Having written yesterday a few thoughts about the Archbasilica and Palace of the Lateran I recalled I had links to two articles by Zachary Thomas from the Liturgical Arts Journal, and which had been previously published on Canticum Salamonis, about the ancient ceremonies connected with a newly-elected Pope taking possession of his cathedral church, whether he was crowned there or at St Peter’s, or indeed elsewhere. It became the custom for the Pope after his crowning at the Vatican to process across Rome to the Lateran to take charge of the Archbasilica. Today the modified ceremony usually takes place a day or two later than the Coronation or ‘Inauguration’ ( sic).
As ceremonies they might seem somewhat unusual to a modern eye. Not being an advocate of change in such matters that does not trouble me, but rather one sees their distinctive nature as an insight into the development of the Papacy in the first millennium.
The two articles are Papal Humiliations II: The Papal Sedia Stercoraria and Papal Humiliations III: The Cock of the Lateran.
The first article in the series dealt with the flax burning ceremony associated with the Pspal Coronation, which is not specifically linked to the Lateran.
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