THE POPES TRIPLE CROWN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9124, 4 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE POPES TRIPLE CROWN.

HOW THE RIBBONS, THE GOLD, AND THE PEARLS ARE GUARDED.

The Pope's do not always wear the threecrown tiara. At first they wore an ordinary mitre with one crown around it, and then a second was added to it, then a third, when it took the name of triregno (three kingdoms). This explains why sometimes the j simple mitre is used and sometimes called the triregno. We read of the form and splendour of the pontificial mitres in pontifical inventories. Some of them weighed as much as ten pounds, or even more. They were decorated with cameos and stones, inlaid with figures, rings, and other precious ornaments, fastened to the mitre like drooping pearls, crosses, and other kinds of jewels then known. In 1499 Eugene IV. had a mitre made in France by Lorenzo Ghiberti which weighed five pounds, of which four pounds were of precious pearls and gems, and cost over 40,900 gold ducats. It was the mitre which Eugene IV. afterward pledged to Florence for £10,000, which he gave to the Greeks, who intervened in the Council of Florence in 840. Till the end of the last century there were four precious mitres in existence —two made for Pius V. and Paul \., the latter of whom spent £14.000 on his mitre, and two were made for Paul \ 1. The two first were kept in Castle St. Angelo, and were taken out for great ceremonies.

When taken out they were guarded by the Pope's jeweller, and were accompanied by the same jeweller all through the processions and ceremonies of the day. Even when placed on the altar they were under the jeweller's custody. The other two mitres were kept in the pontifical sacristy. Pius Vi s. first mitre was made in 1780. It had a gold foundation, decorated with gold threads and pearls threaded with silver, also many precious stones of all kinds. At the back it was decorated with the pontifical arms. The ribbons were also covered with gold, pearls, and diamonds. The second mitre of the Pope was made in 17S1 and was decorated in the same manner, only in a different pattern, and the foundation was in silver, instead of gold. All these four mitres were broken up by Pius VI. in 1797, in order to pay the French what was stipulated in the peace of Tolentine. Not one of the mitres offered to Leo XIII. for his jubilee is of the value of either one of the above stated mitres. But even the present ones are valuable enough, especially for these days.