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Tunc dicatur 50 super eum benedictio sequens:

Benedicat tibi Dominus, custodiatque te, et sicut te voluit super populum suum esse regem, ita in præsenti sæculo felicem, et æternæ felicitatis tribuat esse consortem. Amen.

50 This benediction is appointed in the order of K. Henry I., and in the very ancient Cotton MS. Tiberius. B. viij: also of the xjth century. But in the AngloSaxon Form of K. Ethelred we have the following:

"Benedictio ad regem. "Extendat omnipotens Dominus dexteram suæ benedictionis, et effundat super te donum suæ protectionis, et circumdet te muro felicitatis, ac custodia suæ protectionis: Sanctæ Mariæ, ac beati Petri Apostolorum principis, sanctique Gregorii Anglorum apostoli atque omnium sanctorum intercedentibus meritis. Amen. "Indulgeat tibi Dominus omnia mala quæ gessisti, et tribuat tibi gratiam et misericordiam quam humiliter ab eo deposcis, ut liberet te ab adversitatibus cunctis, et ab omnibus visibilium et invisibilium inimicorum insidiis. Amen.

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amabilem faciat, pertinaces quoque in tui insectatione et odio confusione salutari induat: super te autem sanctificatio sempiterna flo

reat.

"Victoriosum te atque triumphatorem de invisibilibus atque visibilibus hostibus semper efficiat, et sancti nominis sui timorem pariter et amorem continuum cordi tuo infundat, et in fide recta ac bonis operibus perseverabilem reddat, et pace in diebus tuis concessa, cum palma victoriæ te ad perpetuum regnum producat. Amen.

"Et qui te voluit super populum suum constituere regem, et in præsenti sæculo felicem, et æternæ felicitatis tribuat esse consortem. Alia.

"Benedic, Domine, hunc præelectum principem, qui regna omnium qui regna omnium regum a sæculo moderaris. Amen.

"Et tali eum benedictione glorifica, ut Davidica teneat sublimitate sceptrum salutis: et sanctificæ propitiationis munere reperiatur locupletatus. Amen.

"Da ei tuo spiramine regere populum sicut Salomonem fecisti regnum obtinere pacificum. Amen.

"Designatio status regis.
"Sta et retine. etc."

Clerum ac populum, quem sua voluit opitulatione tua sanctione congregari, sua dispensatione et tua administratione per diuturna tempora faciat feliciter gu bernari. Amen.

Quatenus divinis monitis parentes, adversantibus omnibus carentes, bonis omnibus exuberantes, tuo imperio fideli amore obsequentes, et in præsenti sæculo pacis tranquillitate fruantur, et tecum æternorum civium consortio potiri mereantur. Amen.

Quod ipse præstare dignetur."1

Coronatus autem osculetur episcopos, a quibus vero et etiam aliis regni proceribus ducetur ad regale solium, choro canente:

Te Deum laudamus.

Quo hymno ad finem producto, dicat metropolitanus: 52 Sta et retine amodo locum, quem hucusque paterna

51 In the Liber Regalis, and in the margin of the Pontifical, the rubric is:

"Et prævideatur a sacrista Westm. quod ornamenta regalia cum magna corona prius sint super magnum altare honorifice collocata: ut omnia fiant sine impedimento, propter maximam plebis confluentiam, quæ in hujusmodi coronationibus indubitanter solet evenire. Coronatus autem rex, et regalibus prius indutus per abbatem Westm. caligis, sandaliis, et calcaribus coaptatis, osculabitur episcopos, a quibus, etc."

Walsingham tells us, in his account of the coronation of Edw. II., "Fuit autem ibi tanta compressio populi, ut quidam miles Johannes de Blackwel, sine viatico expiraret." Hist. Angl. p. 96. And again, incidentally, as to this coronation itself of K. Richard II., "Adveniente die præfixo, conveniunt de cunctis regni partibus, in tanta quidem copia, ut numerus Londoniæ confluentium multitudinem eorum, qui ad regis coronationem paucis annis ante confluxerant excessive (multorum testimonio) superaret." p. 237. See also Holinshed, Vol. 3, p. 319.

There is sufficient evidence in history, that the caution in this rubric, as to the throng of people, was not uncalled for: thus, regem." Rubr. Lib. Regalis.

52

dicat consecrans

successione tenuisti hæreditario judicio, tibi delegatum per auctoritatem Dei omnipotentis, et præsentem traditionem nostram et omnium episcoporum cæterorumque Dei servorum: et quanto clerum sacris altaribus propinquiorem perspicis, tanto ei potiorem in locis congruis honorem impendere memineris; quatenus mediator Dei et hominum,53 te mediatorem cleri et plebis in hoc regni solio confirmet, et in regnum æternum regnare faciat, Jesus Christus, Dominus Noster, Rex regum, et Dominus dominantium: Qui cum Patre et Spiritu Sancto, vivit et regnat in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.5+

:

Catalani has some observations, strange enough, as if the attributing the Mediatorial office to our Blessed Saviour required explanation. Rather, whenever the term "mediators" is applied to the clergy of the Church of Christ, it requires an explanation; and that we should remember the just and proper sense, in which it was used by the older Fathers: not as suggesting any interference with the incommunicable prerogative of our Blessed Lord, by which He is the alone and sole Mediator between God and man, but as referring simply to an infinitely lower degree of mediatorship, which is ministerial only, and nothing more. It is in this sense that the authors of the Apostolical Constitutions wrote, when they thus addressed the Bishops of that primitive age:“ ύμεις τοις εν ύμιν λαικοις ἐστε

προφηταιοι μεσιται Θεου και των πιστών αὐτου.” Lib. 2. Cap. XXV. And the very learned editor, Cotelerius, refers to many similar passages in the Fathers, summing up the whole with this remark: "Solus Christus, aiunt theologi, mediator est naturæ ac redemptionis; sacerdotes autem mediatores sunt ministerii et intercessionis." So also S. Basil interpreted the text of S. Paul to the Galatians, not explaining away the real mediatorship (in its limited sense) of Moses, where he writes; “ Τον γαρ μεσιτην Θεου και ανθρωπων δι' ἑαυτον ΤΟΤΕ προαπετυπου ἐν τῇ του νόμου diaκονια. Οὐ γαρ του Πνεύματος τυπος ὴν Μωυσης, τα προς τον Θεον τῷ λαῷ μεσιτεύων.” De Spiritu Sancto. Cap. xiv. 33.

The reader will remember, see Note 39, that with this "designatio status," as it is termed in

Oratio.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus det tibi, de rore cœli et de pinguedine terræ, abundantiam frumenti et vini et olei, et serviant tibi populi, et adorent te tribus. Esto dominus fratrum tuorum, et incurventur ante te filii matris tuæ. Qui benedixerit tibi benedictionibus repleatur, et Deus erit adjutor tuus. Omnipotens Deus benedicat tibi benedictionibus cœli desuper, et in montibus et in collibus, benedictionibus abyssi jacentis deorsum, benedictionibus uberum et frumentorum, benedictionibus uvarum pomorumque; benedictiones patrum antiquorum, Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, confirmatæ sint super te, per omnia sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

Benedic, Domine, fortitudinem hujus principis, et

K. Ethelred's order, the earlier Forms conclude. And in fact the two succeeding prayers would seem to belong properly to the mass which follows, and where they are ordered in the Pontifical to be said, as the student will observe. Hence they are not placed here in the order of Edward II., nor in the Liber Regalis, nor in the MS. in the King's Library. (Brit. Mus.) 12. D. iij. In the Evesham pontifical, however, (Lansdown MS. 451) we find them placed as in the text.

But

what is very remarkable, they are
appointed to be said here, in the
very ancient Anglo-Saxon order
of K. Ethelred, with which that
Form concludes. Thus:
"Sta et retine, etc.

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Sequitur oratio. Omnipotens Deus det tibi, etc.

"Alia oratio. Benedic, Domine, fortitudinem, etc.

Finit consecratio regis." Then follows the Order for a Queen: and the proper mass. In my remark above, that these two prayers would seem to belong more properly to the mass, I am borne out by a marginal note in the Pontifical, in a somewhat later hand: viz.: "Istæ duæ orationes sequentes debent dici super regem infra missam, postquam oblationem fecerit." But the reader will not fail to perceive that the text, below, of the Pontifical itself leaves it doubtful: merely saying, "vel dicantur loco quo intitulantur, secundum quosdam."

opera manuum illius suscipe; et benedictione tua terra ejus de bonis repleatur, de fructu cœli et rore, atque abyssi subjacentis, de fructu solis et lunæ, de vertice antiquorum montium, de pomis æternorum collium, et de frugibus terræ et plenitudine ejus. Benedictio illius qui apparuit in rubo veniat super caput istius, et plena sit benedictio Domini in filiis ejus, et tingat in oleo pedem suum. Cornua rhinocerontis cornua illius, in ipsis ventilabit gentes usque ad terminos terræ, et Ascensor cœli auxiliator suus in sempiternum fiat. Per Dominum: qui tecum vivit.

Rege itaque in solio suo taliter collocato, pares regni dictum regem undique circumstantes, manibus palam extensis in signum fidelitatis, offerent se ad dicti regis et dicta coronæ sustentationem, 55

Deinde sequatur coronatio reginæ, si eodem die fuerit

coronanda.

Sin autem, incipiatur officium missa 56 a cantoribus de

The Liber Regalis and the margin of the Pontifical add:

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Et illi præcipue qui stirpe regali sunt propinquiores in sustentationem coronæ, sceptræ, et virgæ, regios labores alleviabunt: facto prius dicto regi, ab omnibus proceribus regni tunc præsentibus, publice super dictum pulpitum homagio."

There is scarcely an instance upon record, from the time that the coronation of our sovereigns became an office especially to be fulfilled by the Church, that the celebration of the Holy Communion did not also form part of it.

Either before, or after, or mixed up with the rites and ceremonies of the solemnity itself. Nor has it been otherwise with other Christian nations. Thus Baronius (ad annum 816) speaks of the coronation of Louis the Pious and his queen. "Postea pontifex honoravit eum magnis honoribus, et multis, et reginam Irmingardam, et omnes optimates, et ministros ejus: et in proxima dominica, ante missarum solemnia, coram clero, et omni populo, consecravit eum, et unxit ad imperatorem, etc." Again, the same historian, describing a coronation by Pope

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