Revelation Chapter 13
VERSE 18 continued “Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”
The tiara, in ecclesiastical usage, is the triple crown of the pope. It is a beehive-shaped, somewhat bulging, approximately 15-inch-high headpiece preferentially made of either silver or gold cloth encircled by three coronets, with a mound and cross of gold on top and two loose pendants or streamers hanging from the back.
“Tiaras of Renaissance popes were especially ornate and precious, but tiaras of some popes contained no precious stones.” 54 “From the 14th century the popes have worn the triple crown. The three tiers of the tiara, richly ornamented with precious stones, indicated the power of the pope 1) over heaven by his canonizing [saints], 2) over purgatory by his granting of indulgences, and 3) over the earth by his pronouncing anathemas.” 55
Previously the false successors of the apostles were satisfied with a simple episcopal miter, a sort of high cap of white material, helmet-shaped, used in liturgical functions such as public worship. In the development of the tiara, five periods can be distinguished: (1) the white conical Phrygian cap from the eighth century with its decorative edge not yet intended as a crown; (2) the more obvious royal circlet from the ninth century (Nicholas I being the first crowned pope according to Liber pontificalis); 56 (3) the spiked crown evidently of Frankish origin when the House of Theophylact controlled the Church of Rome for nearly sixty years in the tenth century; (4) the double crown set upon the head of Nicholas II at the Lateran Council of A.D. 1059 57 and later the double crown, indicated by Hefele, from old representations of Innocent III (1198–1216); and (5) the earliest monumental representation of the triple crown, which was found in an effigy of Benedict XII (1334–1342), 58
And of course, the third crown, as illustrated in the photos above, added by Urban V (1362–1370). 59
Moreover, E. B. Elliott states that, according to Irenochoraeus (Fleming’s Editor, 1793 edition, page 138), the title “Vicarius Filii Dei” was inscribed over the door of the Vatican by one of the popes. 60
For these reasons the Latinized version of the mysterious cabalistic (Kabbala) number 666 is most favored as the one intended in Holy Writ. But others feel that since the Apocalypse was originally written in Greek, the mystery should be resolved in that language. Accordingly, the following alternate title, based upon uncial Aeolian Greek (Latin is of that origin), and bearing some credibility, is given for the Italian Church, that is, the Roman Church.
I = 10
T = 300
A = 1
L = 30
I = 10
K = 20
A = 1
E = 5
K = 20
K = 20
L = 30
H = 8
S = 200
I = 10
A = 1
Total = 666, the number of the Man of Sin
This view was sponsored by one named Pareus, who tried the substitution of every other conceivable national Church instead of Italika—Greek, Nestorian, Eutychian, Jacobite, Abyssinian, Armenian, English, Lutheran, Swedish, etc.—but no other Church answered. 61
Of course, our Catholic friends are in complete denial that the description Vicarius Filii Dei was ever inscribed on the Tiara worn by the Pope, any Pope for that matter, of course these are the same individuals who deny that the Papacy is the Antichrist even though it fits all the requirements as outlined in the Scriptures. This accusation so troubled them that they had to counter the evidence against them (as well as that of the testimony of the Reformers) by coming up with a counter version of who the Antichrist is in order to deflect attention from themselves.
As to whether or not the title Vicarius Filii Dei was ever inscribed on the Tiara is mute as the term has still been ascribed to the Popes. Its not where this title is found that is of importance, it’s to whom it is ascribed to that is relevant.
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54. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed., Micropaedia Vol. 9, s.v. “Tiara.”
55. Professor Kurtz, Church History, trans. John MacPherson, Vol. 2 of 3 (New York: Funk and Wagnalls Co., n.d.), p. 155.
56. Ibid., p. 58.
57. Ibid.
58. Collier’s Encyclopedia (New York: Macmillan Educational Co., 1981), s.v. “Tiara.”
59. Chambers, Chambers’s Encyclopaedia (1892), Vol. 10, s.v. “Tiara.”
60. E. B. Elliott, Horae Apocalypticae, 4th ed. (London: Seeleys, 1851), Vol. 3, p. 255.
61. Ibid., p. 254.
Continued with next post.
