FEATURE
Rome and royalty For centuries there was a close and obvious connection of the Papacy with Monarchy, as Charles A. Coulombe explains
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efore the ostentatious display of humility betokened by Paul VI’s donation of his tiara in 1964, and subsequent abolition of most of the hereditary offices of the Papal Court, the Noble and Palatine Guards, and the Vatican citizenship of the Black Nobility – whose ancestors had sacrificed their standing in society out of loyalty to the Holy See – there was a close and obvious connection of the Papacy with Monarchy. As Dom Gueranger’s treatment of Christmas points out, never was this clearer than in the traditional Papal Yuletide liturgy. He describes in detail an unusual – to us - occurrence at St Peter’s on Christmas Eve, just before Matins. “The Sovereign Pontiff, the Vicar of our Emmanuel, blesses, in his name, a Sword and Helmet, which are to be sent to some Catholic warrior who has deserved well of the Christian world. In a letter addressed to Queen Mary of England and to Philip, her husband, Cardinal Pole gives an explanation of this solemn rite. The sword is sent to some Prince, whom the Vicar of Christ wishes to honour in the name of Jesus, who is King: for the Angel said to Mary: The Lord will give unto him the Throne of David his father [St Luke 1:32]… because the Sword should not be drawn save in the cause of justice, it is for that reason that a Sword is blessed on this Night, in the midst of which rises, born unto us, the divine Sun of Justice. On the Helmet, which is both the ornament and protection of the head, there is worked, in pearls, the Dove, which is the emblem of the Holy Ghost; and this to teach him who wears it that it is not from passion or ambition that he must use his sword, but solely under the guidance of the divine Spirit, and from a motive of spreading the Kingdom of Christ.” This ceremony was apparently first performed in 1202, and last in 1877, when Bl Pius IX bestowed the sacramentals on General Kanzler, last commander of the Pontifical Zouaves. Interestingly, at least two swords given
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to Medieval Kings ended up as swords of state in the Crown Jewels of Scotland and Prussia. But if the Knight for whom these blessed tokens were blessed was in Rome that Christmas night, then he would be expected to take part in Matins as well: “At Rome, if there be in the Holy City the Knight, who has received the Helmet and Sword, – blessed, as we have described, by the Sovereign Pontiff – the fifth Lesson is given to him to sing, because it speaks of the great Battle, between Christ and Satan, in the glorious mystery of the Incarnation.”
‘There were many other bonds between Pope and Monarchs down through the centuries since Theodosius the Great made Baptism legal entrance into Roman citizenship as well as into the Church’ However, the valiant Knight was not the only personage who might show up for Christmas Matins. Dom Gueranger continues: “Th[e] seventh Lesson, according to the Ceremonial of the Roman Church, is to be sung by the Emperor, if he happen to be in Rome at the time; and this is done, in order to honour the Imperial power, whose decrees were the occasion of Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem, and so fulfilling the designs of God, which he had revealed to the ancient Prophets.
The Emperor is led to the Pope, in the same manner as the Knight who had to sing the fifth Lesson; he puts on the Cope; two Cardinal-Deacons gird him with the sword, and go with him to the Ambo. The Lesson being concluded, the Emperor again goes before the Pope, and kisses his foot, as being the Vicar of the Christ whom he has just announced. This ceremony was observed in 1468, by the Emperor Frederic III, before the then Pope, Paul II.” Of course, the Imperial and Papal offices were deeply entwined: not only had Pope St Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor on Christmas Day of 800, his predecessors had crowned both Justin II and Justinian while visiting Constantinople. Up to and including Charles V, although elected Kings of the Romans at Frankfurt and Crowned as such at Aix-la-Chapelle, to be more than “Emperor-Elect,” Charlemagne’s successor had to be crowned by the Pope at St Peter’s. Until 1955, the Roman Missal included stirring prayers for the Emperor on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and a set of propers for him at Mass. At his Roman coronation, the Emperor was enrolled among the canons of St Peters’. But such a canonry was a privilege he shared with some of the other Sovereigns of Europe: The King of France was made a canon of St John Lateran (a privilege inherited until this day by the presidents of that country) and the King of Spain one of St Mary Major. Until the Reformation, the Kings of England each became a monk of St Paul-Outside-the-Walls upon his accession; in return, the Abbot was always the prelate of the Order of the Garter. So it is that even to-day, the Abbey’s coat-of-arms features a leather belt around the sword shield with the French motto of the Order: Honi soit qui mal y pense. To be sure, the rite of Coronation – whether of the Emperor or the Several Kings – was held to confer a sort of semi-clerical status on the Monarch,
WINTER 2020
