When the king arrives at the church, he shall prostrate himself before the altar, and the ‘Te Deum’ shall be chaunted.
When this is finished, the king shall be raised from the ground, and having been chosen by the bishops and people, shall, with a clear voice, before God and all the people, promise that he will observe these three rules.
The Coronation Oath
‘In the name of Christ, I promise three things to the Christian people, my subjects:—
First, That the church of God, and all the Christian people, shall always preserve true peace under our auspices.
Second, That I will forbid rapacity and all iniquities to every condition.
Third, That I will command equity and mercy in all judgments, that to me and to you the gracious and merciful God may extend his mercy.’
All shall say Amen. These prayers shall follow, which the bishops are separately to repeat:—
‘We invoke thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty and Eternal God, that this thy servant (whom, by the wisdom of thy divine dispensations from the beginning of his formation to this present day, thou hast permitted to increase, rejoicing in the flower of youth), enriched with the gift of thy piety, and full of the grace of truth, thou mayest cause to be always advancing, day by day, to better things before God and men: that, rejoicing in the bounty of supernal grace, he may receive the throne of supreme power; and defended on all sides from his enemies by the wall of thy mercy, he may deserve to govern happily the people committed to him with the peace of propitiation and the strength of victory.’
