MINISTERS OF CHURCH AND STATE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27055, 2 June 1953, Page 13 (Supplement)

MINISTERS OF CHURCH AND STATE

Attendance At Ceremony a r rva " t ’ " iBi "' a,,y “ of State, the servants of the Crown says the ChuTeh l great ° fficers in discussing the significance nf *• lnformation Board, London, leading laymen wereXXn er! or SSTmTS””’’' ,?" S Wh “ * h ' the administration, as we caU It fell Tntn T h Could ndt read write, because they could read and write. 6 an sof

’ji the fourteenth or fifteenth century, for example, the Lord Chancellor would be a Bishop. But as the administration passed from the clergy to the laity, the laymen who most conspicuously served the Crown were still called ministers of the Crown, while to distinguish them the clergy were called ministers of religion. The separation took a long time to complete. Bishop Robinson of London was Lord Privy Seal in 1709 and negotiated the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The Coronation gathers the servants of the Crown round the Sovereign. As it is a markedly traditional service, the ancient traditional ministers are there. The Bishops form the senior body. Second to them are the great officers of State, who were more powerful when the government was conducted by the Sovereign's household, and with them are mingled the leaders of the armed forces of the' Crown. Matters of Precedence The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior person in the Kingdom after the Royal Dukes, and likewise the Bishops have precedence of the Barons. At the Homage the Archbishop comes first. “The Archbishop first shall kneel down before Her Majesty’s knees, and the rest of the Bishops shall kneel in their places.” When the Lords Spiritual have thus-done their fealty the Princes of the Royal Blood do homage. “After which the other princes of the realm . . . the Dukes first by themselves, and so the Marquesses, the Earls, the Viscounts, and the Barons, severally in their place.*’ This may appear to some as unrepresentative, but it is the ancient manifestation of an ordered society, and to determine a new order of precedence in the modern State in its present stage of transition would not be easy. We all hope that the next Coronation will be many years hence, and by then some suitable alternative may have emerged, whereby the homage of many lands and peoples may be more distinctively expressed. The ministers of the Church, as befits a Church service, have a prominent part. Fhree Bishops bear the Paten, Chalice, md Bible in the procession up the

church. The Bishops stand in a body on the north side of the sanctuary. The Sovereign is supported by the Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Other Bishops read the Epistle and Gospel. A group of Bishops deliver the Sword of State into the Sovereign’s right hand. Some assist at the putting on of the Crown, and at the Enthroning. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dean of Westminster have the greatest parts to play. The Archbishop performs almost the whole rite and most of the ceremonies. He is assisted throughout by the Dean, who takes the articles of the Regalia from the Altar, hands them to the Archbishop and replaces them as required. By tradition the Dean also “instructs the Sovereign in all matters connected with the Ceremony.” Historic Feudal Relation The lay officers perform rather differed functions. There is a historic feudal association in their services; many of the offices they hold no longer have their former effective signficance. Some of them are hereditary, some are held only for a day. But the hereditary Earl Marshal (the Duke of Norfolk) is still the master of the civil ceremonies. He and his staff have a great responsibility, including that of summoning all those who are to attend the Coronation. ' Indeed it is not just the great personages round St. Edward’s Chair, but the whole vast gathering in the Abbey, which represents the people in the service that they owe to Queen, country and Commonwealth. The allegiance which the Bishops and Peers proffer is’an image of the allegiance we all bear to the Queen, and through her to the State. The words of the homage are worth remembering: “I do become your liege man of life and limb, and of earthly worship; and faith and truth I will bear unto you, to live and die, against all manner of folks.” This echoes the feudal relation between the lord and his tenants. For us it implies a kind of covenant between the Sovereign and her peoples. She has taken her oath to serve the State and her peoples; and we by representation or implication promise to serve both her and the State.