Coronation Rites. Reginald Maxwell Woolley
by a son of the prophets (2 Kings ix. 1 ff.) may have been due to the special circumstances of the case, or it is possible that there was a more gradual development of the ceremonial in Israel than in orthodox Judah.
The fullest account given in the Old Testament of a coronation is that of Jehoiada (2 Kings xi. 12 ff.). Here is the first actual mention of the crowning, and there are a number of separate ceremonial acts.
(1) The crown is set on the king’s head by the high-priest.
(2) The king is given the ‘testimony,’ for which we should probably read the regal ‘bracelets[4].’
(3) He is made king and anointed.
(4) He is acclaimed by the people, ‘God save the King.’
(5) A covenant is made not only between the Lord and the king and the people, but also between the king and the people.
Here then we have investiture with crown and perhaps with other regal ornaments. A recognition is probably implied in the expression ‘they made him king.’ He is anointed and acclaimed. The covenant made between king and people is, to use a later phraseology, the coronation oath. It was his refusal to make a satisfactory covenant with his people that was the occasion of trouble between Rehoboam and Israel.
At a much later period Isaiah refers to Cyrus as ‘the Lord’s anointed.’ The prophet’s language may be merely metaphorical, but on the other hand may imply that the anointing of a king at his accession was a rite common to the whole East. In later times there was a ceremonial crowning of a Persian king, as we happen to know from Agathias’ story of unusual circumstances attendant upon the coronation of Sapor[5].
Reference has been made above to certain regal ornaments mentioned in the accounts of the coronations of various Jewish kings. The crown and regal bracelets are mentioned among Saul’s kingly ornaments (2 Sam. i. 10). To these may perhaps be added the shield (2 Sam. i. 21), and the spear (1 Sam. xviii. 10, xxvi. 7, 22)[6].
Ezekiel (xxi. 26) mentions the crown and diadem in connection with Zedekiah as the special insignia of the king. There is also special reference made to royal robes distinctive of kingly rank (1 Kings xxii. 10, 30), but there is no evidence as to the nature of these robes.
If the book of Esther can be relied on, there was a definite royal apparel used by the Persian kings as well as a ‘crown royal’ (Esth. vi. 8); and a ‘crown royal’ is also mentioned in connection with the queen, in the case of both Vashti and Esther (i. 11, ii. 17). There can be little doubt that crown and royal vesture reach back to remotest antiquity.
CHAPTER II
THE ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN CORONATION RITE
The Christian rite of the sacring of kings does not derive its origin from the older Jewish rite, though doubtless during the process of its developement it borrowed details from the older ceremony.
The origin of the rite must be sought in Constantinople, and from the Byzantine ritual the idea of the Western rite is ultimately derived. But what then is the origin of the Byzantine rite itself? It is the Christian developement of the ceremonies connected with the inauguration of the Roman Emperors in pre-Christian times. Of these ceremonies we have no very full or detailed account, but although we have no exact and complete record of the actual ritual used, yet certain historians tell us in somewhat general terms of what happened on the accession of various Emperors. For example, the circumstances of the election of Tacitus to the Empire in 275 were as follows[7].
The Senate was convoked and asked to elect an Emperor, and Tacitus the Princeps Senatus on rising to give his opinion was suddenly acclaimed Emperor by the whole Senate, with the acclamation ‘Tacitus Augustus, the Gods preserve you. You are our choice, we make you Princeps, to you we commit the care of the republic and the world. Take up the Empire by the Senate’s authority. The honour which you deserve is in keeping with your life, your rank, your character’ etc., and the acclamations conclude with the repetition of the formal words, ‘Tacitus Augustus, the Gods preserve you.’ He was thereupon elected, and the Senate proceeded to the Campus Martius, where its choice is announced to the people in these words, ‘You have here, Sanctissimi Milites et Sacratissimi Quirites, the prince whom the Senate has elected in pursuance of the vote of all the armies, I mean the most august Tacitus; so that he who has hitherto helped the republic by his votes, will now help it by his commands and decrees.’ The people greet the announcement with the acclamation: ‘Most fortunate Augustus Tacitus, the Gods preserve you,’ and the rest that it is customary to say. Lastly the Senate’s choice is proclaimed to the army, and the customary Donative is given.
Pertinax was suddenly and irregularly acclaimed by army and populace without waiting for the Senate to make an election. Thereupon he proceeded to the Senate, and after delivering an address to the senators he was acclaimed by all, and received from them all honour and reverence, and ‘was sent to the temple of Jupiter and the other sanctuaries, and having celebrated the sacrifice for the Empire, he returned to the palace[8].’
Thus we see that in theory the new Emperor was first elected by the Senate, and then accepted or recognised in the Campus Martius by the people and army with acclamations which followed a definite and fixed ritual, and finally the Donative originated by the Emperor Claudius, and followed by his successors, was bestowed. But in actual fact the election by the Senate tended to become more and more a very perfunctory affair, and the choice of an Emperor came more and more to fall into the hands of the armies.
The Emperor had, however, some power in providing his successor. He could and often did nominate a colleague who would normally possess a right of succession. But while he was merely colleague in the Empire, though he was invested with some of the marks and functions of the Imperial dignity, he had no actual ‘imperium.’
There were also certain definite imperial insignia, such as the purple cloak, once the mark of a general in the field; the laurel wreath, which the Emperor habitually wore; the purple-striped toga and tunic; and the scarlet senatorial shoes.
The ceremonies of the inauguration naturally tended in process of time to develope. The election by the Senate, as has been remarked, became more and more of a form, and new customs gradually came into being. A considerable developement is noticeable in the account of the inauguration of Julian, though the whole ceremony in his case was under the circumstances somewhat informal and makeshift. It is the army which elects him. In spite of his protests he is acclaimed as Emperor; he is then elevated on a shield; and finally he is crowned, a torque serving temporarily to represent the diadem. Afterwards, we are told, he assumed a gorgeous diadem at Vienne[9]. The elevation on a shield, which henceforward always occurs in the inauguration ceremonies, appears for the first time at Julian’s accession to the imperial throne. It was a custom followed among the Teutonic tribes[10], and was doubtless introduced by the Teutonic soldiers who formed so important a part of the Roman armies at this time. The diadem, which is of oriental origin, was perhaps introduced by Aurelian. It seems to have been habitually used by Constantine, and there was a gradual advance during this period in the matter of ceremonial and the sumptuousness of the imperial vestments.
There is no sign, for some time after the acceptance of Christianity as the religion of the Empire, of any Christian influence on the rites of inauguration. It is not until the time of the Emperor Leo I that we meet with the coronation rite in the religious sense of the term. In the year 457 the Emperor Leo I was formally crowned and invested as Emperor with religious rites. Constantine Porphyrogenitus[11], to whom we owe so much of our knowledge of the court functions and ceremonial of the Byzantine period, describes the rite which took place at the accession of Leo. The new Emperor, accompanied by the high officials of the Empire, went down in state to the Hippodrome, in which was gathered together a vast concourse of people. Here he ascended a lofty tribunal in view of all the people and was greeted with acclamations. A maniakis (apparently a kind of fillet) is placed upon his head, and another in his hand, amid the cheers