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I.

INTRODUCTION ΤΟ THE CORONATION ORDER OF KING WILLIAM AND QUEEN MARY. ·

THE book from which the order for the coronation of William and Mary has been edited is MS. L. 19. in the Heralds' College. It is a folio volume, the covers 8 inches broad by 12 inches high. The greater number of the leaves contained in the book are 11 inches high, but some of the papers vary in size.

It is bound in modern half vellum, with marbled paper sides: there is this lettering in black Roman capitals on the back: Coronations. Charles 2nd. James 2nd. William and Mary. As this lettering indicates, the volume contains matter, written or printed, which bears upon the coronations of these sovereigns.

The collection begins with three blank leaves, followed by a series of papers, written and printed, dealing with the coronation of King Charles II. An engraving representing coronation is among them. The tracts belonging to the coronation of King James II. begin with a leaf which would be blank if there were not written on it in a modern hand, underlined: K. James the Second. This set of tracts, besides a printed order of the procession, contains the Coronation Service "prepared by Dr. Wilm Sancroft La Arch BP of Canterbury."

The third set of papers belongs to the coronation of William and Mary. It also begins with a leaf blank, except that there is written on it: King William and Queen Mary, in the same modern hand as K. James the Second's introductory leaf, and underlined like his. Many of these papers have no liturgical interest. But after two documents which bear upon the office of the heralds, there are four leaves of paper on three of which is written the Report concerning the coronation, from the minutes of the Privy Council, printed below. These leaves before binding had been folded in four. Immediately after this Report comes The Order and Manner of the Coronation, written on fourteen leaves of paper, the last of which is blank.

Both these tracts are written in ordinary cursive handwriting, excepting that the e is a corruption of a court hand e, common at the time at which the book was written.

The water mark of the paper on which the report is written is a shield displaying, as Mr. Everard Green has kindly informed me, the of Amsterdam; this shield is supported by two lions, and surmounted by a crown. The paper on which the order of the Coronation is written has a water mark of a shield on which there is a

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fleur de lys surmounted by a French crown: beneath the shield initials H. G. G. in Roman capitals.

It may be noticed that a correcting hand in red has passed o document, making important alterations.

In the Library of the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth also a manuscript of the order used at the coronation of Willi Mary. (No. 1077.) It is neatly written in red and black, the being in red, and it is bound in gilt morocco. It was apl prepared for use at the coronation. It begins with the servic Abbey, not with Mattins, like the Heralds' manuscript. An exar of the text showed no marked differences from that of the Heral In the British Museum are two copies of the Processus f William and Mary. (Lansdowne MSS. 281 and 282.) Th contain a short account in Latin of the coronation service dif places from that printed in this volume. From the point of vie Society, which is mainly liturgical, it has not been thought advi print these manuscripts.

The coronation order of Liber regalis goes back to a ma written as early as the beginning of the fourteenth century, an of the forms of Liber regalis can be traced back earlier still. Elizabeth was the last of the English sovereigns to be crow anointed with the Latin forms. At the coronation of King an order was used which is little else than a version into Er Liber regalis, the book used under the Tudor and Plantagenet d This order continued in use at the coronations of King Charl King Charles II. and thus the medieval order, with but few lasted beyond the middle of the seventeenth century. But the a of James II. brought with it a complication: the sovereign had his religion; and to this change there can be little doubt tha the grave departures from the old forms that may be notice order for his coronation. For most of the coronation Christian princes that have come down to us are associate celebration of the Lord's Supper, and at this celebration it the intention of the order that the new King shall communica at a rite celebrated by the clergy of the Church of Englan impossible that a Roman Catholic could communicate. Eve reception of unction at their hands it was deemed advisable a to procure absolution from the Roman Court. Thus chang order were necessary: the first and most important was to celebration of the Eucharist, and to conceal this, the only m change, the plea was put forward that the coronation order long. Dr. Sancroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was ac

1 Dr. Sancroft has copied into the cover of MS. L. 14. of St. Joh Cambridge, something to this effect from Haerlemse Courant, dated Rome 16. 1685: "Aen seecker prins is Absolutie gesonden, van dat hij sig door e Bischop heeft laten salven."

directed to abridge the coronation order, keeping to essentials.1 A great deal more than this was done." The order was positively rewritten; but from Sandford's book it is not easy at once to detect this process; for in a number of cases only the first words of the prayers are given; and these first words are in many instances so like the beginnings of the prayers in King Charles I.'s and King James I.'s orders that many may have thought that the whole of the prayer following was substantially the same. For an example, we may compare below the prayer for the blessing of the sword in the order for Charles I. with that for James II.

CHARLES I.

Hear our prayers, we beseech thee O Lord, and vouchsafe by the right hand of thy Majesty to bless and sanctify this sword, wherewith this thy servant Charles desireth to be girt that it may be a defence and protection of Churches, widows, orphans, and all the servants of God against the savage cruelty of pagans and infidels; and that it may be a fear and terror to all those who lie in wait to do mischief. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.3

JAMES II.

Hear our prayers we beseech thee O Lord, and by the right hand of thy Majesty vouchsafe to bless and sanctify this thy servant James our King who is now to be girt with this sword: that he may not bear it in vain but use it as the minister of God, for the punishment of evil doers and for the protection and encouragement of all that do well. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

At the beginning of the prayer it may be noticed that the words of the order of Charles I. "bless and sanctify this sword" are changed in the order of James II. into "bless and sanctify this thy servant," an important change, it is true, but the only change found in the first words as given by Sandford, so that it might be thought that the remainder of the prayer is the same. But on looking at the manuscripts it is found that the whole of the prayer after the ending of the first words has been remade, and that nothing but the beginning remains of the original, which was a word for word translation of Exaudi quaesumus of Liber regalis. And this new prayer passes on, with the

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1 F. Sandford, History of the Coronation of James II. in the Savoy 1687. P. 4. The service might have been considerably abridged by the postponement of the fealty and homage of the lords to the following day: for which there is the precedent of the coronation of Richard I. (Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi Benedicti Abbatis, Rolls series, 1867. ed. W. Stubbs, vol. ii. p. 84.)

2 Besides the liturgical and ceremonial changes of this coronation, it may be noticed that the ancient riding from the Tower to Westminster, done before Charles II.'s coronation, was not carried out at this; and it appears to have been discontinued ever since.

3 British Museum, Harl. 5222. fo. 31. See also Chr. Wordsworth, Manner of the Coronation of King Charles the first, H.B.S. 1892. pp. 36. and 130.

St. John's College Cambridge, MS. L. 14. p. 37. See also below, notes, p. 147. 5 Sandford, op. cit. p. 93.

COR. ORDERS.

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