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head, enrich you with wisdom and virtue, that after this life you may meet the everlasting bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.

In King James's ritual, the archbishop is directed

to say,

Receive the crown of glory and the honour of joy, that you may shine in righteousness and be crowned with everlasting gladness. Seeing you are by our ministry solemnly consecrated our queen, receive the crown of royal excellency, which is placed upon your head by the episcopal hands of us though most unworthy, and as you are crowned without with gold and pearl, so labour to be beautified within with the gold of wisdom and the pearl of virtue, that after this life ended, you may with the just virgins decently meet the everlasting bridegroom our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father, &c.

The queen being crowned, the peeresses put on their coronets; the sceptre and rod are then placed in the queen's hands, the archbishop saying,

O Lord, the fountain of all good things, and the giver of all perfection, grant unto this thy servant, our queen, that she may order aright the dignity she hath obtained, and with good works establish the glory thou hast given her, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The queen is then led back to her chair by two bishops, and makes an humble reverence to the king as she passes the throne. She takes her seat on a lower throne at the left hand of the king, where she reposes while an anthem is sung by the choir.

Here the ceremony ended at the coronation of James II., who, being a Roman Catholic, could not receive the sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England; but in all subsequent forms, the communion service follows the memorial we have just described.

COMMUNION SERVICE.

The office of the communion is begun by singing the following anthem, usually called the Introit.

Behold, O Lord, our defender, and look upon the face of thine anointed. The Lord God is a light and a defence: the Lord

will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that live a godly life. O Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man who putteth his trust in thee.

The sovereign, supported by the bishops of Bath and Durham, and preceded by noblemen bearing the four swords, advances to the altar, while the following anthem, called Graduale, is sung.

Let my prayer come up unto thy presence as the incense, and the lifting up of my hands be as an evening sacrifice.

One of the bishops now gives bread and wine to the sovereign, who offers them, and then laying aside the crown and sceptre, kneels down at the altar. The archbishop then reads the following prayer:

Bless, O Lord, these thy gifts, and sanctify them unto this holy use; that by them we may be made partakers of the body and blood of thy only begotten son, Jesus Christ. And grant that thy servant our dread sovereign, may be fed thereof unto everlasting life of soul and body, and enabled thereby to discharge the duty of his (or her) high place and office, whereunto thou hast called him (or her) of thy great goodness. Grant this, O Lord, for Jesus Christ's sake, our only mediator and advocate. Amen.

SECOND OBLATION.

The Lord High Chamberlain now delivers unto the sovereign a wedge of gold, called a mark, weighing eight ounces, which is received by the archbishop into the basin, and reverently laid upon the altar. The weight of the offering was established before the coronation of Richard II., but Walsingham, in his description of that ceremonial, observes, "The king may offer more to God and St. Peter if he pleases." The sovereign still kneeling, the archbishop pronounces the following benediction and prayer:

Almighty God give thee of the dew of heaven and of the fat of the earth, and abundance of corn and wine. Let the nations serve thee, and the tribes worship thee, and let him be blessed that blesseth thee, and God shall be thy helper.

Almighty God bless thee with the blessing of heaven above, in the mountains and hills, and with the blessings of the earth

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beneath, with the blessings of corn, and wine, and fruit, and let the blessings of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, be established upon thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bless, O Lord, the virtuous character of this king (or queen), and accept the works of his (or her) hands; replenish his (or her) realm with the blessings of heaven, of the dew, of the water, and of the deeps. Let the influence of the sun and moon drop down fatness upon the high mountains, and the clouds rain plenty on the valleys, that the earth may abound with all things. Let the blessings of Him that appeared in the bush, descend upon his (or her) head, and the fulness of His blessings fall upon his (or her) children and children's children. Let his (or her) feet be dipped in oil, and his (or her) horn exalted as the horn of a unicorn, with which he (or she) may scatter his (or her) enemies from off the face of the earth. The Lord that sitteth in heaven, be his (or her) defender, for ever and ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The communion service then proceeds according to the ordinary form. After the sovereign has communicated, the choir sings the following anthem :

O hearken unto the voice of my calling, my King and my God. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee. For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous, with favour wilt thou compass them as with a shield.

After the communication the sovereign resumes the crown and reascends the throne. In the collects before the final benediction, a short clause relating to the peculiar circumstances of each coronation is introduced by the archbishop, and the ceremony concludes with the usual blessing.

The greater part of the prayers used at the coronation, are borrowed from the Ordo Romanus, but large additions were made to the ancient forms in the time of the Stuarts, though complaints had been often made before, of the unnecessary length of the ceremony. In the preface to the ritual of Edward VI., which is far more simple than any other, the causes of curtailing the form are explicitly stated: "The Lord Protector, and others his co-executors whose names are hereunto subscribed, upon mature and deep deliberation had amongst them, did finally resolve, that foras

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much as divers of the old observances and ceremonies to foretimes used at the coronation of kings of this realm, were by them thought meet for sundry respects to be corrected, and namely, for the tedious length of the same, which should weary and be hurtsome peradventure to the king's majesty, being yet of tender age, fully to endure and abide out; and also for that many points of the same were such as by the laws of this realm, at this present were not allowable, &c." The changes thus made were exceedingly judicious, and it is to be regretted that this reformed ceremonial was so soon abandoned. But the accession of Mary brought back the ancient forms of worship, and Elizabeth was probably unwilling to abandon any of the old ceremonials, lest she should furnish any new pretext to those who impugned her title. The attachment of the first of the Stuarts to forms and ceremonies, led to the adoption of a long ritual at his coronation, which, though subsequently curtailed, is still of very inconvenient extent, and contains many expressions open to serious objections. The reference to "the horn of the unicorn," in the very last prayer we have extracted, is a pure absurdity; not only because the animal is fabulous, but also because the oriental use of "the horn," as a symbol of strength and power, is founded on customs to which we have no parallel in Europe.

RETURN OF THE PROCESSION TO WESTMINSTER HALL.

When the ceremonies of the coronation are concluded, the sovereign, attended by the lords who carry the four swords, returns to the altar, where St. Edward's staff, the spurs, and the orb are again delivered to the lords who brought them; the sovereign then proceeds to the altar at the head of St. Edward's shrine, on which the regalia are reverently deposited by the dean of Westminster. When this is done, the sovereign is disrobed of the sacred vestments, which are laid

upon the altar, and is then robed in the royal robes of purple velvet, furred with ermine. The crown of state is then placed upon the sovereign's head by the archbishop of Canterbury, and worn during the rest of the day. In returning, the sovereign bears the sceptre in the right hand, and the orb in the left, and if there be a queen consort, she carries, in like manner, the sceptre and the ivory rod. The archbishop and bishops who assisted in the ceremony, also lay aside their copes, and appear only in their rochets. The procession is then marshalled by the officers at arms, and returns in nearly the same order as it entered the Abbey, only that the peers, peeresses, kings at arms, &c., wear their coronets, and the bishops their caps.

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