Vicarius Filii Dei - Protestant View

Protestant View

The conviction that the Pope is the Antichrist was once a common belief among Protestants. Some mainstream Protestant denominations have since rejected this teaching, but it is still part of the confession of faith of some Protestant churches, such as those within Confessional Lutheranism. Some Protestant groups controversially identify the Roman Papacy with the "number of the beast" (666) from the book of Revelation.

The earliest extant record of a Protestant writer on this subject and addressing the phrase Vicarius Filii Dei is Andreas Helwig in 1612. In his work Antichristus Romanus he took fifteen titles in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin and computed their numerical equivalents in those languages, arriving at the number 666 mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Out of all these titles, he preferred to single out Vicarius Filii Dei, used in the Donation of Constantine, for the reason that it met "all the conditions which Bellarmine had thus far demanded." Besides being in Latin, the title was "not offensive or vile," but rather was "honorable to this very one." (The sum works as follows: VICARIVS FILII DEI = 5+1+100+1+5+1+50+1+1+500+1 = 666, where 'U' is taken as 'V', see U for interchangeability reasoning).

Helwig suggested that the supposed title was an expansion of the historical title Vicarius Christi, rather than an official title used by the Popes themselves. His interpretation did not become common until about the time of the French Revolution. Some later Protestant figures claimed that Vicarius Filii Dei was an official title of the Pope, with some saying that this title appeared on the papal tiara and/or a mitre.