A TRIPLE CROWN

A MESSAGE FOR THE EPIPHANY

Three wise men followed a star and made their way to Bethlehem.  There, the three kings knelt before the newborn King of Kings, and each one gave him a gift—gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Pope St. Gregory the Great expounded on the symbolism of these gifts, and we are familiar with their imagery: “By the gifts which they presented unto him, the wise men set forth three things concerning him unto whom they offered them: by the gold, that he was King; by the frankincense, that he was God; and by the myrrh, that he was mortal man.”

Christ was born God and man.  But we must remember too that he was born a king—indeed, the King of Kings—so it was fitting that three kings should be present at his Nativity to kneel before him and do him homage.  Their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh not only show us the three aspects of royalty, divinity and humanity, but represent also the extent of the infant King’s authority over heaven as God, and over the earth as Man. The gifts of the three kings at Bethlehem can be seen, therefore, as the three crowns of Christ the King, and are the reason for the large number of images and statues that depict Christ the King wearing a triple tiara.

In these latter days, the enemies of the Church have intensified their attacks against Christ our King: “The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed” (Ps. 2). Since the French Revolution, they have attempted to substitute the triple masonic ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity in place of the triple crown of Christ the King.  Their undying opposition to the reign of Christ eventually reached within the very bosom of Holy Mother Church—at Vatican II, the Council Fathers adopted the triple motto of freemasonry, and placed it within thte Council documents, hiding liberty, equality and fraternity under the guise of religious liberty, collegiality and ecumenism.  Their efforts may seem clumsily self-evident , yet they were effective in changing the nature of the whole Church establishment.

As for the Lord’s anointed representative on earth, the alleged successor of Peter to whom Christ’s authority on earth was bestowed, Paul VI was the last to be crowned with the triple tiara, or any other crown.  Why was it so important to abolish this symbol of the papacy?  The triple crown symbolized the very attributes of the papacy that the modernists were so anxious to replace with their liberty, equality and fraternity.  At the moment of the pope’s coronation, the following words are solemnly pronounced in Latin: “Receive the tiara adorned with three crowns and know that thou art father of princes and kings, ruler of the world, vicar on earth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever.”  The royalty, humanity and divinity of Christ are all clearly referenced in this admonition, and the divine right of the Pope and his authority over all mankind are unambiguously described.  What horror and contempt the modernists must have had for a symbol that so perfectly encapsulated the opposite of what they sought. 

And so, after his own coronation, Paul VI symbolically ratified the three masonic ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity by abolishing the pope’s triple tiara.  It has not been used since.  There is no room from crowns in this brave new post-concilar and democratic world where all men are supposedly created forever equal. The papal tiara, the Triregnum, has been replaced with a simple miter, symbolizing the reduction of his role to that of “first among equals.”  Paul VI then proceeded to abolish the Holy Apostolic Mass.