The Supreme Pontifff of the Roman Catholic Church has held both spiritual and temporal powers almost since the legalization of the Church. In those days there was no such a thing as the separation of church and state, and bishops often exercised many powers of government, especially judicial powers, where earthly princes either lacked leadership or were absent altogether. After the legazation of Christianity by the emperor Constantine I, the church was allowed to hold private property as did all other law-abiding citizens. It was common - then, just as today - for religious and pious members of the church to bequeath their property to the church when they died, particularly if they had no heirs. As princes and kings also bequethed their land, even their kingdoms, to the church, it did not take long before the church had amassed large tracts of land. And, as many of these tracts of land were actually principalities, duchies, and counties, it was up to the church - and its Supreme Pontiff - to administer the affairs of state. Thus, the bishop of Rome, spiritual leader of the Christian Church also became a prince in his own right, exercising both spiritual and temporal authority. At the height of the pope's temporal authority, he ruled over much of Italy from Naples and Rome up to Ravenna, Bologna and the outskirts of Venice. The popes temporal authority over these states waxed and waned several times over the next millennia. However, it came to an end with the unification of Italy in 1871. During the reign of Pople Pius IX, the papal states became part of the new Italian kingdom and passed into the secular administration King Victor Emmanuel II.
This created a problem for the Church, however. Over the years, the Church had come to view the pope's temporal authority as an extension of his pastoral authority over the Italian Church. It must be remembered that the Pope is not only the Supreme Pontiff of the entire Roman Catholic Church, but he is also the bishop of Rome, the archbishop of metroplitan of the Roman Province (consisting of much of central Italy), and the Primate of Italy (consisting of the entire church inside of Italy). The popes had come to be used to using temporal powers as a means of administering pastoral care to church in Italy. In addition, as the Supreme Pontiff of the entire church throughout the world, the pope required a legal instrument through which he could exercise papal authority over dioceses in foreign lands. Before he was stripped of his temporal powers, the solution was easy. As a legal head of state, he possessed diplomatic authority and credentials giving him the power to send legates into foreign lands to represent him to the churches there. Without temporal authoirty, it was not so easy to claim such diplomatic authority. The solution came in 1929 when Pope Pius XI and King Victor Emmanuel III (represented by Prime Minister Bonito Mussolini) since three pacts that are collectively referred to as the Lateran Treaty. By this treaty, a small, independent enclave was created out of property immediately situated around St. Peter's Basilica atop the Vatican Hill. As the Vatican is the seat of the pope's authority globallys as the Pontiff, this new state - the State of the Vatican City - created for the pope and independent and sovereign state through which the pople could be given the temporal authorities required to allow him to send diplomats into the world. The pope uses this last vestige of temporal power, therefore, not only as a means of exercising his pastoral authority over the Roman Catholic Church but also to use official diplomatic channels to exert pressure on the world's governments to conform to the moral and social teachings of the Church.
The flag of the Vatican City is completely symbolic of the pope's claim to both spiritual and temporal authority. One of the pope's many titles is "Successor of St. Peter," the chief apostle to whom it is said that Christ gave the keys to the kingdom of heaven. (See Matthew 16:19) The keys that are seen in the coat-of-arms of the Vatican represent these keys. One keys is silver while the other is gold. The gold key represent the pope's spiritual authority while the silver key represents his temporal authority. The large crown situated over the keys is called the Papal Tiara and is also a symbol of the pope's temporal power. (It is this temporal symbolism that has led the last three pope to abandon the tiara as part of the official papal regalia.) On the flag itself, the colors of yellow and gold further represent spiritual and temporal authority. In heraldry, silver is translated into white and gold is translated into yellow. Therefore the yellow bar represents the pope's spiritual authority and the white bar represents his temporal authority. The flag is almost always (though not officially) proportioned at 1:1. This makes the Vatican flag one of only two soverieign states that possess a square flag, the other being Switzerland. However, the proportions of the Swiss flag are official while the Vatican flag is not. It may, in some cases, particualrly when it is displayed from Vatican administration offices, be proportioned as 3:4.
The current version of the Vatican flag has existed since 1825. Prior to that date, the Vatican flag was a banner of red and gold (sometimes purple and gold). When Napoleon entered the poltical scene in Italy following his invasion of the Italian peninsula, he impressed the pope's army into his service. They entered the service of the French carrying this red and gold flag. The pope at the time, Pius VII, felt that the Vatican flag had, therefore, been usurped by Napoleon and a new flag was required. As a result, the gold and white flag was created in 1808 and the arms consisting of the papal keys and tiara were added in 1825. It continued from this date as the flag of the Papal States until the papacy was divested of all lands and temporal authoirty at the unification of the Italian nation. It was used unofficially as a symbol of the pope's authority in general until the Lateran Treated created the Vatican City. At this time, the flag was once again given offiical status as the flag of a sovereign state.
Interestingly, the gold and white flag breaks a cardinal rule of heraldry, of which vexillology is a related discipline subject to many of the same laws. This law is known as the Rule of Tincture and dictates that colors representing metals (in this case gold and silver) are never displayed side by side on the same field. Therefore, the Vatican flag, though it has withstood the test of time, is technically an incorrect flag. However, there appears to be no movement to change or correct the mistake. |
