Coronation
Coronation EuropeThe ancient West Asian idea of the divinely appointed monarch took root in Europe at Charlemagne's coronation by the Pope on 25 December 800. The inability of the Eastern Romans to relieve Lombard pressure on Rome in 753 had caused Pope Stephen II to cross the Alps in order to ask for Frankish military intervention in Italy. The Franks defeated the Lombards and gave to the Papacy the territory at Ravenna formerly in the hands of Constantinople. Despite strong opposition from the Eastern Romans, who insisted on the principle of one empire, Constantinople was forced to concede to Charlemagne the title of Basileus, ‘King’.
The Christian rites for the coronation of kings always made it very clear that the temporal monarch was in some sense being ordained, for he was sacramentally anointed and had the hands of the bishop laid upon him in the same manner as at the ordination of a priest. The Church justified the Crown, just as the old...
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