PAPAL CAVALCADE. - This was the general name for the cavalcade that accompanied the Pope when he moved from his ordinary residence to go to the various places in the city or when he was preparing for a journey. This journey, when it did not take place in an absolutely private form, was carried out with greater or lesser solemnity according to the circumstances. Until the middle of the 16th century and in part even later, such movements were made on horseback; and the cardinals, the household members and every other dignitary who accompanied the Pope also proceeded on horseback. When the coach came into common use and ceased to be a novelty, two cardinals usually accompanied the Pope on his departure, with the service carriages and the household members on horseback proceeding according to a new ceremonial which, following the customs of the time, was lavish and solemn.
Particular solemnity was assumed by the cavalcades that took place when the Pope went to the basilicas and churches of Rome on particular days, for the annual chapels or for some extraordinary visit, and the procession was regulated according to the importance of the occasion; but none reached the splendor of the one that took place when the Pope moved from the Vatican to take possession, after his election, of the Lateran basilica, which was his cathedral church.
When the Pope's ordinary and habitual residence was in the Lateran palace, the taking possession of the basilica was nothing but an immediate consequence for the Pope of the election or of the entry into the palace. When, on the other hand, after the return from Avignon, the Pope took up his habitual residence at the Vatican, on the very day he was crowned he set out from there with the precious triregnum on his head, with a procession that became ever longer and more complicated: indeed, the city bodies and representatives, the militias present in Rome with the palace guards, the entire prelature and the Sacred College with their retinue on horseback took part in it. After crossing Borgo, the procession passed over the Ponte Sant'Angelo, where the Pope received the homage of the Jews, proceeded through Parione following the via papale richly carpeted, crossed the Forum, and along the via di S. Giovanni accompanied the Pope as far as the Basilica, where the ceremonies of the taking of possession were carried out. Along the route there was no lack of triumphal arches with inscriptions, and as a sign of liberality money was thrown to the people. Detailed descriptions of such processions exist, as well as copper engravings that depict them.
The splendor of the cardinals' processions was related to the wealth and power of each of them, particularly when they belonged to the Pope's kin, or were of princely origin, or represented princes and sovereigns in the Curia. Besides the cavalcades that took place at the moment of their election and of their access to the public Consistory to receive the hat, particular solemnity was acquired by the cavalcade that accompanied the cardinal legate when, having taken the cardinalitial cross in the Consistory, he set out toward the country of his destination, accompanied as far as outside the gate by his colleagues and their households, or when, on his return to the Curia, he was accompanied from outside the gate to the Consistory, where he gave the public report of his legation.
When a sovereign or an illustrious prince or a solemn embassy approached the city, it was the duty of the cardinals to go out to meet them as far as the gates with their households on horseback, in order to give solemnity to that entry. Individual cardinals did the same on their own initiative at the arrival and departure of some particularly friendly colleague, of some ambassador, especially if from their own country, or of another illustrious personage; when they did not take part personally in the cavalcade, they sent their household members with caparisoned mules as a sign of honor.
There were then other solemn cavalcades, such as that of the auditors of the Rota on the day when, accompanied by all the curials, they inaugurated the juridical year, or those in which the major pontifical officials performed special solemn acts inherent to their office. - See Pl. LXVIII.
Bibliography4 works
Guglielmo Felici