formerly anointed on the head, the bowings of the arms, on both shoulders, and between the shoulders, on the breast, and on the hands; but the ceremonials of the last two coronations only prescribe the anointing of the head, breast, and hands. In these, too, nothing is said of the "consecration" of the oil, which seems anciently to have been performed on the morning of the coronation*.

Historically, the custom of anointing kings is to be traced to the times of the Jewish judges; the consecration of one of whose descendants, Abimelech (before noticed), connects the subject with the earliest and one of the most beautiful fables of the Eastthat of the trees going forth to anoint a kingt. Selden regards this fable as a proof "that anointing of kings was of known use in the eldest times," and "that solemnly to declare one to be a king, and to anoint a king, in the Eastern parts, were but syno

Sandford does not omit to notice, that the dean of Westminster, assisted by the prebendaries, duly performed this office for the coronation of James II., " early in the morning."

↑ Vide Judges, chap. ix.

nymies*.' tree, honouring both God and man with

The elegant allusion to the olive

its "fatness" or oil, should not escape us, as corroborating this conjecture. This poem is dated by the learned antiquary "about 200 years before the beginning of the [Jewish] kingdom in Saul."

We have several instances in Scripture of the inauguration of the Jewish kings by anointing, and of its being performed at the express command of Godt-a circumstance which was held to communicate an official sanctity to their persons, their attire, &c. The noble David twice spares the life of his bitterest enemy, Saul, upon this ground."Jehovah shall smite him," he says; 66 or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into the battle, and perish"-" Who can stretch forth his hand against Jehovah's anointed, and be guiltless?"—and he finely alludes to the general reverence of his country for these appointments, when he exclaims, in

* Titles of Honour, p. i. chap. 8.

↑ 1 Sam. x. 10; xvi. 1; 1 Kings, xiv. 15, &c.
1 Sam. xxvi.. 9, 10.

his memorable ode over his fallen rival, "The shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though it had not been anointed with oil!"

With the spread of Christianity, or rather of the papal domination, over the kingdoms of western Europe, came the adoption of this rite into the coronation ceremonies of its princes. It at once increased the influence of the church, and surrounded the monarch with a popular veneration. The three distinct anointings yet retained (i. e. on the head, breast, and hands or arms,) were said by Becket to indicate glory, holiness, and fortitude: another prelate, one of the greatest scholars of his age, assured our Henry III., that as all former sins were washed away in baptism, so also by this unction*."

66

"Not all the water in the rough rude sea

Can wash the balm from an ANOINTED king,”

Richard II. is made to say, by Shakspeare, on the invasion of Bolingbroke. Sir Walter Scott, in his notes to Marmion, speaks of

Selden's Titles.

a singular ancient consecration of the kings of arms in Scotland, who seem to have had a regular coronation down to the middle of the sixteenth century, only that they were anointed with wine instead of oil*.

No. 5. The Royal Swords

ARE named, Curtana, or the Sword of Mercy; the Sword of Justice to the Spirituality; the Sword of Justice to the Temporality; and the Sword of State. Of these the last alone is actually used in the coronation, being that with which the king is girded after his anointing; the rest are only carried before him by certain great officers. But Curtana has been honoured with a proper name since the reign of Henry III., at whose coronation it was carried by the Earl of Chestert. It is a flat sword, without a point; looking to which circumstance, and to its being also entitled the Sword of Mercy, some etymologists have traced it to the Latin curto, to

* Marmion, 8vo. Note, p. 456.

+ "Comite Cestriæ gladium S. Edwardi, qui Curtein dicetur, ante regem bagulante," &c.

cut short; while other writers, among whom is the learned Mr. Taylor, would transfer our researches to the scenes of ancient chivalry, and the exploits of Oger the Dane, or Orlando, as affording the title to this appendage of the monarchy. "The sword of Tristan," says this writer, "is found (ubi lapsus!) among the regalia of king John; and that of Charlemagne, Joyeuse, was preserved to grace the coronations of the kings of France. The adoption of these titles was, indeed, perfectly consonant with the taste and feeling of those ages, in which the gests of chivalry were the favourite theme of oral and historical celebration; and when the names of Durlindana, of Curtein, or Escalibere, would nerve the warrior's arm with a new and nobler energy*."

The Sword of Justice to the Spirituality is obtuse, that of Justice to the Temporality sharp at the point. Henry VIII.," says a writer in a respectable periodical publication 66 seems to have exercised his taste

for July,

in endeavouring to abolish this discrepancy."

*

Glory of Regality, p. 73, 4.