Papal Tiara

The Papal Tiara, also known as the Triple Tiara, in Latin as the 'Triregnum', or in Italian as the 'Triregno',{{ref|Triregno}} is the three-tiered jewelled papal crown of Byzantine and Persian origin that is the symbol of the papacy. Papal Tiaras were worn by all popes from Pope Clement V to Pope Paul VI, who was crowned in 1963. Pope Paul VI abandoned the use of his own tiara after the Second Vatican Council, symbolically laying it on the altar of St. Peter's Basilica, and donating its value to the poor. However, he did not abolish its use, explicitly requiring in his 1975 Apostolic Constitution Romano Pontifici Eligendo that his successor be crowned.

Footnotes

• {{Note|Triregno}} Some accounts of the papal tiara call it the Triregno, others the triregnum. The Holy See's press office uses the latter name.
• {{Note|homily}} Papal Inauguration Homily of Pope John Paul II, L'Osservatore Romano (Text of the Homily)
• {{Note|arms}} website of a priest who is an expert on ecclesiastical heraldry (archived)
• {{Note|crozier}} "The use of the crozier and mitre in the coat-of-arms is suppressed." Section 28. Instructions on the Dress, Titles and Coats-of-Arms of Cardinals, Bishops and Lesser Prelates by Pope Paul VI, published in L'Osservatore Romano, 17 April 1969.
• {{Note|JuliusII}} Designed by Ambrogio Foppa with a massive cost of 200,000 ducats, one third of the papacy's annual income, at a time when a parish priest was paid 25 ducats a year.
• {{Note|Elizabeth}} To give a comparison in weights, St. Edward's Crown, with which British monarchs are crowned, weighs only 4 lb 12 oz (2.155 kg). Yet Queen Elizabeth II after her coronation commented how the crown "does get rather heavy". Similarly King George said after the Delhi Durbar in 1911 how the Imperial Crown of India "hurt my head as it is rather heavy". Yet both these crowns are lighter than most papal tiaras, and less than a third of the weight of the 1804 tiara given to Pius VII by Napoleon. Gyles Brandreth, Philip & Elizabeth (Century, 2004) p.311. and "The Crown Jewels" published by the Tower of London.
• {{Note|homily2}} Papal Inauguration Homily of Pope John Paul II, L'Osservatore Romano (Text of the Homily)
• {{Note|greatness}} National Post article, 16 October 2004
• {{Note|vestments}} Website on pre-Vatican II liturgical and ecclesiastical vestments and symbols
• {{Note|triumphant}} http://www.electapope.com/index.php?page=The_Coronation
• {{Note|Noonan}} James-Charles Noonan, The Church Visible, (ISBN 0670867454)
• {{Note|hp}} John Cornwell, Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII (Viking, 1999) pp. 211-212.
• {{Note|Smith}} Uriah Smith, Thoughts, Critical and Practical on the Book of Revelation (published in 1865 by the Seventh Day Adventists)
• {{Note|conservative}} Traditionalist Catholic website criticising Benedict XVI's non-use of the papal tiara
• {{Note|paul6constitution}} Romano Pontifici Eligendo (1975), No. 92.
• {{Note|Yallop}} David Yallop, In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I (Corgi, 1985) p.237.
• {{Note|johnpaul2constitution}} Universi Dominici Gregis (1996), No. 92.
• {{Note|Tridentine}} After decades of active prohibition, the Vatican in the late 1990s and early 2000s facilitated the usage of the pre-Vatican II Latin Tridentine Rite of Mass, which previously had only been allowed in limited cases to small congregations in exceptional circumstances. A full Pontifical High Mass celebrated by a cardinal and attended by Cardinal O'Connor of New York, occurred for the first time in 30 years in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York at the end of the twentieth century while Tridentine Masses have been allowed (though not yet on the main altar) in St. Peter's Basilica, an act facilitated by the retirement of Cardinal Noe, who had been the prelate who championed the abandonment of the papal tiara and who designed the replacement inauguration ceremony. Most dramatically of all, it was revealed in 2002 that Pope John Paul II had on occasion celebrated the traditional Latin Mass in his private chapel in the Vatican, rather than the Novus Ordo Missae Mass, which was introduced by Pope Paul VI and is usually celebrated in the vernacular rather than in Latin.
• {{Note|tarot}} Dr. Robert O'Neill, Iconography of the early papess cards, Iconography of the pope cards