The sacring of the English kings : a paper read before the Royal Archaeological Institute : at Westminster Abbey on Wednesday, July 12th, 1893.
- John Wickham Legg
- Date:
- 1894
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The sacring of the English kings : a paper read before the Royal Archaeological Institute : at Westminster Abbey on Wednesday, July 12th, 1893. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![BEAD IH THE JERUSALEM CHAMBER WITHIN Westminster Abbey By J. WICKHAM LEGG, F.S.A. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, Honorary Secretary to the Henry Bradshaw Liturgical Text Society. The king duly anointed, says Lyndewode, the English canonist, is no mere lay man; but a persona mixta, one in whom the characters of clerk and lay are combined.1 And it has been held part of the common law of England, that the king when anointed with holy oil becomes in- vested with spiritual jurisdiction ;2 this claim to spiritual jurisdiction is made at the time of the coronation of the kings of England by the bearing before the king of three swords, which we shall see to-morrow at the Tower; one, blunted, is the sword of mercy; another, borne on the right hand of the king, shows his claim to spiritual jurisdiction ; a third, borne on the left, shows his claim to temporal authority. This ceremony can be traced back to the time of Richard I.3 In like manner, the king of France, before the late unhappy troubles in that kingdom, was the first ecclesiastical person in his realm.4 And the chief of all princes, the lord of the world, the Roman emperor, was reckoned among the pontiffs. He was certainly to be in 1 Gulielmi Lyndewode, Provinciate, lib. iii. tit. 2. Ut Clericalis, note Bene- ficiati. Oxford, 1679, p. 126. “ Quod Bex unctus non sit mere persona laica, eed mixta.” The King’s Chancellor, on the other hand, though often said nowadays to retain something spiritual in his character, is according to Lynde- wode “ mere laicus,” “ qui de necessitate non erit eiericus,” though often at that time the chancellor happened to he a clerk. -Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, La Graunde Abridgement, London, Richard Tottell, 1577, fo. 35. “ Regis (sic) sancto oleo uncti sunt spiritualiter (sic) Jurisdic- tionis Capaces.” This statement is not contained in every edition; and for the reference I am indebted to the late Mr. H. S. Milman, Dir. S. A. 3 Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Houe- dene, ed. William Stubbs, Rolls series, 1870, vol. iii. p. 9. 4 [Alletz] Ceremonial du Sacre des Rois de France, Paris, 1775, p. 54, note. “ Le Roi de France est la premiere per- sonne Eeclesiastique de son Royaume.” See also De Sacris Unction thus, libri tres, authore H. Moro, Paris, 1593, p. 159.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24992021_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
