Bishop hat: Is it ordained by God or is it pagan worship? Part 1

[Dr. Arroyo Sanders, Prophet]

The mitre ( /ˈmaɪtər/; Greek: μίτρα, "headband" or "turban"), also spelled miter, is a type of headwear now known as the traditional, ceremonial head-dress of bishops and certain abbots in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as in the Anglican Communion, some Lutheran churches, and also bishops and certain other clergy in the Eastern Orthodox churches, Eastern Catholic Churches and the Oriental Orthodox Churches.

 

In the Catholic Church, the right to wear the mitre is confined by Canon law to bishops and to abbots, as it appears in the ceremony of consecration of a bishop and blessing of an abbot. Cardinals are now normally supposed to be bishops (since the time of Pope John XXIII), but even cardinals who are not bishops and who have been given special permission by the pope to decline consecration as bishops may wear the mitre. Other prelates have been granted the use of the mitre by special privilege, but this is no longer done, except in the case of an Ordinary of a Personal Ordinariate (even if he is a priest only). Former distinctions between "mitred abbots" and "non-mitred abbots" have been abolished.

 

Three types of mitres are worn by Roman Catholic clergy for different occasions:

 

1. The simplex ('simple', referring to the materials used) is made of undecorated white linen or silk and its white lappets traditionally end in red fringes. It is worn most notably at funerals, on Good Friday and by concelebrant bishops at a Mass. Cardinals in the presence of the Pope wear a mitre of white linen damask.
2. The pretiosa ('precious') is decorated with precious stones and gold and worn on Sundays and feast days. This type of mitre is rarely decorated with precious stones today, and the designs have become more varied, simple and original, often merely being in the liturgical colour of the day.
3. The auriphrygiata is of plain gold cloth or white silk with gold, silver or coloured embroidered bands; when seen today it is usually worn by bishops when they preside at the celebration of the sacraments.

But over the time, the shape of the mitre changed from its original shape into the form we have today! There is such difference between the mitre of the eleventh century and that of the twentieth that it is difficult to recognize the same ornamental head-covering in the two. In its earliest form the mitre was a simple cap of soft material, which ended above in a point, while around the lower edge there was generally, although not always, an ornamental band (circulus). It would also seem that lappets were not always attached to the back of the mitre. Towards 1100 the mitre began to have a curved shape above and to grow into a round cap. In many cases there soon appeared a depression in the upper part similar to the one which is made when a soft felt hat is pressed down on the head from the forehead to the back of the head. In handsome mitres an ornamental band passed from front to back across the indentation; this made more prominent the puffs in the upper part of the cap to the right and left sides of the head. This calotte-shaped mitre was used until late in the twelfth century; in some places until the last quarter of the century. From about 1125 a mitre of another form and somewhat different appearance is often found. In it the puffs on the sides had developed into horns (cornua) which ended each in a point and were stiffened with parchment or some other interlining. This mitre formed the transition to the third style of mitre which is essentially the one still used today: the third mitre is distinguished from its predecessor, not actually by its shape, but only by its position on the head. While retaining its form, the mitre was henceforth so placed upon the head that the cornua no longer arose above the temples but above the forehead and the back of the head. The lappets had naturally, to be fastened to the under edge below the horn at the back. The first example of such a mitre appeared towards 1150. Elaborate mitres of this kind had not only an ornamental band (circulus) on the lower edge, but a similar ornamental band (titulus) went vertically over the middle of the horns. In the fourteenth century this form of mitre began to be distorted in shape. Up to then the mitre had been somewhat broader than high when folded together, but from this period on it began, slowly indeed, but steadily, to increase in height until, in the seventeenth century, it grew into an actual tower. Another change, which, however, did not appear until the fifteenth century, was that the sides were no longer made vertical, but diagonal. In the sixteenth century it began to be customary to curve, more or less decidedly, the diagonal sides of the horns. The illustration gives a summary of the development of the shape of the mitre. It should, however, be said that the changes did not take place everywhere at the same time, nor did the mitre everywhere pass through all the shapes of the development. A large number of mitres of the later Middle Ages have been preserved, but they all belong to the third form of mitre. Many have very costly ornamentation. For even in medieval times it, was a favourite custom to ornament especially the mitre with embroidery, rich bands (aurifrisia), pearls, precious stones, small ornamental disks of the precious metals; and even to use painting. Besides several hundred large and small pearls, a mitre of the late Middle Ages in St. Peter's at Salsburg is also ornamented with about five hundred more or less costly precious stones; it weighs over five and a half pounds. Similar mitres are also mentioned in the inventory of 1295 of Boniface VIII. Eight medieval mitres are preserved in the cathedral of Halberstadt. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the mitre was ornamented with rich, heavy embroidery in gold, which gave it a still more imposing appearance. A mitre of the eighteenth century preserved in the cathedral treasury at Limburg-on-the-Lahn is remarkable for the large number of precious stones that adorn it. The original material of the mitre appears to have been white linen alone, but as early as the thirteenth century (with the exception of course of the simple mitre) it was generally made of silk or ornamented with silk embroidery.

 

 

So where does this new shape come from and is it of God to wear such a thing? We already know that it was the Roman Catholic church that changed alot by adding and taking away from things of God. So lets look deeper into this.

a pagan priest wearing a sun-fish, the head with open mouth worn as a mitre and the rest of the fish forming a cloak. These are both illustrations of Dagon, which was the God of Babylon and Philistia and is mentioned several times in scripture in Judges 16:23, 1 Samuel 5:2-7, and 1 Chronicles 1:10. In Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, this is the definition for Dagon:

 

In the following scriptures, (Joshua 15:41; Joshua 19:27; Judges 16:23; 1 Samuel 5:2-7; 1 Chronicles 10:10) we find a pagan god that was worshiped by the name of Dagon aka the fish god. He was the chief god over the Philistines; originally worshiped by the Canaanite's before the Philistine invasion of Canaan. 

 

Dagon, the fish-god, represented that deity as a manifestation of the same patriarch who had lived so long in the waters of the deluge. As the Pope bears the key of Janus, so he wears the mitre of Dagon. The excavations of Nineveh have put this beyond all possibility of doubt. The Papal mitre is entirely different from the mitre of Aaron and the Jewish high priests. That mitre was a turban.

The two-horned mitre, which the Pope wears, when he sits on the high altar at Rome and receives the adoration of

the Cardinals, is the very mitre worn by Dagon, the fish-god of the Philistines and Babylonians. There were two ways in which Dagon was anciently represented. The one was when he was depicted as half-man half-fish; the upper part being entirely human, the under part ending in the tail of a fish. The other was, when, to use the words of Layard, "the head of the fish formed a mitre above that of the man, while its scaly, fan-like tail fell as a cloak behind, leaving the human limbs and feet exposed." Of Dagon in this form Layard gives a representation in his last work; and no one who examines his mitre, and compares it with the Pope's as given in Elliot's Horoe, can doubt for a moment that from that, and no other source, has the pontifical mitre been derived. The gaping jaws of the fish surmounting the head of the man at Nineveh are the unmistakable counterpart of the horns of the Pope's mitre at Rome.  Thus was it in the East, at least five hundred years before the Christian era. The same seems to have been the case also in Egypt; for Wilkinson, speaking of a fish of the species of Siluris, says "that one of the Genii of the Egyptian Pantheon appears under a human form, with the head of this fish." In the West, at a later period, we have evidence that the Pagans had detached the fish-head mitre from the body of the fish, and used that mitre alone to adorn the head of the great Mediatorial god; for on several Maltese Pagan coins that god, with the well-known attributes of Osiris, is represented with nothing of the fish save the mitre on his head; (Fig 49) very nearly in the same form as the mitre of the Pope, or of a Papal bishop at this day.

 

"The great apostate church of the Gospel Age, true to its Babylonish origin, has actually adopted this fish god in its ritual; for the pope on certain occasions manifests by his head gear that he is the direct representative of Dagon. As it was an indispensable rule inall idolatrous religions that the high priest should wear the insignia of the god that he 

worshipped, so the sculptures discovered by Layard show that the priests of Dagon were arrayed in clothing resembling fish. This is probably the "strange apparel" referred to in Zeph. 1:8. Berosus tells us that in the image of Dagon the head of the man appeared under the head of the fish, while Layard points out that in the case of the priests "the head of the fish formed a mitre above that of the man, while its scaly, fan-like tail fell as a cloak behind, leaving the human limbs and feet exposed." (Babylon and Nineveh, p. 343) 

 

 "In the ancient legends of the Babylonians there was "Oannes" called "Lord of the Waves". He was amphibious, having the torso and head of a man but upon his head was the head of a fish - with gaping mouth and draping downward

were the back of the fish, complete with scales  and tail.  The Sumerians called him "EA" and  like Oannes - he was half fish and half man. He was called the great Fish of heaven.  The Philistines called him "DAGON", the fish god

that is also mentioned in the Bible." (-OANNES; part II Vladimir Pakhomov taken from a history of Mesopotamia

Written in the 3rd Century BC by Berossus; A Babylonian Priest.)

 

 

 

 

 

the fish-head mitre worn by the ranking clergy of the Catholic Church, in this case Pope John Paul II. As can be seen, it is derived directly from the mitres of the ancient pagan fish-god Dagon, and the goddess Cybele. The papal mitre represents the head of Dagon with an open mouth, which is the reason for the pointed shape and split top.

a photo from early in the papacy of John Paul II, and the symbol of Baal / Shamash appears on the front of his fish head shaped mitre. Note also the small black cross on his shoulder (compare below), on what is called a Pallium: The modern pallium is a circular band about two inches wide, worn about the neck, breast, and shoulders, and having two pendants, one hanging down in front and one behind. ... The ornamentation of the pallium consists of six small black crosses -- one each on the breast and back, one on each shoulder, and one on each pendant. Note the similarity in theme of the symbol on the front of John Paul's mitre, here a sun wheel, and that of Cybele's mitre above, symbolic of the pagan sun god. (See LA VERITA - THE TRUTH at http://biblelight.net/verita.htm)

Note the mitre on the head of this drawing of the goddess Cybele and the striking similarity to the fish head of Dagon. Cybele was worshipped in Rome and was also called the "Magna Mater", or the great queen mother goddess, which evolved into Catholic Mariology. The priesthood of Cybele was composed of castrated males, which parallels the celibate priesthood of Catholicism. The basilica of Saint Peter's, according to some, stands upon the former site of Cybele's main temple in Rome. The ruins of another temple to Cybele / Magna Mater can still be seen today in Rome on Palatine hill.

a Neo-Assyrian standing stone (stele/stela) dating from about 824-811 B.C., which depicts King Shamshi-Adad V. In particular, note the necklace the King is wearing. On it is what is called a Cross Pattée or Cross Formée. Twenty-eight hundred years ago that shape was symbolic of pagan sun worship

The Pope wears a similar symbol around his neck, on the Pallium, which the Pope also confers on selected bishops as an ornamental token of his favor, and it is also worn by archbishops and patriarchs as a symbol of their authority as a metropolitan, derived from unity with the Pope. Note also, that beneath John Paul's Pallium there is an "x" / diagonal cross, which mimics the diagonal bands below the Cross Pattée worn by the pagan king. The Pope also has a ring and staff of authority, remarkably similar to the depiction of the sun god Shamash on the Babylonian tablet shown previously.

"The two-horned mitre, which the Pope wears, when he sits on the high altar at Rome and receives the adoration of the Cardinals, is the very mitre worn by the priests of Dagon, the fish-god of the Philistines and Babylonians." - The Two Babylons ; Alexander Hislop; p. 215

DAGON or OANNES - "He would go back into the sea to spend the night, because he was amphibious. He had the head of a man; covered by the head of a fish, and had the legs and feet of a man and the torso of a man, but was covered by the scales and tail of a fish. " -Berossus; from ancient fragments (Isaac Preston Cory)

he sunburst image on the underside of the canopy of Bernini's Baldacchino, the large canopy-like monument in St. Peter's Cathedral, directly over the main altar of St. Peter's, and the alleged tomb of St. Peter. The dove in front of the sunburst is supposed to be symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Note the shape of the sun rays. They are essentially identical to that of the pagan sun symbol worn by Assyrian kings over 800 years before the time of Christ.

Bernini also put pagan sun images on the top of each of the columns of his Baldacchino, which stands above the altar of St. Peter's. (The sun image and 3 bumble bees are symbolic of the Barberini family and Pope Urban VIII).

the same image as found in Bernini's La Verita and Baldacchino, but this is the face of the pagan Greek sun god Apollo, on the temple of Apollo, in the Pergamon museum in Berlin!

a stone laver from Assyria which is now in the Pergamum Museum in Berlin. Carved on its sides are depictions of pagan priests that appear to be half sun-fish and half man, that are sprinkling holy water.

Pope Benedict XVI Joseph Alios Ratzinger Supreme Pontiff. the symbol is a 'Ratzinger mitre hexagram