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 CORONATION

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CORONATION

parently lacking, still our information is too fragmen- tarj' to enable us to speak with confidence, more espe- cially in view of the casual utterance of (iildas.

111. The English Coronation Orders. — But of all detailed ceremonials for the investiture of a mon- arch the earliest which has been preserved to us in a complete form is one of English origin. It is known as the Egbert ine Order, because the best-known niamiscrii^t in which it is contained is an Anglo-Saxon codex which jjrofesses to be a copy of the Pontifical of Archbishop Egbert of York (732-766). We cannot in such a case be secure against the possibility of subse- quent interpolations, for the Egbert Pontifical, now at Paris (MS. Latin 10,575), is only of the tenth cen- turj', but the character of the coronation order itself is quite consistent with an early date. Moreover the same ritual occurs in other early manuscripts, and frag- ments of it are found embeddetl in Continental orders, stich as that for the coronation of Queen Judith (856). Nearl}' everj-thing in this Egbert ine Order is of in- terest and we may analyse it rather closely. At the head we find the title: Missa pro rcgibus in die hene- diclionis ejus (sic). Being, as the title says, a Mass. it be- gins with a " proper" Introit, collect, lesson from Leviti- cus (xxvi,6-9), Gradual, and Gospel (Matt., xxii, 15sq.). Then occurs the rubric; "the blessing upon a newly- elected king", upon which follow three prayers of mod- erate length beginning respectively: "Te invocamus, Doniine .sancte", etc.; "Deusqui populis tuis", etc.; and "In diebus ejus oriatur omnibus a-quitas", etc. The second of these prayers, which still remains prac- tically unchanged in the coronation order used at the accession of King Edward VII, may be quoted here as a siH'cimcn: —

"O (iod, who providest for Thy people by Thy power and rulest over thezn in love ; grant unto this Thy servant Edward our King, the spirit of wisdom and government, that being devoted unto Thee with all his heart, he may so wisely govern this kingdom, that in his time Thy Church and people may continue in safety and prosperity, and that, persevering in good works unto the end, he may through Thy mercy come to Thine everlasting Kingdom; through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord. Amen."

It is worth noting that we have no reason to believe that this prayer or others occurring in the Egbertine Order is necessarily of English origin. On the con- trary it seems to have been adapted out of one for the pojie occurring in the Gregorian Sacramentarj- which begins: Deus qui populis tuis indulgenliA con- sulis, and an intenncdiate form was used at the coro- nation of Charles the Bald as King of Lotharingia in 869. After the three prayers we meet the rubric: "Here he .shall pour oil upon his head from a horn, with the anti|ihon: Unxcrunt Salomonem, etc., and the Psalm Domini in rirlute tu/'i, etc. (Ps. xx). Let one of th."! bishops say t ho prayer while the others anoint him."

The i^rayer referred to is the Deus electorum forti- tudo, some jihrases of which still remain in the prayer now said immediately before the unction. The same Deus electorum jortitudo is found in the coronation order of Queen Judith, who was anointed queen by Hincmar, Bishop of Reims, in 856. It contains al- lusions to the olive-branch brought by the dove to the ark and to the anointing of Aaron and of the kings of Israel and thus shows it^self to have been originally de- signed for some such purpose as a prayer of imction. Then follows another rubric: "Here all the bishops with the magnates [principihus] put the sceptre into his hand. " Some of the texts, however, omit this l:ust rubric and write simply Benediciio; and to say the truth the short sentences which follow are very much of the nature of acclamations of benediction, such .as we have already iiuoted from some of the Byzantine orders, though they are a little longer in form and could certainly not liave been repeated in Latin by the Anglo-Saxon poptilace or even the magnates. The

people's share in this function is probably indicated by the simple " .\men" which follows each clause. There are sixteen of these brief clauses and then the rubric announces: "Here a staff is put into his hand", where- upon another prayer of moderate length is said which is followed by a prayer of blessing, vague and some- what extravagant in languag<-, i)rcceded by the rubric: " Here let all the bishops take the helmet and set it upon his head." The simultaneous crowning by sev- eral hands is rather a noteworthy feature in the cere- mony and it is curious that although in the later " Liber Regalis" and other orders the archl>islio)i is namedas alone imposing the crown, the illuniinations in medie- val chronicles and romances almost invariably repre- sent the crown as being put on by at least two bishops standing on either side. After this jirayor follows what is perhaps the most interesting rubric of the whole order, though unfortimately even with the aid of our three different manuscripts we cannot restore the text of the latter part with any great degree of con- fidence. "And all the people shall say three times with the bishops and priests: 'May King N. live for ever. Amen, Amen, Amen.' Then shall the whole people come to kiss the prince; and he shall be strengthened on his throne by this [i. e. the following] blessing." Accordingly before the Mass Ls suffered to proceed another solemn prayer is said, Deus perpe- tuitatis arictor, which in the Egbert Pontifical is emphasized by a preceding rubric : " Let them say the seventh prayer over the King." Now the prayer in question is really the eighth, and undoubtedly this fact coupled with traces of marginal numbering which reveal themselves in the Egbert Pontifical lends probability to Lord Bute's theory that this series of prayers betrays Celtic influences and was originally destined for the seven priests whose [iresence was sup- posed in the Celtic ritual. The eighth prayer, as he thinks that of the unction, is shown on this hypothe- sis to be an interpolation of somewhat later date. After this last prayer, Deus perpetuitatis auctor, the Mass is resumed. The Ma.ss prayers are Roman and the same Mass prayers are attached to the very early coronation order which Mgr. Magistretti has printed from an Ambrosian pontifical of the ninth century and which he pronounces to be also indisputably Roman. It seems probable enough that we are here again in the presence of the same sort of compromise between Celtic and Roman elements which we find in the Stowe Mis- sal (see Celtic Rite). At the conclusion of the Mass we find the following rubric — it may perhaps be an interpolation of later date than the rest of the order — and we may here see the ffing's first proclamation to his people: —

"It is rightful conduct in a king newly ordained to make these three behests [prcecepta] to his people.

"First, that the Church of God and all Christian folk should keep true peace at all times. Amen.

"The second is that he should forbid .all robbery and all imrighteous things to all orders. Amen.

"The third is that he .should enjoin in all dooms jus- tice and mercy, that the gracious and merciful God, of His everhisting mercy, may show pardon to us all. Amen."

It is probable that in this triple division of the primi- tive oath we have the explanation of a feature which still survives in the English coronation service. Be- fore the king three naked swords are carried, two pointed and one without a point, which is hence known as curtana, the sword cut short. The first two swords were known to medieval writers as the sword of the clergy and the sword of justice. They represent the king's two promises, to defend the Church (not, as certain Anglican writers have vmwarrantably sup- posed, to coerce and punish the Church) and to puni.sh evildoers. The third, without a point, most aptly sjTnbolizes the mercy with which, as the sovereign himself is taught to hope for mercy, all his justice is to