal Treasury at Avignon until Gregory XI took it back to Rome, which he entered on 17 January 1377. In 1378 Robert of Geneva was elected anti-Pope taking the style Clement VII, and he removed the tiara from Avignon. When the Spaniard, Pedro de Luna, was elected anti-Pope in 1394 styling himself Benedict XIII, he took the tiara from Avignon to Spain, where it remained until Aphonso V of Aragon failed in his attempt to renew the schism, and on his withdrawal of support from the anti-Pope Clement VII in 1419, the tiara was returned to Rome.
In the 14th century, the tiara of Boniface VIII began to be called the Tiara of St. Sylvester, and became venerated and considered as a relic. This was no doubt suggested by the Donation of Constantine, but it now came to be used only at the coronation of popes, starting with Gregory XI in 1370 and his successor Urban VI in 1378. It was used at no other ceremonies and was kept in the Lateran Treasury. It was last used at the coronation of Nicholas V (1446–55), and in 1485 it was stolen and no more is heard of it.
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."
Lappets ().
Like a bishop's mitre, a papal tiara has attached to it two lappets, 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.
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 officialized in 1996 within the apostolic constitution 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. Pope John Paul II, in his 1996 Apostolic Constitution , removed all mention of a papal coronation, replacing it with a reference to an "inauguration". 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) 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. The mitre was retained on Pope Francis' personal coat of arms.
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.
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 the 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