Stripped of his robes, Charles III accepted no king is mighty before God
National Post, 06 May 2023
The most dramatic sight of the coronation was the least magnificent externally
Watching the grand Anglican liturgy of coronation unfold in Westminster Abbey, I was reminded of the great wisdom of the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: The point of liturgical worship is that not that it should say what we mean, but that we should mean what it says.
The coronation spoke poetically and powerfully. It sang gloriously, soaring in spirit, offering supplications to God for the King.
It was magnificent.
Yet the most dramatic sight was the least magnificent externally. Before the presentation of the ornate regalia — the spurs, sword, orb, sceptre, rod, ring, bracelets — the king appeared stripped of all his robes, kneeling before the high altar, immediately following the anointing.
The contrast was striking, and the sequence instructive. At the solemn moment of anointing, the king is stripped of his “robes of state,” the civil power which he exercises. He then is screened from view; it matters not at this moment how he appears in the sight of men, but in the sight of God alone.
We do not see, but we hear; faith indeed comes from hearing. In the long history of Christian liturgy, there are few moments when the music more sublimely animates the ritual than Handel’s Zadok the Priest, sung as if by an angelic choir as the king is anointed.
It is a glorious setting of verses from the Book of Kings: Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon king; and all the people rejoiced, and said: God save the King! It was composed for the coronation of George II in 1727 and has been sung at every coronation since.
The screens are pulled back. It is a dramatic unveiling. What do we see? A king gloriously arrayed as Solomon of old? No. A man in plain black trousers and a simple white shirt. He is kneeling before the high altar.
The vast ceremonials which attend the sovereign present him to us on thrones, in carriages, on horseback, in parade, elevated on balconies. Yet at the solemn moment of his anointing he kneels in prayer before God, humbly dressed, stripped of worldly adornment.
How rare this! The mighty kneel. There are royal houses aplenty in history; only three included anointing in the crowning of their kings. The Holy Roman Emperor is no longer; the French have despatched their king. Only the House of Windsor is crowned by stripping and anointing.
The Habsburg funeral ritual preserved a reminder that even a king is not mighty before God. The late emperor would be processed the church of his burial, but the doors would be closed to him even as his multifarious titles were sonorously recited. Only when he was announced as only “a poor sinner” would they be opened.
When the freshly King Charles rose, he was dressed again — but not in the robes of state. He was vested instead as a priest. The official order of service described the garments as “olobium Sindonis, Supertunica, and Girdle,” “the Stole Royal” and “Robe Royal”. That makes them seem rather exotic; actually, priests wear them regularly for sacred worship — we call them an alb, dalmatic, cincture, stole and cope.
The king is vested as a priest, a minister of the altar, not one attended by ministers of state. Indeed, the coronation service took place with the king facing the altar, oriented toward God, not presented for the people. That took place before and after; at the most solemn moment he faced the altar and addressed himself to God.
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