Understanding vicarius filii dei (Part 3) Sources in 1600 for Andreas Helwig of Vicarius filii dei

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

13 June 2011

It was Andreas Helwig (1600; 1612; 1630) who first applied the Latin numerals to the title of the pope, vicarius filii dei. What is a surprise, and we will get to it later, is LeRoy Froom's misunderstanding of Andreas Helwig as to the origin of this connection. Froom thought that Helwig was the one who invented not only the connection of Latin numerals to the title, but the title as well. In order to explain Froom's misperception and Bacchiocchi's endorsement of this misperception, we need to cite the originals of Helwig in the relevant paragraph, the European translation that Froom used and the current re-translation of it from the Latin to English in Holland.

Froom thought that Helwig said he invented a title that never existed. De Kock 2010 clearly shows that the title was commonly used, as Helwig said in his last edition (1630) which was not available for LeRoy Froom. The presentation of these paragraphs will be dealt in a different part.

What is to follow is the demonstration that vicarius filii dei was actually in a false fabricated document, from the year 715, which included vicarius filii dei. Then in 1140 the Decretum Gratiani included this Donation of Constantine which included the title vicarius filii dei. It was printed in 1500 and in 1586 the Decretum Gratiani was included in the Corpus Iuris Canonici which became the Canon Law of the Catholic church or the nexus of it. It included the Donation of Constantine which included vicarius filii dei. This document was reprinted until 1917 when a new law the Codex Iuris Canonici replaced it and the Decretum Gratiani with the Donation of Constantine and vicarius filii dei were all omitted.

Andreas Helwig was a Latin, Hebrew and Greek teacher for more than two decades. He wrote a Greek etymological Dictionary. He was between 1611-1614 the Rector of Berlin, 1614-1616 a Poetry Professor at Rostock, 1617-1618 Rector of Stralsund Gymnasium.

Froom thought that vicarius christi was the real title of the pope but that Helwig invented vicarius filii dei as a title that actually never existed before. Clearly a mistake in perception on the part of Froom partly due to a limitation of the sources he used.