Papal coats of arms

Papal coats of arms are the personal coat of arms of popes of the Catholic Church. These have been a tradition since the Late Middle Ages, and has displayed his own, initially that of his family, and thus not unique to himself alone, but in some cases composed by him with symbols referring to his past or his aspirations. This personal coat of arms coexists with that of the Holy See.
Although Boniface VIII, Eugene IV, Adrian VI and a few others used no crest above their escutcheon, from John XXII onward the papal tiara began to appear and, from the time of Nicholas V's successor, Callistus III, the tiara combined with the keys of Peter.
Even before the early modern period, a man who did not have a family coat of arms would assume one upon becoming a bishop, as men did when knighted or on achieving some other prominence. Some who already had an episcopal coat of arms altered it on being elected to the papal throne. The last pope who was elected without already being a bishop was Gregory XVI in 1831 and the last who was not even a priest when elected was Leo X in 1513.
In the 16th and 17th century, heraldists also made up coats of arms for earlier popes, especially of the 11th and 12th centuries. This became more restrained by the end of the 17th century.

External ornaments

Papal coats of arms are traditionally shown with an image of the papal tiara and the keys of Peter as an external ornament of the escutcheon. The tiara is usually set above the escutcheon, while the keys are in saltire, passing behind it. In modern times, the dexter and sinister keys are usually shown in gold and silver, respectively. The first depiction of a tiara, still with a single coronet, in connection with papal arms, is on the tomb of Boniface VIII in the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran. Benedict XVI, in 2005, deviated from tradition in replacing the tiara with the mitre and pallium.
The two keys have been given the interpretation of representing the power to bind and to loose on earth and in heaven, in reference to :
The gold key signifies that the power reaches to heaven and the silver key that it extends to all the faithful on earth, the interlacing indicating the linking between the two aspects of the power, and the arrangement with the handles of the keys at the base symbolizes that the power is in the hands of the pope.
The oldest known representation of the crossed keys beneath the papal tiara in the coat of arms of the Holy See dates from the time of Pope Martin V. His successor Pope Eugene IV included it in the design of a silver coin. Martin V also included the keys in his personal arms ; however he did not show them as external ornaments, instead placing them in chief on the shield. Adrian VI placed the keys in saltire behind the shield.

High Middle Ages

developed out of military insignia from the time of the First Crusade.
The first papal coats of arms appeared when heraldry began to be codified in the 12th to 13th centuries. At first, the popes simply used the secular coat of arms of their family. Thus, Innocent IV, who was born Sinibaldo Fieschi, presumably used the Fieschi coat of arms, as did Adrian V, the nephew of Innocent IV. According to Michel Pastoureau, Innocent IV is likely the first who displayed personal arms, but the first of whom a contemporary coat of arms survives is Boniface VIII.
Modern sources show attributed arms of the popes of the second half of the 12th century; thus, editions of the Annuario Pontificio of the 1960s presented the arms of the popes beginning with Innocent III, and John Woodward gave those of the popes from Lucius II onward, though he noted that "it seems probably that many of the early popes made little if any use of their family arms". Thus, Innocent III and Gregory IX may have used the coat of arms of the counts of Segni.
The following papal coat of arms should be considered traditional, lacking contemporary attribution. For the popes of noble families, the coats of arms of the family is substituted, and for commoners, the traditional coat of arms as shown in early modern heraldic sources.

Arms	Description	Pope	Notes
	Gules a bear rampant proper.	Lucius II
	Argent, a crescent azure, in chief a label gules.	Eugene III
	Per fess or and bendy or and vair in chief two lions rampant affrontés vert, overall a fess gules.	Anastasius IV
		Adrian IV
	Or.	Alexander III	Often depicted as Or, diapered.
	Lozengy azure and argent.	Lucius III
	Quarterly gules and argent, in the centre point a sieve in profile or.	Urban III
	Gules two swords argent in saltire, the hilts in chief or, between four mullets of the last.	Gregory VIII
	Chequy argent and gules a chief of the Empire.	Clement III
	Bendy gules and argent on a chief of the second a rose of the first, the chief soutenu by a divise or, thereon an eel naiant azure.	Celestine III	Arms of the Orsini family.
	Gules, an eagle chequy sable and or, crowned of the second.	Innocent III	Arms of the Conti di Segni. The eagle's crown in the Conti arms arose in the 14th century, but is anachronistically also shown in this 13th-century pope's arms.
	Bendy gules and or; in chief a rose surmounted by a martlet and supported by two lions respectant gules.	Honorius III	Arms of the Savelli family, also used by Honorius IV. Woordward blazons the field as per fess argent and or rather than bendy gules and or and also includes over all a fess vert on the field and adds in base three bends of the last .
	Arms of the Conti di Segni.	Gregory IX
	Gules a lion rampant or holding a castle triple-towered or.	Celestine IV
	Argent three bends azure.	Innocent IV	Also used by his nephew Adrian V
	Arms of the Conti di Segni	Alexander IV
	Quarterly 1 and 4 azure a fleur-de-lis or; 2 and 3 argent a rose gules.	Urban IV	Woodward blazons with different tinctures: 1 and 4 or a fleur-de-lis azure; 2 and 3 azure a rose or.
	Or an eagle displayed sable vanquishing a dragon gules.	Clement IV	His family arms are described by Woodward as Or an eagle displayed sable, on a bordure gules ten bezants, but the tomb of Clement IV at Viterbo has a shield charged with Or six fleurs-de-lis azure in orle; these do not appear to have been his personal arms and may instead refer to his French origin.
	Per fess embattled gules and azure.	Gregory X	Arms of the House of Visconti.
	Azure three pallets or, on each as many fleur-de-lis of the field.	Innocent V
	Quarterly, 1 and 4 argent three crescents gules; 2 and 3 sable two pallets or.	John XXI
	Arms of the Orsini family	Nicholas III
	Argent a bend vairy gules and or.	Martin IV	Woodward records Martin IV's arms as Per fess gules and or, in chief a human arm, issuant from the sinister flank proper, vested and manipled ermine.
	Arms of the Savelli family.	Honorius IV
	Argent a bend between two estoiles azure, on a chief of the last three fleurs-de-lis or.	Nicholas IV	Sometimes the arms are emblazoned with three estoiles.
	Or a lion rampant azure over all a bend gules.	Celestine V	Uncertain attribution, likely posthumous or attributed. Occasionally shown with the lion rampant sinister. Not attested before the XVI century.

Late Middle Ages and Renaissance

Note that some of the images of the coats of arms shown below anachronistically include the external adornments of the papal tiara and the keys of Peter. These ornaments were not in use before the 1450s.

Arms	Description	Pope	Notes
	Or two bends wavy azure.	Boniface VIII	The field is also seen blazoned as argent instead of or. This is an early form of the Caetani coat of arms, and the first coat of arms documented to have been used by a pope in contemporary sources.
	Per pale, argent and sable.	Benedict XI	Woodward blazons Benedict XI's arms as Gules a pale embattled counter-embattled argent, a chief azure, but questions the tincture of the chief. In the Gesta Pontificum Romanorum by Giovanni Palazzo , the arms blazoned by Woodward are described, and shown with the chief Per pale, sable and argent; only later sources depict the arms as blazoned entirely as of the chief described by Palazzo.
	Or, three bars gules.	Clement V
	Quarterly 1 and 4 or a lion rampant azure, an orle of hurts, 2 and 3 barry gules and argent.	John XXII	Woodward specifies the main charge as specifically being "between six hurts", rather than the hurts being in orle. Beginning with John XXII, popes would occasionally surmount their heraldic shield with the tiara.
	Gules an escutcheon argent.	Benedict XII
	Argent a bend azure between six roses in orle gules.	Clement VI	Also used by his nephew, Gregory XI.
	Gules a lion rampant or debruised by a bend azure, on a chief of the field, soutenu by a divise of the last, three escallops of the second.	Innocent VI
	Gules a chief dancetty or.	Urban V
	Arms of the Roger de Beaufort family.	Gregory XI
	Or an eagle displayed azure.	Urban VI
		Boniface IX
		Innocent VII
		Gregory XII
		Martin V
		Eugene IV
		Nicholas V	Was the first to use the keys of Peter as heraldic device. He would remain the only pope to choose a coat of arms upon his election until the 18th century. Whether this choice was a demonstration of humility, or due to a lack of a family coat of arms is not known.
		Callixtus III	Beginning with Callixtus III, popes began using the keys of Peter with the tiara placed above them as external ornaments of their coats of arms.
		Pius II
		Paul II
		Sixtus IV
		Innocent VIII
		Alexander VI	The second Borgia pope, a coat of arms derived from that of the Borgia family with two keys saltire and a tiara.
		Pius III	The second Piccolomini pope. Francesco Todeschini was received as a boy into the household of Aeneas Silvius, who permitted him to assume the name and arms of the Piccolomini family.
		Julius II	The second Della Rovere pope.