THE ALTERATIONS IN THE SERVICE.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11347, 9 August 1902, Page 7

THE ALTERATIONS IN THE SERVICE.

COMPARISON WITH PREVIOUS CORONATIONS. An able and wteiesfcing article on the new Coronation Service appeared in "The

Times" of May sth, from which we.quote » few of the more salient passages- The writer, referring to the revision of the service by the Archbishop of Canterbury* says: — It could be anticipated that he would bring to the subject a devotional mind and strong English common-sense; but, when it was known that he had received a general instruction to shorten the service, rumours of a disquieting kind began to spread, and irresponsible parsons asserted that serious mutilations of the ceremony were contemplated. The book before us gives the lie to these foolish reports. It presents us with the ancient service, shortened indeed, but not shorn of its dignity, retaining almost every striking feature of the traditional ceremony, and restoring here and there the earlier and simpler language which had been needlessly elaborated by the somewhat wordy piety of the end ot the 17th century. The service with which the new book is most naturally to be compared is that which was used at the Coronation of their i Majesties King IV. and Queen Adelaide in 1831. The service used for Queen Victoria was an adaptation of this, with hardly any but the obviously necessary changes. But the book of 1831 marks the lowest ebb of our Coronation ceremonial. The pomp with which the last of the Georges bad been crowned ten yeairs before had produced a feeling of disgust and had called forth a strong reaction. Accordingly not only was the procession from Westminster Hall abandoned', and the banquet after the service, but the ecclesiastical ceremony was considerably tampered with, although it was not materially curtailed. It is one of the virtues of the present revision that it has gone back behind this book again and again to better precedents. The Preparation. —It will be to very many persons a matter of regret that the ancient ceremony of the carrying of the regalia by 'he Dean and prebendaries to present them before the King in Westminster Hall and the .great procession thence to the Abbey Church should not have been restored. It was given up for the first time at what was called, for this and other reasons, the " half-crownation "of William IV. On the forthcoming occasion the great procession will be marshalled in a large building erected outside the west door of the church; and thither the regalia will be brought by the Dean and prebendaries, to be carried back into the church by the nobles appointed for that purpose. The peers and peeresses, with the. exception of those who take prominent parts in. the service, will have already occupied their places in the south and north transepts respectively; and the main body cf the Bishops will have taken their seats in the sacrarium. This arrangement will considerably shorten the procession, and will save some time at the outset. It will be a new feature that all the Bishops who are in the procession will be already wearing their copes, whereas hitherto they have entered' in their rochets, as the other Bishops, and have vested in their copes at the altar later in the service. The Entrance into the Church. —The choir of Westminster, who are waiting within the church near the west door of the nave, precede their Majesties, singing the anthem, which is taken, as in very ancient times, from Ps. cxxii.—"l was glad when they said unto mc, We will go into the house of the Lord." In the course of the procession up the church an interesting littte ceremony takes place, which has never been definitely prescribed by a rubric, but can be traced l back at least- to the time of James 11. As the Queen enters the choir the scholars of Westminster School will greet her with "Vivat Regina Alexandra;" and when the King in like manner appears from under the organ-screen he will be greeted with "Vivat Rex Edwardus." The Litany.—No doubt there will be some regret that the full form cf the Litany to which we are accustomed should not be retained. On the other hand, it is plain that large portions of that service have no special appropriateness to this occasion, and the liturgiologist will probably be grateful to find that it has not wholly disappeared. It has been used in this service for about a thousand years, though in earlier times it was sung in a much shorter form than that which is familiar to us. Since the earliest parts are retained in the present abbreviation, the change may not unfairly be regarded as in some sort a return to antiquity.

The (»in_nandments are omitted. They appear to have been inserted for the first time in the service for George H. The collect is changed from one which is familiar to us in the Prayer-book (the first of the collects for the King) to a special collect which in Queen Victoria's book came at the end of the Litany. The Anointing.—From the time of William 111. to that of George IV. the Sovereign was anointed on the head, the breast, and thflr hands. This was the manner also of the anointing of Richard 1., but sometimes at later periods the number of places was increased. For William IV. and Victoria the anointing was confined to the head and the hands. The threefold anointing is now restored. It was interpreted in old days by St. Thomas of Canterbury as signifying Gloria, Scientia, Fortitude. It appears to be referred to in the words of the prayer which follows, "by his holy Anointing pour down upon your Head and Heart the Blessing of the Holy Ghost, and prosper the works of your Hands." The twofold anointing had nothing to justify it; it was a mere depravation qf the triple rite which now has been happily restored. The significant ceremony of the Girding of the Sword was omitted in 1831 and 1838, but is now restored.

The presenting of the Holy Bible is the latest of all our Coronation ceremonies; it came in with William and Mary. The words have now been abbreviated with good effect, so as to close with the strongest sentence, " Here is Wisdom: this is the Royal Law: these are the lively Oracles of God."

The Honiage.—lt has been generally expected that at this point changes would be made in order to curtail the proceedings. The essential features, however, are retained, the principal alteration being that the ceremony (which immediately follows the homage of the peers) of touching the crown in token of readiness to support it will now be performed, not by each individual peer, but by representatives of each class or degree. As the actual homage has on previous occasions been performed by classes or degrees, the new rubric only carries out an admitted principle; -but the modification will save a great deal of time. It is satisfactory to observe that the rubric which spoke of medals being " thrown about" has gone, as we may be sure, for ever. The distinction between Princes of the Blood Royal and other peers, with the mention of the Prince of Waks by name, is a novel feature of the homage. The Communion.—The beautiful prayer for the sanctificaticn of the Bread and Wine offered by the King is retained; but the prayer which accompanies the presentation of the oblations of the King and Queen disappears, the words " and to accept these our oblations" being inserted instead of in the usual place in the prayer for the Church militant. This prayer is in part an old one, for it has grown out of the ancient Deus humilmm. Its less is certainly to be re.retted and is the more strange because, oddly enough, it occurred twice over in the recent books, having been previously used for the first oblation .vbich, as we have already said, no longer holds a separate place at the "oegimning of the service. After this point the Communion office is followed as before until the Gloria in Excelsis, which is now ordered to be " sung " not " said " as on the two previous occasions. In Queen Victorias book, whereas this was only "aaid," the " Hallelujah Chorus was sung immediately after it; this anomaly has now happily disappeared. After this section followed a section entitled "The Final Prayers." It consisted of three collects which were inserted at the Coronation of James 11., who, it will ba remembered, refused to receive the Holy Communion. They were intended, no doubt, to counterbalance the large omissions which were made on that occasion. But once in they have remained till now. Two of them are familiar collects from the Prayer-book; the third is a long prayer for the _____ and Queen which has "no

special claim to be retained. This, then, was a natural poinV* for an abbreviation which in no way affected the structure of the service, and the whole section has now disappeared. The result of this rapid review is to show that nfflthing which can fairly be regarded as essential to the service has been eliminated or rudely bandied." The service has been pruned of some of the too luxuriant growths of the later centuries, and in this way it has been materially shortened. It was, indeed, high time that soniething should be done in this direction; for the Coronation of Queen Victoria occupied no less than three hours and fortyeight minutes. It is not easy to compute the time which the revised form will require; but it is safe to predict that the double coronation will be concluded within a much briefer period than the single one of 1838,^ It is not, of course, to be expected that antiquarians and liturgioiogists' 1 will allow the new service to pass without a measure of criticism. The antiquarian will be disappointed that the use of "the houseling cloth," the "towel of white silk or fine linen" held by two Bishops before the King and Queen at their Communion, has not been restored. It was disused for the first time in 1851. It still survives, we believe, at Wimborne Minster, and at an old-fashioned country church near Ross, in Herefordshire, and possibly elsewhere. It is certainly a pity that it should not have beam allowed on this occasion. The mitres of the* Bishops, which the would also desiderate, are still to seek; but be may find consolation observing that the caps which recent rubrics had introduced have disappeared, and the Bishops will remain " bare-headed," as they did when Laud was master of the ceremonies. The liturgiologist proper will be aggrieved that the three " consecratory'' prayers of the ancient forms are net restored to their place, and possibly he will ddslike the use of one c_ them as the collect in the Communion office. He will deplore the very brief and' Imperfect form of the introit. But, on the whole, his feeling will ba cine of relief rather than of regret.

The oldest Coronation service in living use in Christendom, a service which has a continuous history of nearly twelve centuries, deserved to be tenderly and reverently treated. That it has been so treated will, we believe, be the verdict of a reasonable criticism. If it be true that in the province of liturgiology our age is unable to create, at least it has shown itself able to appreciate and to conserve. The new Coronation book may be welcomed as a happy omen of the new reign. The Church of England and the whole people of the Empire may accept it with gratitude at the hands of the Arohbishop and the King.