"Pope Innocent X, The Celtic Minded."
Oil on canvas, by Diego Velazquez, painted around 1650.
Oil on canvas, by Diego Velazquez, painted around 1650.
Not only was Pope Innocent The Tenth "Celtic-Minded" he was also singularly prescient, loyally following the fortunes of a football club some two centuries before it was formed.
In common with much portraiture of the period, the painting is replete with symbolism. In his left hand, the Pope holds a copy of The Celtic View, representing the profane. In his right hand, representing the sacred, he holds a fragment of parchment, an encyclical, urging on his team to greater achievements.
Later in his life, the Pope would issue an encyclical condemning "the practice of members of the black-clad masonic secret societies, umpiring matches between Celtic and lesser teams, conspiring, one with the other, to deny The Hoops stone-wall penalty decisions. So they uhr."
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