It constituted the symbol of the pope’s spiritual and temporal power (signum regiminis et coercitionis, Ordo Romanus, XIV, cap. 44; PL 78, 1143). It was delivered to him together with the keys when, after his coronation and taking possession of the Basilica of St John Lateran, he went to the church of St Sylvester. It resembled the scepters of unequal length which the popes used after the so‑called Donation of Constantine.
At present it is a staff surmounted by a cross with equal arms, which the pope uses chiefly in the ceremony of opening and closing the Holy Door.