Reginald Maxwell Woolley

“ There remains to be considered the meaning of the rite of the consecration or coronation of a king. We have seen that an exalted idea of kingship was more or less universal before the times of Christianity. In pre-Christian times the king was regarded as far above ordinary men by virtue of his office, which embraced priestly functions, and was looked upon as being the vice-gerent of God. In the Roman Empire from the time of Julius and Augustus the Emperor was also Pontifex Maximus, the spiritual as well as the civil head of the Empire ”

“ We swear, and by the holding up of our hands do promise all subjection and loyalty to king Charles our dread sovereign: and as we wish God to be merciful to us, shall be to his majesty true and faithful, and be ever ready to bestow our lives and lands and what else God hath given us, for the defence of his sacred person and crown. The form at the delivery of the Sceptre is slightly shortened. After the benediction, as in the English rite, the king kisses the archbishop and the bishops. ”

“ The Roman imperial rite in its first state is short and simple. There are investitures with Sceptre and Crown only. No mention is made of the unction, and this fact, inconclusive in itself, accords with the absence of any mention of unction in the contemporary Western accounts of Charlemagne’s coronation. The imperial rite served as a model for the order for crowning a king when need arose, as is evident from the fact that the early ninth-century Milanese order [174] for the crowning of a king is almost identical with it. ”

“ The dalmatic, familiar in the West as the dress of the deacon, and originally granted as a privilege to the deacons of the Roman Church only, is in the East the distinctive vestment of the bishop. The pallium or loros, once the badge of the Roman Consul, and later of the Emperor, granted at first by imperial permission to the most eminent prelates of the Church, still appears as the royal Armill on the one hand, and as a distinguishing badge of a bishop in the East, while in the West it has long been granted by the Pope chiefly to metropolitans as a mark of honour and a symbol of jurisdiction. ”

“ A recognition is probably implied in the expression ‘they made him king.’ He is anointed and acclaimed. The covenant made between king and people is, to use a later phraseology, the coronation oath. It was his refusal to make a satisfactory covenant with his people that was the occasion of trouble between Rehoboam and Israel.
At a much later period Isaiah refers to Cyrus as ‘the Lord’s anointed.’ The prophet’s language may be merely metaphorical, but on the other hand may imply that the anointing of a king at his accession was a rite common to the whole East. ”

“ Of the Roman rite at this time we have no forms, in fact nothing between the simple forms of the first imperial recension and of the Milanese order and the elaborate order of Hittorp of the tenth or eleventh centuries. Yet whereas in the former of these there were investitures of Sword and Crown only, in the latter the king is invested with Sword, Ring, Verge, and Crown, and the unction is elaborate, being made on head, breast, shoulders, bends of arms, and hands. It is clear that influences have been at work in the intervening period. ”

“ Whence did this Spanish rite come? There is no definite evidence which will permit us to say for certain. It may be that the idea of a religious ceremony of inauguration was borrowed from Constantinople. The barbarian peoples, as they became the new nations, imitated so far as possible the institutions of the Empire, and so it is possible that the Visigoths [166] adopted their coronation rite in imitation of the imperial rite of Constantinople. But if this was so, it is no more than the idea of a religious rite of inauguration which they borrowed. ”

“ He draws it, brandishes it, and returns it to its sheath. The king next takes the Crown from off the altar and sets it on his head, the archbishop saying the special form for the crowning; and then in the same way he takes the Sceptre. Finally, with Crown on head and Sceptre in hand, he is raised aloft on a large shield by twelve barons and deputies of various towns, who thrice shout ‘Real, real, real.’ Certain prayers follow, and Te Deum is sung. High Mass is then begun, the king offering certain palls of cloth of gold, and money according to custom. He makes his communion. ”

“ There is no sign of any ancient rite belonging to the kingdom of Norway, and perhaps none ever existed, for Norway was united with the kingdom of Denmark from the fourteenth century until 1814, and since that date until quite recent times with the kingdom of Sweden. According to the law of 1814, however, a separate coronation of the king as King of Norway took place in the cathedral of Trondhjem where the king was solemnly anointed by the Lutheran Superintendent, and crowned by the Superintendent and the Prime Minister conjointly. ”

“ The taking of the insignia by the king himself, and his investing the queen with her insignia, of which usages there are signs in some of the early Frankish rites, all are reminiscent of the old Eastern rite, as are the private prayers of the king himself, which have their parallel in the living form of the Eastern Imperial rite, that which exists in Russia at the present day. ”

“ After the king is girt with the sword of St Stephen he brandishes it thrice. The Recognition takes place dramatically just before the coronation itself, the officiating Cardinal handing the crown to the Court Palatine who lifts it up, and shews it to the people, and asks according to ancient custom whether they bid the elect to be made king; and the people answer Placet, fiat, vivat Rex. After the delivery of the Verge, the Orb and Cross is put into the king’s left hand without any form. ”

“ The Roman Church seems to have always discouraged the theory that it was in any way an ordination. The fact that in the East the Emperor took part in the procession as a Deputatus proves very little, and the fact that the Western Emperors sometimes read the Epistle at their coronation if anything goes against the theory of ordination, [193] for if the Emperor was to be regarded as in any way ‘in Orders,’ surely his Orders would have ranked above the sub-diaconate. ”

“ The anointing is not in the form of a cross, but of a circle as being the most perfect figure known to mathematicians! Then the choir sings Amen, Amen. Prosperity to the king. Prosperity to the king. God grant him length of days. After this anthem the queen is anointed in the same way as the king with the form: Let your royal Majesty receive this unction as a divine sign and token that your Majesty has this anointing and appointment to your royal Dignity and Majesty from God ”

“ The king was eight years old, and a dispute arose whether the [138] king should be knighted before he was made king. It will be remembered that in the rite of Aragon the king was invested with the Sword at his coronation only if he had not been knighted before. It would seem that originally the investiture with the Sword was no part of the coronation ceremony, but was in process of time taken into the rite from the order for making a knight. Perhaps, too, we may see in the obligatory oath of the people of the post-reformation Scottish rite a survival of a peculiarity of the old rite. ”

“ The people acclaim him, he is raised on a shield, and a campiductor places a torque about his head. This last is perhaps a perpetuation of the makeshift coronation of Julian with a military torque. The standards are then lifted up, and people and soldiery together acclaim the Emperor. The Emperor re-enters the triclinium, and is invested with the regalia. The Patriarch says a prayer which is followed by the Kyrie eleeson, and then the Patriarch invests the Emperor with the imperial chlamys (the purple robe) , and sets a gorgeous crown upon his head. ”

“ Constantine Porphyrogenitus [11] , to whom we owe so much of our knowledge of the court functions and ceremonial of the Byzantine period, describes the rite which took place at the accession of Leo. The new Emperor, accompanied by the high officials of the Empire, went down in state to the Hippodrome, in which was gathered together a vast concourse of people. Here he ascended a lofty tribunal in view of all the people and was greeted with acclamations. A maniakis (apparently a kind of fillet) is placed upon his head, and another in his hand, amid the cheers of the people. ”

“ The general character of the rite of Navarre is seen in the description of the coronation of Charles the Noble in 1390, though unfortunately the actual forms used are not available [129] . The ceremony took place at Pamplona, and is begun by the Archbishop of Pamplona requesting the king, ‘before you approach the sacrament of your unction,’ to take the oath to the people which custom requires. The king accordingly laying his hand on cross and gospels, swears to maintain the rights and privileges of the people and to maintain justice. ”

“ A new benediction appears, The Lord preserve thy life, and the old, The Lord bless thee and keep thee, is altered, the last prayer for clergy and people acquiring much of its present form, And the same good Lord grant that the clergy and people, etc. After Te Deum the king is enthroned in much the present form, and after the homage a final anthem is sung.
At the queen’s coronation the prayer Almighty [84] and everlasting God, the fountain of all goodness is somewhat altered, and the next prayer God, which only hast immortality is omitted. ”

“ Swedish ‘High Mass’ commences; the Bishop of Skara recites the Creed before the altar, and the hymn Come thou Holy Spirit, come, is sung, and the sermon is preached by the Bishop of Götheborg. The Litany is then said and after this, during the singing of an anthem, the king goes to his throne on a dais before the altar, with the Royal Standard borne on his right hand and the banner of the Seraphim on his left, followed by a procession of the regalia. ”

“ The ceremony never became so elaborate as a royal coronation. The Pope elect, who must not be a bishop, enters St Peter’s during the Introit Elegit te Dominus. His consecration as a bishop then takes place. Three special prayers are said for him by three different bishops [149] . The archdeacon then invests him with the Pallium (i.e. the ecclesiastical vestment) , and he is enthroned on a specially prepared throne. The new Pope celebrates Mass himself, and after the Gloria in excelsis the Laudes are sung. When Mass is over he is enthroned upon the apostolic throne. ”

“ There is prefixed to the order a feature unique among English coronation rites, an Order of Morning Prayer to be said on the morning of the coronation because ‘it is fit and congruous, and accordingly the king is to be desired that he will be present at Morning Prayer in Whitehall, and so begin that glorious day with Him by whom kings reign.’ The Order is derived from the Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving authorized by James II for the day of his accession. ”