Triclavianism is the belief that three nails were used to crucify Jesus Christ. The exact number of the Holy Nails has been a matter of speculation for centuries. Nonnus of Panopolis, in his paraphrase of the Gospel of John, has the crowd cry for Jesus to be crucified upon "four spikes" (19:15) but eventually hung with only three, "a single nail[...] hammered into both his feet" (19:18).
Etymology
thumb|right|Triclavian depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus
The words triclavian and Triclavianism were coined by Anglican scholar George Stanley Faber, in his work An Inquiry into the History and Theology of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses (1838). Faber employs the words in the process of claiming that Pope Innocent III had implicitly, but "infallibly," endorsed the four-nail theory in 1209 through his endorsement of Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) – because in the last two years of his life Francis bore stigmata on his hands and feet which depicted four nailheads (not three). Faber calls Innocent's foundation of the Franciscan Order "a decision, which of course stamped the brand of heresy upon Triclavianism." in which Bompiani simply writes that Innocent had "condemned" triclavianism. Other scholarly treatments of the subject, such as Herbert Thurston's article in the 1914 Catholic Encyclopedia,
Representation in art
Though in the Middle Ages the crucifixion of Christ typically depicted four nails, beginning in the 13th century some Western art began to represent Christ on the cross with his feet placed one over the other and pierced with single nail. The poem attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus and the writings of Nonnus and Socrates of Constantinople also speak of three nails.
In the alternate history timeline of the wargame Trench Crusade, Triclavianism is stated to be the reason for the split of the Christian Church and the 90-year war that followed it.
See also
- Holy Nail