Legends surrounding the papacy
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The
Vicarius Filii Dei
One misconception surrounding the papal tiara suggests that the words Vicarius Filii Dei (Latin for "Vicar of the Son of God") exist on the side of one of the tiaras.
The story centres on the widely made claim that, when
VICARIVS·FILII·DEI with the non-numeric letters removed gives: VICIVILIIDI = 5 + 1 + 100 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 50 + 1 + 1 + 500 + 1 = 666
This claim has been made by some Protestant sects who believe that the Pope, as head of the Roman Catholic Church, is the Beast or the
Further, Vicarius Filii Dei is not among the titles of the Pope; the closest match is Vicarius Christi ("Vicar of Christ", also rendered in English as "Vicar of Jesus Christ"), the numerical values of which do not add up to 666, but to 214.
Pope Joan
The claim that a woman, often called Pope Joan, became pope first appeared in a Dominican chronicle in 1250. It soon spread Europe-wide through preaching friars. The story grew in embellishment but centered on a set of claims.
The period for this claim is traditionally given as AD 855–858, between the reigns of Leo IV and Benedict III; however, this possibility is unlikely, because Leo IV died on 17 July 855 and Benedict III was elected as his successor on 29 September 855.
Jean de Mailly, a French Dominican at Metz, places the story in the year 1099, in his Chronica Universalis Mettensis, which dates from approximately 1250 and gives what is almost certainly the earliest account of the woman who became known as Pope Joan. His compatriot Stephen of Bourbon acknowledges this by placing her rule at approximately 1100. Also, Rosemary and Darrell Pardoe, authors of The Female Pope: The Mystery of Pope Joan. The First Complete Documentation of the Facts behind the Legend, is assuming that a more plausible time-frame would be 1086–1108, when there were a lot of antipopes, and the reign of the legitimate popes Victor III, Urban II, and Paschal II was not always established in Rome, since this city was occupied by Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and later sacked by the Normans.
Generally, there are two versions of the legend.
- In the first, an English woman, called Joan, went to Athens with her lover, and studied there.
- In the second, a German woman called Giliberta was born in Mainz.
"Joan" disguised herself as a monk, called Joannes Anglicus. In time, she rose to the highest office of the church, becoming a pope.
After two or five years of reign, "Pope Joan" became pregnant and, during an Easter procession, she gave birth to the child on the streets when she fell off a horse. She was publicly stoned to death by the astonished crowd, and according to the legend, removed from the Vatican archives.
As a consequence, certain traditions stated that popes throughout the
In a seventeenth-century study, Protestant historian David Blondel argued that 'Pope Joan' is a fictitious story. The story may well be a satire that came to be believed as reality. This view is generally accepted among historians.
Prophecy of the Popes
According to the Prophecy of the Popes, some interpretations hold that after Pope Benedict XVI, who abdicated on 28 February 2013,[2] there will be one pope left before the destruction of Rome. This individual is labeled by the prophecy as Petrus Romanus.
Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus
A series of manuscript prophecies concerning the Papacy.
Documents of Jesus Christ
It is sometimes claimed that there exists a collection of documents that directly refer to
However, there is no solid evidence for any of these claims; in history, only one document has ever been attributed to Jesus himself, the Letter of Christ and Abgarus.[3] Scholars generally believe that those letters were fabricated, probably in the 3rd century AD.[4] Even in ancient times,
Jewish legends
Jewish legends related to the papacy include the
See also
References
- ^ Histoire de naître. (2023). Retrieved 7 September 2023, from https://www.google.com/books/edition/Histoire_de_na%C3%AEtre/5aqgvIsStVsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA101&printsec=frontcover}
- ^ "Frail Pope Benedict to step down". BBC. 11 February 2013.
- ^ "Letters of Jesus and Abgar". www.pseudepigrapha.com.
- ^ Christie, Albany James (1867), "Abgarus", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, p. 2, archived from the original on 28 July 2005, retrieved 20 February 2008
- ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
- ^ Gantz, Nesanel (15 December 2013). "The Vatican and the Temple Vessels". aish.com. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
Further reading
- Eamon Duffy, Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes (Yale Nota Bene, 2001)
- Joseph McCabe, A History of the Popes, Watts & Co, (1939) London.
- Colin Morris, The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050–1250 (Cambridge, 1990)
- K. Morrison, Tradition and Authority in the Western Church 300–1140 (Princeton, 1969)