Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/441

 CORONATION

385

CORONATION

Day, 800. The statement of a Greek chronicler that he was anointed from head to foot is probalily a mere blunder or gross exaggeration. Despite the efforts of Dr. Dieinand (Das Ceremoniell der Kaiscrknmmigen) to classify the various Ordines for the coronation of the emperor and to trace the stages of their develop- ment, the subject remains intricate and obscure. We may be content to note rapidly the elements of its eomplete form.

The ceremony was assumed to take place at Rome, as by right it should, and the first incident was the solemn entry of the emperor into Rome, which should if possible take place on a Sunday or festival. He sva.s met in state outside the walls and escorted to St. Peter's. Next came the reception by the pope, who sat enthroned and surrounded by his cardinals it the head of the steps before St. Peter's, and there the emperor, after kissing the pope's foot, took the coronation oath (Diemand, 108-123), which in its earliest form ran as follows: "In the name of [Christ I, N., the Emperor, promise, undertake and arotest in the presence of God and Blessed Peter the \postle, that I will be the protector and defender of lelp \in omnibus ulilitatibu.s] so far as I shall be sup- jorted by the Divine aid, according to my knowledge ind ability." This undertaking, which at first was !ned by a number of added clauses, for instance by the vords, " I swear upon these Holy Gospels ", or again by m explicit promise of fealty to the reigning pope by lamc and to his successors. There was here also per- laps a prayer of blessing spoken as the emperor was »corted into the church. At one time this was fol- owed by a sort of examination into the fitness of the
 * he Holy Roman Church in all ways that I can be of
 * learly not an oath in form, was afterwards strength-
 * andidate (scrutinium), but this disappeared in the

ater Ordines. He was then received and in a lense enrolled among the canons of St. Peter's and jrepared for the anointing. The unction was intro- luced by the litany and performed by the Bishop )f Ostia, who only anointed the right arm and the jack between the shoulders with the oil of catechu- nens. Two prayers follow, both of which have bund their way into the English order, though one nf tlii'in occurs in a contracted form and is used )nly for conferring the ring. All this took place )cf.ir(' the beginning of Mass, but in the later forms of 111' i!iiperial ordo the next item of the coronation rr\ h c. the bestowal of the insignia and notably of the tm II. took place after the Gradual, being thus in- I in the Mass itself. The order in which the 1 were delivered varied much, and in the later a mitre was given to the emperor before the . and the sceptre was accompanied with an orb. i ist had no place in the medieval English cere- After the giving of the insignia the Laudes, limations, were sung and then the Go.spel was ' • I and the Mxss resumed its course. The whole iiiy concluded with a solemn procession to the
 * ' lui and a state banquet.

lii- form u.sed in Germany for the coronation

f 'm' King of the Romans retains much in com-

.vith the imperial order, but it bears a still

nsemblance to what is known as the "second"

li ritual, viz.: that used for the Anglo-Saxon

I adgar. The fact, as Dr. Diemand points out,

to have been that the Egbertinc Order

mforced by imperial elements borrowed from

I, and thus acquired a certain reputation as

■st elaborate fonn for the crowning of a king.

it came to be largely copied on the Continent

N I M that way we find unmistakable traces of prayers

TiLjiiially written for .\nglo-Saxon kings travelling

nto Central Europe and even :is far south as Milan.

fill' nrdo in.scribed "De Benedictione et Coronatione

'"t-'i-;", which is still extant in the "Pontificale

, ti'iMaiium", bears much resemblance to the forma

IV.- 25

just described used for the coronation of the emperor. For example the scrutinium occurs in this form: The king is presented to the consecrating archbishop by two bishops, who petition that he may be crowned, and who, when themselves interrogated as to his fit- ness, reply that they know him to be a worthy and proper person. The oath follows, also the litany with prostration, and then the anointing on the arm and be- tween the shoulders. Then, after Mass has been be- gun and brought as far as the Gradual, the king kneel- ing at the altar-steps receives successively sword, crown, and sceptre, each accompanied with appro- priate prayers. Finally the king is solemnly en- throned, the Te Deum sung, and the remainder of the Mass follows. A similar, but generally somewhat shorter, rite is observed in the coronation of a queen consort. The prayers often differ from those used for the king and the insignia are naturally fe%ver.

V. Other Ceremonials. — In earlier ages almost every country imder monarchical government had a coronation ceremony of its own and this was nearly always distinguished by some peculiar features. For example in Aragon the king was expected to pass the preceding night in the church with a purpose which was evidently analogous to that of the knight's vigil spent in the watching of his anns. In Scotland again the right of regal unction and coronation was accorded (1329) in a Bull of Pope John XXII (the crown having previously been regarded rather as a civil ornament) in which the privilege was burdened with the condition that the king should take an oath that he would do his utmost to extirpate from his dominions all whom the Church should denounce as heretics. As a remote consequence of this James VI, the infant son of Queen Mary, or rather Morton, the Regent, in his name, took an oath "to root out all heresy and ene- mies to the true worship of God that shall be convicted by the true kirk of God of the aforesaid crimes"; the principal among these crimes being the "ydolatre of the odious and blasphemous mass". At present, however, the investiture of sovereigns with the in- signia of their office by a religious ceremony is by no means universal, and it is curious that in Spain, a most Catholic country in full diplomatic relations with the Holy See, no such religious ceremony is now in use. Of European countries we may note that the rite followed in France in the fourteenth and subsequent centuries was almost identical in substance with that of the Eng- lish " Liber Regalis " (see the careful comparison in De- wiek's " The Order of Coronation of Charles V", pp. xvi sqq.). The most important differences were first the privilege of the French king, a privilege not shared by his consort, of Communicating under both species, and secondly the use of the oil from the Sainte Ampoule, an oil which according to universal belief had been miraculously brought from heaven by an angel, or a dove, for the baptism of Clovis. This oil down to the Revolution was kept in the Abbey of Reims. The abbot brought the Sainte Ampoule to the corona- tion and by means of a golden needle a drop of its contents was extracted and mixed with chrism. With this mixture the king was anointed first on the head, then on the breast, and finally on the back and on the joints of the arms. It seems clear that this privilege of the French king provoked imitation in England, and a letter of Pope John XXII has recently been brought to light returning a guarded answer to an application of Edward II who wished to be anointed with certain oil said to have been revealed by Our Blessed Lady to St. Thomas of Canterbury.

It would take us too far to enter into any details !us to the ceremonial formerly observed in the coronation of the Kings of Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland, but a word may be added about one of the most splendid of Uw. coronation orders still maintained, namely that of the czar, which always takes place at Moscow. The ser- vice begins after the Proscomedy, or Offertory, by a