Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/286

 250 Readings in European History Then he took the mantle and bracelets and put them upon him : "As the border of this mantle flows to the ground, be thou admonished that thou shouldst glow with the zeal of faith and that thou shouldst endure to the end to maintain peace." Then he took the scepter and staff : " By these tokens be thou admonished that thou shouldst reprove thy subjects with fatherly chastisement and that thou shouldst above all things extend the hand of mercy to the ministers of God and to widows and orphans. And may thy head never lack the oil of compassion, that thou mayst be crowned now and hereafter with an eternal reward." And he was anointed with the holy oil and crowned by the pontiffs, Hildebert and Wicfried [archbishop of Cologne], with a golden crown. When the consecration was accom- plished according to the law, the king was led by those same bishops to the throne, which was built between two marble columns and was reached by a winding stairway, whence he could see all and be seen by all. When the divine praise had been sung and the mass sol- emnly celebrated, the king descended to the palace. There he drew near a marble table adorned with royal pomp, and seated himself with the bishops and all the people ; and the dukes ministered to him. II. ROME AND THE PAPACY IN THE TIME OF, OTTO THE GREAT We get an idea of the papacy in the middle of the tenth century from the chronicle of a monk living in the monastery of St. Andrea at the foot of Mt. Soracte, not far from Rome. He was near the scenes of the events he describes and wrote, according to Wattenbach, about 968, when Otto's Italian expeditions were fresh in his mind. But he was ignorant; his Latin is incredibly bad ; he seems scarcely to know the difference between France and Germany, and makes many obvious historical