The Grimoire of Pope Honorius

Documented history: The Grimoire of Pope Honorius (French: Le Grimoire du Pape Honorius) survives as a printed grimoire whose extant forms date to the early modern period (commonly situated in the 17th–18th century). The book purports to be authored by Pope Honorius III (reigned 1216–1227), but this papal attribution is a claim of the text rather than established historical authorship; modern bibliographic and scholarly accounts treat the work as a later grimoire that invokes a papal name to lend authority. A Rome imprint of 1760 (95 pages, with a color frontispiece and plates) is attested in archival catalogues and digitized holdings. Contents and claims: The grimoire is notable within the printed grimoire tradition for being explicitly designed for use by a priest: sources record that some of its instructions incorporate or require saying a Mass or otherwise employ liturgical forms within ritual operations. In form and material it aligns more closely with early modern ritual manuals such as the Key of Solomon and the Grimorium Verum (ritual techniques, seals/sigils, and demonological procedures) than with genuinely medieval papal documents. The title likely echoes the older medieval Sworn Book of Honorius, but surviving evidence indicates the Grimoire of Pope Honorius is a product of the grimoire revival and later compilatory circulation rather than a verified 13th‑century composition. Legend, reputation, and scholarly reception: Secondary commentary and occult anthologies have long treated the Grimoire of Pope Honorius as an infamous or particularly demonic grimoire, frequently citing its priestly orientation and its association with demonology. Modern discussions of Church/occult intersections often invoke the book as emblematic of texts that syncretize Catholic ritual language with demonic or ceremonial magic; descriptions in popular anthologies and surveys sometimes label it among the most notorious grimoires tied to alleged clerical magic. The supplied sources do not document primary-text claims that owning or reading the book causes specific supernatural effects; its dangerous reputation in scholarship and popular accounts is a matter of later reception and commentary rather than documented in the cited primary printed edition.