Origins and Uses of The Phrase
The earliest known instance of the phrase Vicarius Filii Dei is in the Donation of Constantine, now dated between the eighth and the ninth centuries AD.
It et cuncto populo Romanae gloriae imperij subiacenti, ut sicut in terris vicarius filii Dei esse videtur constitutus etiam et pontifices, ...
The Catholic Encyclopedia states that "many of the recent critical students of the document, locate its composition at Rome and attribute the forgery to an ecclesiastic, their chief argument being an intrinsic one: this false document was composed in favour of the popes and of the Roman Church, therefore Rome itself must have had the chief interest in a forgery executed for a purpose so clearly expressed".
However, it goes on to state, "Grauert, for whom the forger is a Frankish subject, shares the view of Hergenröther, i.e. the forger had in mind a defence of the new Western Empire from the attacks of the Byzantines. Therefore it was highly important for him to establish the legitimacy of the newly founded empire, and this purpose was especially aided by all that the document alleges concerning the elevation of the pope.
The phrase later appeared in the Corpus Iuris Canonici, officially sanctioned in 1580, quoting the Donation of Constantine.
... ut sicut B. Petrus in terris uicarius Filii Dei esse uidetur constitutus, ita et Pontifices, ...
Gratian excluded it from his "Decretum". Later it was added as "Palea". It was also included in some collections of Greek canons. As a forgery it currently carries no dogmatic or canonical authority, although it was previously used as such for hundreds of years in the past.
The title "Vicarius Filii Dei" appeared again in Our Sunday Visitor, a Catholic journal. An article in the April 18, 1915 issue of 'Our Sunday Visitor' had the following question and answer:
- What are the letters on the Pope’s crown and what do they signify if anything?
- The letters on the Pope's mitre are these: Vicarius Filii Dei, which is a Latin for Vicar of the Son of God.
The writer of the 1914 and 1915 articles later withdrew his statements. A rebuttal was mentioned in a 1922 edition of the journal:
The Pope claims to be the vicar of the Son of God, while the Latin words for this designation are not inscribed, as anti-Catholics maintain, on the Pope's tiara.
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