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The papal tiara is a crown that was worn by 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 triregnum John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman (Oxford University Press 2004 ), p. 310 Meredith 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. 64 Clara Erskine Clement Waters, Saints in Art (Nova Publishers 2004 ), p. 31 Frank 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 Pope 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.
Names used for the papal tiara in the 8th and 9th centuries include camelaucum, pileus, phrygium and pileum phrygium.
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 also in Rome down to Pope Paul VI, who was papal coronation with one in 1963.
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 Aachen, the Iron Crown at Milan or Monza and the golden imperial crown at Rome and therefore the Pope, too, should wear three crowns."Twining 1960, p. 378
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
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 Universi Dominici gregis (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 Romano Pontifici Eligendo 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 Universi Dominici gregis, 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 Ordo Rituum pro Ministerii Petrini initio Romae Episcopi 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.
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.
In some instances, various cities sought to outdo each other in the beauty, value and size of the tiaras they provided to popes from their region. Examples include tiaras given to Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, the former by John's home region, the latter by Paul's previous archiepiscopal see of Milan on their election to the papacy.
Popes were not restricted to a particular tiara: for example, photographs show Pope John XXIII, on different occasions, wearing the tiara presented to him in 1959, Pope Pius IX's 1877 tiara, and Pope Pius XI's 1922 tiara.
Pope Paul VI, whose bullet-shaped tiara is one of the most unusual in design, was the last pope to wear a papal tiara (though any of his successors could, if they wished, revive the custom). Most surviving tiaras are on display in the Vatican, though some were sold off or donated to Catholic bodies. Some of the more popular or historic tiaras, such as the 1871 Belgian tiara, the 1877 tiara and the 1903 golden tiara, have been sent around the world as part of a display of historic Vatican items. Pope Paul VI's "Milan tiara" was donated to and is on display in the crypt church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., United States.
Each tiara had attached to the back two ; highly decorated strips of cloth embroidered with golden thread, bearing the coat of arms or another symbol of the pope to whom the tiara had been given.
There are two rather unusual tiaras: the papier-mâché tiara made when Pope Pius VII was elected and crowned in exile, and the one made for Pope Paul VI in 1963, which is somewhat bullet-shaped, contains few jewels and, instead of being adorned by three coronets, is marked with three parallel circles and has a double-tiered crown at its base.
The tiara given to Pope Pius IX in 1877 by the Vatican's Palatine Guard in honour of his Jubilee is strikingly similar in design to the earlier tiara of Gregory XVI. It remained a particularly popular crown, worn by, among others, Pope Pius XI, Pope Pius XII and Pope John XXIII. Pope Pius XI's 1922 crown, in contrast was much less decorated and much more conical in shape.
A number of popes deliberately had new tiaras made because they found those in the collection either too small, too heavy, or both. Rather than use the papier-mâché tiara, Pope Gregory XVI had a new lightweight tiara made in the 1840s. In the 1870s, Pope Pius IX, then in his eighties, found the other tiaras too heavy to wear and that of his predecessor, Pope Gregory, too small, so he had a lightweight tiara made also. In 1908 Pope Pius X had another lightweight tiara made as he found that the normal tiaras in use were too heavy, while the lightweight ones did not fit comfortably.
New methods of manufacture in the 20th century enabled the creation of lighter normal tiaras, producing the tiaras of Pius XI and John XXIII. That, combined with the existence of a range of lightweight tiaras from earlier popes, meant that no pope since Pius X in 1908 needed to make his own special lightweight tiara.
Yet others have associated it with the threefold office of Christ, who is Priest, Prophet and King, or "teacher, lawmaker and judge". Another traditional interpretation was that the three crowns refer to the "Church Militant on earth", the "Church Suffering after death and before heaven", and the "Church Triumphant in eternal reward". Yet another interpretation suggested by Archbishop Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, who designed Pope Benedict XVI's tiara-less coat of arms, was "order, jurisdiction and magisterium", while a further theory links the three tiers to the "celestial, human and terrestrial worlds," which the pope is supposed to symbolically link. Lord Twining suggested that just as the Holy Roman Emperors were crowned three times as king of Germany, king of Italy and Roman emperor, so the popes, to stress the equality of their spiritual authority to the temporal authority of the emperor, chose to be crowned with a tiara bearing three crowns.Twining, Lord Edward Francis (1960). A History of the Crown Jewels of Europe, B.T. Batsford Ltd., London, England.
The tiara was thus worn in formal ceremonial processions, and on other occasions when the pope was carried on the sedia gestatoria, a portable throne whose use was ended by Pope John Paul II immediately after his election in October 1978. His short-lived predecessor, John Paul I, also chose initially not to use it, but relented when informed that without it the people could not see him. The papal tiara was also worn when a pope gave his traditional Christmas and Easter Urbi et Orbi blessing ("to the City and the World") from the balcony of St Peter's – the only religious ceremony at which the tiara was worn.
At the moment of the coronation, the new pope was crowned with the words:
Pope Paul VI opted for a significantly shorter ceremony. As with all other modern coronations, the ceremony itself was only symbolic, as the person involved became Pope and Bishop of Rome the moment he accepted his canonical election in the papal conclave. The two subsequent popes (John Paul I and John Paul II) abandoned the monarchial coronation, opting instead for a coronation-less investiture. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI took a step further and removed the tiara from his papal coat of arms, replacing it with a mitre.
The 16th-century Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent commissioned Venice craftsmen to make a 4-tiered tiara modeled on the papal design, to demonstrate that his power and authority as Caliph exceeded that of the Pope. This was a most atypical piece of headgear for an Ottoman sultan, which he probably never normally wore, but which he placed beside him when receiving visitors, especially ambassadors. It was crowned with an enormous feather.Michael Levey; The World of Ottoman Art, p.65, 1975, Thames & Hudson,
Conversely, the papal coronation ceremony, in which the Pope was fanned with flabella (long fans of ostrich feathers) and carried on the sedia gestatoria (portable throne), was based on the Byzantine imperial ceremonies witnessed in medieval Constantinople.
All tarot cards also contain a representation of the pope, known as "The Hierophant", in some cases crowned with a papal tiara. For instance, the Rider–Waite tarot deck, currently the widest-circulated deck in existence, depicts The Hierophant or pope as wearing a papal tiara pinned with three nails on top and carrying a papal cross.
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