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 CORONATION

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CORONATION

be tempered. We have evidence that these three swords were known in English ceremonial as early as Richard I (1189), while the form of oath just cited re- mained in use until a century later. Upon this oath something more will need to be said.

Towards the end of the tenth century we find that a new coronation order was in use in England. It incor- porated most of the Egbertine Order but it added much new matter. Various considerations show that it was an attempt to imitate the imperial coronation of the Carlovingian monarchs on the Continent, and our knowledge of the imperial state assumed by King Eadgar strongly suggests that it is to be assigned to the date of his deferred coronation (973). Another modi- fication took place shortly after the Conquest and is probably to be traced to Norman influences which made themselves felt in Church and State. But the most important English order is that introduced at the coronation of Edward II, in 1307, and known as that of the " Liber Regalis ". It lasted practically unaltered through the Reformation period and though translated into English upon the accession of James I it was not sub- stantially modified until the coronation of his grand- son James II, and it may be said even at the present day to form the substance of the ritual by which the monarchs of Great Britain are crowned. While it con- tained many prayers in common with those used in the imperial coronation of the Western Empire antl those of the existing " Pontificale Romanum " it also pre- served many distinctive features. A short synopsis of it will be serviceable.

.After the sovereign had been solemnly brought to Westminster .\bbey church and had made an offering at the altar, he was conducted to a raised platform erected for the purpose and there he was presented to the people, who, on a short address from one of the bishops, signified by acclamations their assent to the coronation. Then the king was interrogated by the archbishop as to his willingness to observe the laws, customs, and libert ies granted by St. Edward the Confes- sor, and he was required to promise peace to the Church and justice to his people, all which he confirmed by an oath taken upon the altar. Next they proceeded to the unction, which was introduced by the Veni Creator and the litanies, during which the king remained pros- trate on his face. For the unction the king was seated and his hand, breast, shoulder-blades, and joints of the arms were all anointed with the oil of catechimiens, an anthem and several long prayers being recited the while. Finally his head was anointed, first with the oil of catechumens and afterwards with chrism. The next stage in the ceremony was the dressing and inves- titure of the monarch. A tunic (colobhim sindonis) was put upon him with sandals upon his feet and spurs. Then he was girded with a sword and received the armillce, a sort of stole put about the neck and tied to his arms at the elbows. These were followed by the pallium, or cloak, formerly the equivalent of the chla- mys, or purple paludamenliim, and fastened by a clasp over the right shoulder, but now represented in Eng- lish coronations by a sort of mantle like a cope. Then the crown was blessed by a special prayer, Deus tuo- riim corona fidelium, and imposed by the archbishop with two other prayers. This was followed by the blessing and conferring of the ring and finally the scep- tre and rod were presented, also with prayers. A fur- ther long blessing was pronounced when the king was conducted to the throne there to receive the homage of the peers. Then if there was no queen consort to be crowned, Mass began immediately, aM;iss wit h"proper" prayei-s and preface and a special benediction given by the archbishop before the Agnus Dei. After the Credo the king again went to the altar and offered bread and wine and a mark of gold. The kiss of peace was brought to the king at his throne but he went humbly to the altar to Communicate, after which he received a draught of wine from St. Edward's stone chalice. At

the end the king was conducted to the shrine of St. Edward where he made an offering of his crown.

As already remarked, the service for the coronation of the King of England even in modern times remains substantially the same, though English has been sub- stituted for Latm and though many transpositions and modifications have been introduced in the prayers and ceremonies, all distinctively Roman expressions being studiously suppressed. The Mass of course gives place to the communion service of the Book of Com- mon Prayer, but the sovereign still offers bread and wine as well as gold, and dowai to the coronation of Queen Victoria even the "proper" preface was re- tained. Indeed its omission and other omissions and changes introduced for the first time in the coronation of Iving Edward VII were prompted only by the de- sire to abbreviate a very long ser\'ice. The most seri- ous alteration in tlie medieval form is of course in the oath. Since the time of William III the king has sworn to maintain " the Protestant Reformed Religion established by Law" — a phrase which has always been a thorn in the side of those advanced Ritualists who contend that the Church of England has never been Protestant. Moreover since the interrogative form is used, this description Ls uttered by the ,\rchbishop of Canterburj' before the Lords and Commons and the representatives of the whole English Church. On the other hand one clause in the interrogation stiU stands as it did. The king is asked, '' Will you to your power cause Law and Justice in mercy to be executed in all your judgments?" To which he replies, "I ■nail" — s promise which differs but slightly from the under- taking made in the oldest Egbertine Order. After the archbishop's questions have all been answered the king advances to the "Altar", as it is still called, and takes this solemn oath upon the Bible lying there: " The things which I have here before promised I will perform and keep, so help me God." The coronation oath, it should be noticed, must be carefully distin- guished from "the Protestant Declaration", which the sovereign by a still unrepealed clause of the Bill of Rights (1689) is required to make on the first day of his first Parliament. In this declaration Transubstan- tiation and other Catholic doctrines are repudiated and the Mass declared idolatrous. When, as sometimes has happened, the coronation ceremony precedes thf first meeting of Parliament, the declaration against Transubstantiation has to be made in the coui-se of the coronation ceremony. The only new element intro- duced into the English rite since the Reformation ii the presenting of the Bible to the sovereign. Thii like the Protestant Declaration dates from the coro- nation of William and Marj'.

IV. The Western E.mfire .^nd the Rom.\x Pon- tifical. — There is so much general similarity be- tween the English coronation order in its perfectec| form and that used for the coronation of the Empero: and the King of the Romans that it will not be neceaj sary to treat this section in great detail. The fac undoubtedly is, though .Anglican liturgists ignore il as far as possible, that at each of the early modificaj tions of the English ritual, more especially that unde King Eadgar, the imperial ceremonial was freely imi tated (see Thurston, Coronation Ceremonial, 18-2. sqq.). But owing to the accidental preservation o] so many English documents there is no coronatio: ceremonial in the world the history of which is so wel known to us as that of England and we have conse quently given it the preference in order of treatment .4part from Sjianish examples, the earliest definiti instance of miction of a Christian sovereign seems tit be that of Pepin, who was first crowned by St. Bmi face, the papal legate at Soissons in 752, and agaii together with h.is sons Charles and Carloman and h wife Bertha, by Pope Stephen at St-Denis, Sundaj 28 July, 75-1. Charlemagne was solemnly crowned a St. Peter's iu Rome by Pope Leo III, on Christma