Other Tiaras

The Papal Tiara, also known as the Triple Tiara, or in Latin as the 'Triregnum', and in Italian as the 'Triregno', is the three-tiered jewelled papal crown, supposedly of Byzantine and Persian origin, that is a symbol of the papacy. more...

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The Supreme Pontiff's arms have featured a "tiara" since ancient times, notably in combination with Saint Peter's crossed keys.

History

Papal tiaras were worn by the popes of Rome and Avignon from Pope Clement V (d. 1314) 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, his 1975 Apostolic Constitution Romano Pontifici Eligendo on the manner of electing the Pope, still envisaged that his successors would be crowned.

However his immediate successor, Pope John Paul I, decided against a coronation, replacing it with a ceremony of what was called "Inauguration of the Supreme Pontificate"; and after John Paul I's sudden death, Pope John Paul II told the congregation at his Inauguration:

Though not currently worn as part of papal regalia, the continuing symbolism of the papal tiara is reflected in its use on the flag and coats of arms of the Holy See and the Vatican. Until the reign of Benedict XVI the tiara was also the ornament surmounting a Pope's personal coat of arms, as a tasselled hat (under which a 1969 Instruction of the Holy See forbade the placing of a mitre, a second hat) surmounted those of other prelates. In a break with tradition, Pope Benedict XVI's personal coat of arms has replaced the tiara with a mitre. This particular mitre contains three levels reminiscent of the three tiers on the papal tiara. However, in the coat of arms of the Holy See and of the Vatican City State Pope Benedict XVI decided to keep the tiara, not a mitre.

Origins

According to James-Charles Noonan and Bruno Heim the lowest of the three crowns appeared at the base of the traditional white papal headgear in the ninth century. When the popes assumed temporal power in the Papal States, the base crown became decorated with jewels to resemble the crowns of princes. He suggested that a second crown was added by Pope Boniface VIII in 1298 to symbolize spiritual dominion. Very soon after, in or around 1314, a third crown and lappets (cloth strips) were added; Pope Clement V was the first to wear the triple tiara. Though a powerful symbol of the papacy, it has not always been respected even by its wearers. One mediæval pope, Innocent VIII, even pawned off his papal tiara. A Protestant theory is that the three crowns (triregni) fulfilled Daniel's prophecy in the seventh chapter of his book in which the "little horn" of the Roman Papacy uproots three kingdoms before it.

Read more at Wikipedia.org