Vicarius Filii Dei
Vicarius Filii Dei (Latin: Vicar or Representative of the Son of God) is a phrase first used in the forged medieval Donation of Constantine to refer to Saint Peter, who is regarded as the first Pope by the Catholic Church.
[1] The earliest known instance of the phrase Vicarius Filii Dei is in the Donation of Constantine, now dated between the eighth and the ninth centuries AD.
It et cuncto populo Romanae gloriae imperij subiacenti, ut sicut in terris vicarius filii Dei esse videtur constitutus etiam et pontifices[2][3]Johann Peter Kirsch states that "many of the recent critical students of the document [i.e. Donation of Constantine] locate its composition at Rome and attribute the forgery to an ecclesiastic, their chief argument being an intrinsic one: this false document was composed in favour of the popes and of the Holy Catholic Roman Church, therefore the Christ Church itself must have had the chief interest in a forgery executed for a purpose so clearly expressed".
Therefore it was highly important for him to establish the legitimacy of the newly founded empire, and this purpose was especially aided by all that the document alleges concerning the elevation of the pope.
[26] The acclaimed Cardinal Henry Edward Manning used an English equivalent "Vicar of the Son of God" to refer to the pope.
[27] In his "Vindication of the Popes against opponents of all kinds" Vindiciae Summorum Pontificum adversus omnis generis adversarios, Wilibald Heiss (1755) also used the title.
[28] Jesuit Vincent Houdry also used the title in his work Bibliotheca Concionatoria Complectens Panegyricas Orationes Sanctorum where he described the win of Innocent II over antipope Anaclectus II[29][30] In his Polyanthea Sacrorum, Giovanni Paolo Paravicini and also Laurentius Brancati in his Epitome Canonum Omnium, enumerated papal names or claims to authority and stated that the "Papa Est Vicarius Filii Dei Sicut Petris" "The Pope is Vicarius Filii Dei like Peter".
In his work Antichristus Romanus he took fifteen titles in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin and computed their numerical equivalents using the principle of Isopsephy 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, for the reason that it met "all the conditions which [Cardinal] Bellarmine[45] had thus far demanded.
[50] In November 1948, Le Roy Froom, a Seventh-day Adventist ministerial leader, editor of the church's Ministry, and a church historian, wrote an article to correct the mistaken use of some of the denomination's evangelists who continued to claim that the Latin words "Vicarius Filii Dei" were written on a papal tiara.
[53]Froom also stated in the 1948 article that at one point a prominent Adventist went to Rome to take some pictures of the papal tiaras, but "the photographs were without any wording of any sort on any one of the three crown, front or back."
"[53] It is worth noting however that the equivalent title "Vicarius Christi" is indeed known to be inscribed upon the Belgium Tiara given to Pope Pius IX on 18 June 1871 by the Ladies of the Royal Court of the King of the Belgians and designed by Jean Baptist Bethune of Ghent.
[42] Adventist Samuele Bacchiocchi responded to those claims, by pointing out that "interpreting 666 on the basis of the numerical values of the letters of names can give absurd results".
He also notes the Donation of Constantine was considered as true to the point "this forged document was used by 10 popes over a period of six centuries to assert, not only their ecclesiastical supremacy over all the churches, but also their political sovereignty over what became known the Papal States, which included most of Italy."
