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Conqueror to engage repeatedly that these ancient statutes of the kingdom should not be violated; a stipulation renewed expressly in the great charter of his son Henry I. Laud was charged with adding, after the clause last quoted, the words "agreeable to the king's prerogative;" and of omitting these words, "which the people have chosen or shall choose." Of the latter charge he soon disposed by proving there were no such words in the oath of James I.; and on the former he remarks," First, I humbly conceive this. clause takes off none of the people's assurance. Secondly, that alteration, whatever it be, was not made by me-'tis not altogether improbable [it] was added in Edward VI. or Queen Elizabeth's time; and hath no relation at all to the laws of this kingdom absolutely mentioned before in the beginning of this oath; but only to the words, the profession of the Gospel established in this kingdom:' and then immediately follows and agreeing to the prerogative of the kings thereof.'— If this be the meaning, he that made the alteration,

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whoever it were, for I did it not, deserves thanks for it, and not the reward of a traitor *."

In James II.'s oath, as preserved by Sandford, and in which the precedent of Charles II.'s coronation was followed, we find both these alleged alterations!

On the accession of William and Mary it was enacted, that "as the [coronation] oath hath hitherto been framed in doubtful words and expressions, with relation to ancient laws and constitutions at this time unknown, and to the end that one uniform oath may be in all times to come taken by the kings and queens of this realm, and to them respectively administered at the time of their coronation," the oath, of which the following is a copy, should be taken by all succeeding sovereigns.

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Abp. Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the people of this kingdom of England [now, this united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,] and the dominions thereunto belonging, according to the statutes in

* Wharton's Troubles of Archbishop Laud, p. 324.

parliament agreed on, and the [respective*] laws and customs of the same?

King. I solemnly promise so to do..

Abp. Will you, to your power, cause law and justice, in mercy, to be executed in all your judgments?

King. I will.

Abp. Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel, and the Protestant reformed Religion established by law? [Here was inserted, at the Union with Scotland, in 1707, And will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, [now the united church of England and Ireland] and the doctrine, worship, discipline and government thereof as by law established, within the kingdoms of England and Ireland, the dominion of Wales and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the territories thereunto belonging, before the union of the two kingdoms+?] And will you pre

Inserted on the union with Scotland, in 1707.

In the oath recently taken by His Majesty the latter members of this clause, read within England and Ireland, and the territories thereunto belonging.'

serve unto the bishops and clergy of England, and to the churches there committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto them or any of them?

King. All this I promise to do."

We have some slight traces in the history of our Anglo-Saxon kings of the Gothic mode of royal inauguration by the elevation of their princes. Eardnoulf, the second of those monarchs whose coronation is mentioned by our historians, was Ahofen, lifted up to his royal seat, we are told by the Saxon Chronicle; and Athelstan received the royal unction at Kingston on a high scaffolding which exhibited him to the multitude". This custom is no further worth noticing, than as a pagan rite which was soon disused, on the direction of these ceremonies being assumed by the church and as being probably the origin of the existing mode of chairing members of parliament+.

*Stow's Annals.

In France we read of the exaltation of king Pharamond on a shield, so early as the year 420; of the

Anciently the king knelt while receiving the sacred unction from the prelate of the day, who sat in his chair at the high altar*: a deference to the priesthood which the kings of France retained to the period of the Revolution; and which the Roman Pontifical expressly requires. Since the Reformation our monarchs have also dispensed with sprinkling the crown with holy water" and

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censing it" before it is made use of in these important ceremonies- duties of the archbishop which are laid down in the Liber Regalis, of the dean and chapter of Westminster.

There seems to have been a double anointing of our kings at their respective corona

chairing of Gunbald, king of Burgundy, A. D. 500, in which that prince fell from the supporting arms of his subjects, nearly to the ground; and of king Pepin being elevated on a target in 751. (Greg. Turon. Hist. lib. vii. cap. 10. Mezeray Hist. de Pepin, &c.) In Navarre, the king and queen, after being anointed, were thrice elevated before the altar on a shield emblazoned with the arms of the kingdom, and upheld by six staves.

"the

*Thus in the ordo of Henry VII.'s coronation; cardinal," it is said, "sitting, shall auoynte the king, kneeling."-IVE's Papers.

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