[56] In nomine domini nostri Jesu Christi. Ego N. rex, et futurus imperator Romanorom, promitto, spondeo, polliceor, atque per haec evangelia iuro coram Deo et beato Petro apostolo, tibi N. beati Petri apostoli vicario fidelitatem, tuisque successoribus canonice intrantibus; meque amodo protectorem ac defensorem fore huius sanctae Romanae ecclesiae, et vestrae personae, vestrorumque successorum in omnibus utilitatibus, in quantum divino fultus fuero adiutorio, secundum scire meum ac posse, sine fraude et malo ingenio. Sic me Deus adiuvet et haec sancta Dei evangelia.
[57] There is no mention of the place where the Emperor is anointed, but as he is invested before the altar of St Maurice it seems probable that here too he was anointed by the Bishop of Ostia as in the last recension. Diemand seems not to have noticed where the investitures took place, and assumes that the unction was made before the Confessio of St Peter.
[58] Pertz, M. G. Legg. pp. 528 ff.
[59] P. L. LXXVIII. coll. 1238 ff. Almost identical is Muratori’s Order. See Lit. Rom. Vetus, Vol. II. p. 455.
[60] Pontificale Romanum (1520). De coronatione Romani Imperatoris.
[61] Rex Teutonicorum occurs often in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Rex Germanicorum occurs once or twice in early times. Maximilian I first added the title Rex Germaniae. Bryce says that there is reason to think that in later times Erwählter began to acquire the meaning of ‘elective’ in the place of ‘elect.’ See Roman Empire, p. 531, note b. (Ed. 1910.)
[62] The first reference to the consecration of a Saxon king is found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 785, when Ecgferth was associated as king by his father Offa.
[63] DACL, art. Bretagne (grande-), col. 1238.
[64] Dom Cabrol, loc. cit., giving the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as his authority, most unjustifiably states that Ecgferth was ‘couronné et oint.’ In the case of Ecgferth the A.-S. Chronicle account goes back to the compiler of the Winchester Annals drawn up under Alfred. What his sources were we do not know. In the case of Eardwulf of Northumbria we have the contemporary Northumbrian Annals embedded in Simeon of Durham and known through him and certain passages common to him and the A.-S. Chronicle, extending from the death of Bede to 802.
[65] Rich. de Cirencestria, Speculum Historiale (Rolls Series), II. p. 27. We have the evidence of a charter of Burgred and Aethelswyth to show that crowns were among the regalia of the Mercian kings in the ninth century, but this does not necessarily imply any religious ceremony of coronation. J. M. Kemble, Codex Diplom., II. 94.