By this time, the foremost part of the procession had poured into the nave, and, amid loud blasts from the trumpeters, the young king at last set foot within the abbey. His canopy was still held over him, and with much dignity of deportment he proceeded towards the choir, where he was met by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the lord protector, and conducted to the chapel of Saint Edmund the Confessor.
After tarrying there for a short time, he was brought forth seated in a chair of crimson velvet, which was carried by Lord Seymour and Sir John Gage, and conveyed to the summit of the estrade, at the north end of which he was set down by his bearers.
Cranmer, who, with the lord protector, had followed him, then advanced, and looking at the assemblage, which had become perfectly silent, called out in a sonorous voice, “Sirs, I here present unto you King Edward, the rightful inheritor to the crown of this realm. Therefore all ye that be come this day to do your homage, service, and bounden duty, be ye willing to do the same?”
An enthusiastic response was instantly made—the assemblage crying out with one accord, “Yea! yea!—King Edward! King Edward!”
A similar address was made by the archbishop at each of the other corners of the stage, and like responses returned.
After this, the Bishops of London and Westminster ascended the stage, and raising the king from his seat, conducted him to the high altar, where he reverently knelt down, but after a short prayer rose again, and offerings being brought him by the Earl of Warwick, he laid them upon the altar. This done, he prostrated himself on his face, while the Archbishop of Canterbury recited the collect, Deus humilium.
Aided by the prelates, the king then arose and returned to his chair, which had meanwhile been so placed as to face the altar. Seating himself within it, he steadily regarded the primate, who thus interrogated him in tones calculated to be heard by all those near at hand: “Dread sire, do you engage to your people that the laws and liberties shall be respected and upheld?”
“I solemnly promise it,” replied the young king, in a distinct voice.
“Do you engage to keep peace with the Church of God, and with all men?” proceeded Cranmer.
“This also I solemnly promise,” was Edward’s reply.
“Do you engage to administer justice in all your dooms and judgments, tempered with mercy?”
“I will never swerve from justice,” responded Edward, in his clear, silvery voice, which penetrated all hearts; “yet will I ever be merciful.”
“Do you engage to make no laws but such as shall be to the honor and glory of God, and to the good of the Commonwealth?—And to make such laws only with the consent of your people?
“Such laws alone will I make as shall be acceptable in the sight of God, and to my people,” replied Edward, emphatically.
The archbishop having finished his interrogations, Edward arose, and being conducted to the altar by the two prelates, a solemn oath upon the sacrament was proposed to him in these terms by Cranmer: “All things which I have promised I will observe and keep. So may God help me, and so the holy Evangelists by me bodily touched upon the altar!”
This oath being taken, Edward prostrated himself with the same humility as before, while the archbishop began with a loud voice the Veni Creator spiritus.
Cranmer then arose, and standing over the still prostrate king, said the Te invocamus. This done, Edward was again assisted to his feet by the prelates; after which, the Earl of Warwick advanced, and divested him of his robe and jerkin, so that a crimson satin shirt was alone left upon his shoulders. A pall of red cloth of gold was then held over him by Sir Anthony Denny and Sir William Herbert, while the archbishop proceeded to anoint him, first on the palms of the hands, next on the breast, then on the back and arms, and finally on the head, making a cross as he did so with the holy chrism. While this portion of the ceremony was performed, solemn notes from the organ pealed through the fane, and the whole choir chanted Un gebant regem.
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