# Will Pope Benedict XVI take the oath? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 23, 2005, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pope-benedict-xvi-take-the-oath/300814 "2005-04-23T23:21:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pope-benedict-xvi-take-the-oath/300814/1 "2005-04-23T23:21:01Z")
Is Pope Benedict XVI taking the [Papal oath](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_oath) during his installation? Every Pope from the 7th century untill John Paul I took it. Was it abolished along with the coronation? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pope-benedict-xvi-take-the-oath/300814/2 "2005-04-24T19:30:56Z")
Could we have a cite that such an oath exists? Popes have been building upon the traditions of the Church for as long as there has been a church: That is, in fact, one of the official purposes of the Pope. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pope-benedict-xvi-take-the-oath/300814/3 "2005-04-24T21:08:24Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Is Pope Benedict XVI taking the [Papal oath](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_oath) during his installation? Every Pope from the 7th century untill John Paul I took it. Was it abolished along with the coronation? WAG – I doubt it is the same as any of the Masonic oaths! ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pope-benedict-xvi-take-the-oath/300814/4 "2005-04-24T21:16:03Z")
Looks like an antipope of sorts, Pius XIII, has taken the oath. [http://www.truecatholic.org/pope/papaloath.htm](http://www.truecatholic.org/pope/papaloath.htm) ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pope-benedict-xvi-take-the-oath/300814/5 "2005-04-25T14:00:47Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Could we have a cite that such an oath exists? This [article](http://www.geocities.com/pelicanlara/answers/qa022003b.html) is sceptical. > [@](#): > > \*Some contemporary polemicists, trying to impugn the validity of Pope John Paul II’s papacy maintain that he was the first Pope to refuse the “papal coronation oath.” For a period of time following the condemnation of Pope Honorius I for monothelitism – “from the eighth century to the eleventh” – newly elected Popes were required to swear an oath prior to their consecration. The _Liber diurnus [one of the earliest formularies of the papal chancery] \* in which the oath was found, together with the oath itself, seem to have gone out of use at roughly the time Gregory VII became Pope. It is in this time period that Gregory and his successors assert their independence from the Imperial authorities and begin to wear crowns. Gregory’s appreciation of his papal dignity was quite incompatible with having to make promises to any lesser authority of Church or state. No trace of the oath is found in modern accounts of papal coronations, and an account written in 1955 categorically stated that in “the act of Coronation. [t]here are no oaths, no special liturgical ceremonies.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pope-benedict-xvi-take-the-oath/300814/6 "2005-04-25T14:06:46Z")
Wait, lemme guess - since JP2 didn’t take the oath, he was never officially pope and therefore titheing is unconstitutional! Similar arguments are used against income taxes. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-pope-benedict-xvi-take-the-oath/300814/7 "2005-04-25T15:38:20Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Wait, lemme guess - since JP2 didn’t take the oath, he was never officially pope and therefore titheing is unconstitutional! > > Similar arguments are used against income taxes. I hope this thread doesn’t go _there_ again. ☹