of clergy of all ranks, the Pope is borne in procession up to the balcony overlooking the piazza of St. Peter, where, in presence of the assembled people, the mitre having been first removed, there is placed on his head the renowned triregnum by the second senior Cardinal Deacon, who pronounces the words 'Accipe tiaram tribus coronis ornatam et scias te esse patrem principum et regum, rectorem orbis, in terrâ vicarium Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi, cui est honos et gloria in sæcula sæculorum.' And with this ends the coronation, after the giving of the benediction, which always follows every Papal appearance in public.[1] The other ceremony is the taking possession by the new Pope of the Lateran Basilica, the Metropolitan Church not merely of Rome,
- ↑ A widely accredited error is that the benediction by the Pope from the balcony of St. Peter at Easter is given urbi et orbi. The phrase does not occur in the ritual, and has no authority whatever. Another popular error, to be found especially in the travels of the last century, is that at the coronation service there is chanted an anthem with the words 'Non videbis annos Petri.' A curious and little known form was, however, observed on that day until very recent times. When the Pope rose in the morning a bronze cock was carried to him in procession, to call to his mind, at that solemn moment of elevation, the frailty of which Peter was guilty, and to which human nature is exposed.
