bishops, the oath was administered by the archbishop, and the
_Veni Creator_ and a litany were sung. Then the king was anointed with
oil on his hands, breast, between the shoulders, on the shoulders, on
the elbows, and on the head; finally he was anointed with the chrism on
his head. Thus blessed and anointed, the king was vested, first with a
silk dalmatic, called the _colobium sindonis_, then a long tunic,
reaching to the ankles and woven with great golden images before and
behind, was put upon him. He then received the buskins (_caligae_), the
sandals (_sandalia_), and spurs (_calcaria_), then the sword and its
girdle; after this the stole, and finally the royal mantle, four-square
in shape and woven throughout with golden eagles. Thus vested, the crown
of St Edward was set on his head, the ring placed on his wedding finger,
the gloves drawn over his hands, and the golden sceptre, in form of an
orb and cross, delivered to him. Lastly, the golden rod with the dove at
the top was placed in the king's left hand. Thus consecrated, vested and
crowned, the king kissed the bishops who, assisted by the nobles,
enthroned him, while the _Te Deum_ was sung. When a queen consort was
also crowned, that ceremony immediately followed, and the mass with
special collect, epistle, gospel and preface was said, and during it
both king and queen received the sacrament in one kind. At the
conclusion the king retired to a convenient place, surrounded with
curtains, where the great chamberlain took off certain of the robes, and
substituted others for them, and the archbishop, still wearing his mass
vestments, set other crowns on the heads of the king and queen, and with
these they left the church.

This service, in English, was used at the coronation of James I.,
Elizabeth having been crowned with the Latin service. Little change was
made till 1685, when it was considerably altered for the coronation of
James II. The Communion was necessarily omitted in the case of a Roman
Catholic, but other changes were introduced quite needlessly by
Archbishop Sancroft, and four years later the old order was still more
seriously changed, with the result that the revisions of 1685 and 1689
have grievously mutilated the service, by confusing the order of its
different sections, while the meaning of the prayers has been completely
changed for no apparent reason. Alterations since then have been verbal
rather than essential, but at each subsequent coronation