CORONATION 403
deacon steps out onto the middle loggia of St. Peter's, announces to the crowd that a Pope has been elected (habemus papam), and re- veals the name of the one chosen. Soon the Pontiff himself appears and extends to Catholic Christendom his first solemn blessing. Aftei the breach with the Quirinal, no Pope came out into the open until Pius XI broke with this custom.
Since Urban VI, only cardinals have been elected Popes; but there is no law which prevents any Catholic who is not a heretic, a schisma- tic, or a violator of the rules against simony, from becoming Pope even though he has not as yet received Orders. The coronation follows the election. The words which accompany the ceremony are: "Re- ceive the three-fold crown of the tiara, and know that thou art the father of princes and kings, the ruler of the round earth, and here below the viceroy of Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and gloiy for- ever. Amen." The day of coronation is the date from which the years of the Pope's reign are numbered; and in memory of this there is a religious celebration every year. The ceremony adds nothing, however, to the power and rights of the chosen Pontiff .
The Pope mounts a golden sedan, the sedia gesUtoria, which is borne by twelve servants clad in scarlet silk. A procession of the ut- most splendour conducts him from the Sixtine to St. Peter's for his Coronation Mass. There a master of ceremonier comes to meet him and says: "SanctePatei, sic transit gloria mundi" (Holy Father, so does the world's glory pass away) . Three times in succession a little flake of oakum is placed on the tip of a staff, lighted on a candle, and al- lowed to flicker away.
During the Mass the Pope receives the pallium, which symbolizes the fullness of pontifical authority, from the hands of the same senior cardinal-deacon who has crowned him. This insignia of apostolic simplicity is a strip of white wool cloth, no wider than a hand, on which six black crosses are embroidered. This is placed over the Pope's shoulders. Cloistered nuns have woven this from the wool of virginal lambs which are annually consecrated in the Church of St. Agnes Outside the Walls, on her feast day, and are then entrusted to the care of the nuns. These pallia are blessed, spread over the grave of St. Peter, and then placed in an urn beneath the Pope's altar. He may use them as need arises and may also give them to the most
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