The High Priestess appears on the Visconti Sforza Tarots (figure 1) as a woman dressed in a monk’s clothing; in her right hand she holds up a rod with a cross, in her left hand, the Book of Wisdom (the Bible or the Gospels). On her head, she wears the typical “Triregnum”. The iconographic predecessors of this card are to be found among the personifications of the highest moral and religious virtues, as we can see in the 12th century illuminated initial known as “Sapientia Domini” (Biblia Sacra, Florence, Laurenziana Library, Ms. Mugell, 2 f, 58) which shows the same attributes, and the monochrome “Fides” painted by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (figure 2). Faith, as the first of the octave verses says, (accompanied, as in the frames of the other images, by a proparoxytone senary), presents herself hieratically, with the symbols of her mansion: in her right hand, she grasps a rod with a cross, in her left hand a cartouche where the first affirmations of the Nicene and Constantinople Creed can be read. Under the double ensign of Faith and Reason, she subdues idols and rises solid above the rocks, surrounded by light, for angels and human creatures. She also crushes a horoscope, with the signs of the Zodiac, under her feet; a large key to the kingdom of heaven is tied to her right hip. Another detail: the cloak and tunic are torn in various places, indicating lacerations which took place through history (schisms and heresies). “Compared with Dante’s faith, this faith focuses more on teaching and expresses itself in symbolic forms, of a definitely scholastic kind” (Claudio Bellinati, Giotto 1996). The verses say the following: “Figurata et ierata / presentatur homini, indiscussa manet fides… cuius autem valet tactus / aprobando loyter. Congregavit subiugavit / ydola viriliter, coronatur et fundatur / supra petra firmiter, angelorum et virorum / confortatur numine, mire recta et perfecta…” (Figured - i.e. represented with her canonical symbols - and hieratic, she appears to man, faith stays beyond discussion… and her value lies in the influence coming from evidence provided by logic. She gathered and subdued the idols with much force, is crowned and firmly based on stone, is comforted by the consensus of angels and men, wonderfully just and perfect).
The only difference from the image which we find in the ancient tarots is the cartouche, which replaces the book.
Many other images of Fides (the High Priestess) are to be found in renaissance and baroque art: we find one with the same attributes on the marble tomb stone of a Master of the Order of the Knights of Malta inside the church of Saint John at La Valletta and a second in the vault of the Baptistery of Siena. The fresco, part of representations of “Articles of the Creed”, is the work of Lorenzo di Pietro said “il Vecchietta” and shows the Fides like a High Priestess in to bless the Child Jesus and St. Peter to deliver the keys of the Church (figure 3).
With the attribute of Lex Canonica (figure 4) it was engraved by Sébastien Le Clerc (1637-1714).
The presence of Faith in the order of the tarots fits in perfectly with the Medieval Christian vision of the Mystic Ladder allowing one to achieve contemplation of God. Thomas Aquinas has this to say: “The perfection of the reasonable creature does not only consist in what is his by nature, but also in what is granted to him by a supernatural sharing in the divine goodness. This is why we say that the ultimate beatitude for man consists of a supernatural vision of God. A vision which man cannot achieve except as a disciple under the magisterium of God, according to the words of the Gospel “every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me (John 6; 45). Therefore, for man to reach the perfect vision of beatitude, he must first believe in God, as does a disciple in his master” (II-II, q. 2, a. 3; cf. De Ver. q 14, a.10) and later “As we explained above, what is indispensable for man to reach beatitude belongs properly and essentially to the object of Faith…” (II-II, q. 2, a. 7).
In the order of the tarots in the 16th century Sermones de Ludo, the High Priestess is rightly placed next to the Pope since, as Thomas Aquinas says “Faith is a gift given first of all to the Church; it is only in faith that the Church never fails; it is only in the Church that Faith is never “formless”, but always “formed”, that is alive and animated by charity”. (II-II, q. 1, a. 9, ad 3). Here, Thomas Aquinas does not understand the Church so much as an exterior and visible community which “administers the doctrine of belief”, but as an entity which believes and professes the faith. In this sense, it involves the mystery of the real sanctity which the Church possesses, and hence the Church as a mystic reality. (Battista Mondin, Dizionario enciclopedico del pensiero di San Tommaso D’Aquino, 2000, page 291).
“The profession of faith is presented in the symbol in the name of all the Church, which owes its unity to its faith. But the faith of the Church is a formed faith (formed by charity): and such is the faith of those who belong to the Church by number and by merit (qui sunt numero et merito de Ecclesia). This is why the symbol shows a profession of faith suited to a formed faith: and also why the faithful who do not have a formed faith try to achieve it” (ibid.). In other words, the true Faith is to be found inside the authentic Church (represented by the Pope), and cannot exist outside it.
It is an undeniable fact that the High Priestess of the tarots represents Faith, since the same friar, the author of the Sermones, describes it with the words “O miseri quod negat Christiana fides”, a sentence which looks like the incipit of a longer expression, since the monk adds the graphic symbol for etc. to the word fides, in the same manner as in other parts of the Sermones. In the way it appears, the sentence is impossible to translate, but what is interesting is that the friar made a reference to Faith.
This Sermones appear as an invective against the game of dice and cards, including the tarots, according to the notion among the clergy of the times, who attributed their origin to the Devil (the good monk actually gives us the name of the little devil actually responsible, Azaro) in his desire to lead men to perdition: In fact, he writes “This is the reason why men blaspheme more when playing than at other times, since they call on as many devils as there are dots on the dice to bring on their ruin. And since everybody loses in those games, the opinion is that that money - where there is the blood of God, of Christ and of the saints - ends up in the hands of the devils, who distribute them to the desperate people who ask for money from the demons. And ultimately all will end up in poverty, and most will finish by dying on the gallows. Therefore, keep away from games, otherwise etc.”. This sermon is important since - apart from the purpose for which the friar composed it - it offers us information about an order of Tarots which closely resembles what must have been the original, based on the medieval concept of the Mystic Ladder. Also, the comments of the author reflect the hypothesis of some as to the meaning of certain cards such as “El mondo cioè dio padre” (The world that is god the father), “Lo caro triumphale vel mundus parvus” (The triumphal chariot or a small triumph) and also the High Priestess in relation to the Faith. In the card of the Visconti-Sforza Tarots, currently at the Pierpont Morgan Library, Geltrude Moakley saw the image of Sister Manfreda Visconti-Pirovano, a relative of the Visconti who had been elected “papessa” (woman pope) of the small Lombard cult of the Guglielmiti, burnt at the stake in the autumn of 1300. The monastic habit was that of the Umiliate, an order recognized by the Church. There might be something true in this hypothesis, if we remember the tendency to identify the figures in the Visconti-Sforza packs with members of the Lombard family.
Ludovico Antonio Muratori speaks of Guglielmina and of her vicar Sister Manfreda in the “XL Dissertazione” (Fiftieth Dissertation) of his work Antichità Italiane (Italian Antiquities) when speaking of “Quali eresie ne’ secoli passati abbiano infestato l’ Italia” (Which heresies in past centuries infested Italy): “And since writers of history know little of this famous woman (Guglielmina), and I was able to read in the renowned Ambrosian Library her authentic trial, held in the year 1300, and the history of her errors drawn up by Puricelli and written by pen; the Readers will not be discontented if I briefly tell the story, since it is well worth being handed down to future generations, so that nobody allows themselves to be captured by the dreams and deceptions of such petty women in the future.
The trial is entitled “contra Guilielmam Bohemam, vulgo Guilielminam, ejusque Sectam”.
“I. First of all, she claimed herself to be the Holy Ghost, incarnate in the female sex, and the daughter of Constance wife of the king of Bohemia, and queen.
II. In second place, as the Archangel Gabriel had announced to the Virgin Mary the Incarnation of the Divine Word; in the same way, the Archangel Raphael had announced to queen Constance the Incarnation of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, and a whole year later, on the same day, Guglielmina was born.
III. As Christ was true God and true Man, in the same manner, she claimed herself to be true God and true Man in the female sex, come to save the Jews, the Saracens and the false Christians, in the same way as the true Christians are saved by means of Christ.
IV. Like Christ, she was to die in her human nature, not in her divine nature.
V. She too claimed she would arise again with a human body in the female sex before the final resurrection, in order to rise to heaven before the eyes of her disciples, friends and devotees.
VI. As Christ left as his Vicar on earth Saint Peter, so he could rule his Church; in the same way, she too left as her Vicar in the world Mayfredam Ordinis Humiliatorum Sanctimonialem.
VII. Imitating Saint Peter, this Mayfreda would celebrate Mass at the sepulchre of the incarnate Holy Ghost; and with a solemn procedure, she would repeat the same Mass, and sit, and preach in the Metropolitan Basilica of Milan, and later in Rome, at the Apostolic See, where the Apostles and Disciples would be gathered, as they were with Christ.
VIII. Mayfreda was supposed to be a true Popess, with the powers of a true Pope; and this meant the Pope and the Roman Papacy of the times would have to be abolished, to give way to this Popess, and in this manner the Jews, the Saracens and other nations which are outside the Roman Church, and are not even baptized, would be baptized.
IX. Once the four ancient Gospels had been removed, four others would take their place, after having been written on orders by Guglielmina.
X.  As Christ after the resurrection let himself be seen, she too would do the same with her disciples.
XI. Anyone visiting the Monastery of Chiaravalle, where she would be buried, would receive the same indulgence as he would by going to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Therefore, pilgrims would come from all over the world to visit her tomb.
XII. All the followers of this Holy Ghost were threatened by many evils and by death, just as happened to the Apostles of Christ and their followers, some of whom would imitate Judas by handing over their followers to the Inquisitors. Such were the main, abominable teachings and ridiculous pretences of Guglielmina, I shall leave the rest aside. All of this was not intended by Guglielmina herself, but by the aforementioned Mayfreda, and by a certain impious Andrea Saramita. Perhaps they had heard of similar delusions from Simon Magus, described by Eusebius and by Saint Epiphanius. What is surprising , perhaps, is that Guglielmina ended her days in the year 1281, and was first buried in the church of San Pietro all’ Orto, and at the beginning of the following year, her bones were transferred to the Monastery of Chiaravalle, and placed in an honourable burial. One of those monks wrote her praises, treating her as a saint and as healer. Lamps and candles would stay lit in front of her burial site. Her devotees also established three feasts at the Monastery. Mayfreda herself celebrated Mass at home, and her followers would kiss her hands, receiving her blessing, and sometimes hosts as a Eucharist. One can see what ignorant and unwise people are capable of, if left to their opinions and to a foolish credulity. However God the guardian of his own true Church did not allow this delusion to triumph for long among the people of such a religious and Catholic town. In the year 1300 the cult of Guglielmina was discovered, her bones burnt, her sepulchre removed. Andrea Saramita and Mayfreda Monaca, the leaders of the heresy, as obstinate disciples of Guglielmina, ended their days amidst the flames. And thus did the fantastic  and impious tragedy of these people come to an end”.
From the 17th century onwards, the High Priestess has always been represented seated, with a book in her hands, while a drape generally frames the upper part of the figure, as in the Vieville tarot (figure 5). This image has been taken over from the iconography of the legendary Pope Joan as it appears in the chapter which Jacques Philippe Forest dedicates to her in his De claris selectisque mulieribus (1494) (figure 6). This image becomes finally stabilized in the later cards and in the Marseilles Tarot (figure 7). In Renaissance was widespread belief that Popess Joan was represented in this card.  In the work Le Carte Parlanti (The Speaking Cards) by Pietro Aretino the cards, discussing on the meanings of the triumphs, say that  “The Popess means the shrewdness of those who defraud our being with falsehoods that fake us” that is to say that the female pope is placed to represent those who deceive with facts or words that are false, however, believed as true (On the work The Speaking Cards, please, read the essay Theatre of Brain).
The work by Leonard Thurneysser Zum Thurn Quinta Essentia shows a High Priestess who holds the key in her right hand, and rests her left arm on a book (figura 8). This is Faith, as represented by the magical, hermetic and alchemical current which was widespread in Germany, where the work was printed.
Besides the ordinary attributes of Faith, several books appear next to her. All of them are on magical and religious topics, such as the Herbarium, the Quinta Essentia, the Misterium Aeternitatis and the Biblia. The High Priestess, with a crown on her head and her mouth shut by a padlock (because faith has no need to express its belief) sits on a chest with the words “Toth” and “Azot” etched into it.
In Oswald Wirth’s occultist tarot card, the High Priestess holds in her right hand the book with the Chinese Tai-chi symbol of the Supreme Tao, made up by the opposites Yin and Yang, and the key in her left hand (figure 9).