Perth Amboy evening news., 1903-12-04
II r IIAkAo.
Historic Headpieces of h POpes
Have Been Very Expensive
Articles of Adornment.

-
The vicissitudes Of the papal tiaras
have been remarkable, says the Pail
Nall Gazette. Take the case of the first,
hat Of ST. Sylvester. Clement V. had
hat brought out of the sacrarium at the
Lateran to Avignon. 1t served the uses
Of SOM of the popes there. Gregory
XII. took it back to Rome. The French
cardinals who elected Clement VII. in
opposition to Urban VI, carried it back
10 France. Benedict XIII. took it with
him to Spain. 1t was restored 10 the
l%ateran; and, somewhere about 1854, it
was stolen. So it disappears from his
tory.
Meanwhile Martinus ", the elect Of
The council of Constance, in 1417, had
rupplied himself with a new tiara,
which also disappeared. His successor,
! Eugenius ", replaced ii. But he had
10 pledge his tiara for the 10000 crowns
that were required to pay the expenses
Of the council OF Florence and the en-
t~ertainment of the oriental bishops.
He got back, indeed, an Avignon tiara;
and Calixtus III. sold the stones out
Of 1t to provide the sinews for the holy
war against the infdel. Thus ~despoiled,
this tiara vas not good enough for the
fastidious Venetian who was Paul II.
He spent something like SOC, 600 crowns
upon his headgear, and Sixtus ". and
Innocent VIII. botk found it useful for
their respective requirements.
Tiaras were portable securities.
Agostino Chigi, the banker, lent Julius
IL. q very substantial sum on his, and
the conclave of 1855, which elected Paul
", sold a stock tiara out and out. The
stock, notwithstanding, seems to have
been considerable. Clement VII. before
the sack of Rome in 1927, kept Benyenu-
to Celliri busy breaking up the contents
of the sacrarium as a precautionary
measure. Yet Plus VI. found half q
dozen tiaras still remaining and spent
a million crowns upon their moderniza-
ton. A few years later the treaty of
Tolentino had deprived him Of them all.
Bonaparte had agreed to accept a
part of the 10000, 900 francs which he
had imposed as a war contribution in
valuable property of this kind. By
and by. on May IA, 1897, he was COM
planning to the directory that he had
got too much of its, 900 goo in pre-
cious stones, and not a sou Of ready
money for his army. His holiness was
Obliged to buy back some of his prop
orty for cash down. A loan was raised
from certain bankers at Geneva. The
directory got wind of this and simpli-
fed the proceedings by annexing the
loan right away.
The holy see temporarily recovered
q portion of it's effects in 1905. Out OF
the tiaras that went to Tclentino the
emperor had one made for Plus VII.
to crown him in. But when that I'M
fortunate pontiff was arrested and i'm
prisoned his tiara was promptly taken
away from him and relegated to the
imperial treasury. 1t did not get to
Rome till 1915. When it was made the
pope had been reduced to the neces-
sity of wearing a tiara Of covered card
board, set with imitation gems. 1t was,
at any rate, light and easy to wear and
as such commended itself to his sue
cessors or occasions of minor impor-
lance. Gregory XVI. replaced it by
something less theatrical and more
artistic and Pho Mono by something
quite as light and more imposing. In
1855, however, Queen Isabella Of
Spain presented him with a magnih-
cent tiara in diamonds. And in 1888
when the late pope celebrated his
sacerdotal jubilee, the faithful of Paris
made him an offering of a chef d'oeuvre
of Froment-Meurice, in the shape OF
a triregno, which has now become his
toric.