Commentary on the Splendor of the Arch-Offices in the Coronations of Charles VII, Maria Amalia, and Francis

Pappenheim, holding a naked sword with the point upward, Baron Buseck, acting in the office of hereditary chamberlain, was observed with the scepter; to the left, Baron Ulner, now substituted for the hereditary steward, with the golden orb; and Count Stolberg-Geudern, currently filling in for the hereditary treasurer, with the august crown. Behind the King stood the master of the court, the supreme marshal of the royal hall, the master of the horse, and the captain of the guards. When the musicians had finished the antiphon in the temple, the Elector of Mainz and the legate of Trier, along with their assistants, led the King of the Romans to the altar. There, while he knelt on the lowest step, the consecrator, having set aside his miter but remaining armed with his crosier, recited prayers: Lord, save the King, etc. The King returned with the same retinue to his oratory, while the consecrator, having assumed the sacrificial vestment under his uraniscus a canopy or ceremonial covering for the head and shoulders, intoned the mass of the Epiphany. Many pious prayers followed according to the ancient Aachen ritual. Before they reached the Gospel, the collars of the Golden Fleece and the Bavarian Equestrian Order of St. George, as well as the electoral cap, were removed from the King in his oratory and entrusted to the attendant nobles of the royal court for safekeeping. This done, the Elector of Mainz and the legates of the absent Electors accompanied the King to the altar, while the hereditary officials and those partially substituted for them remained at the King's oratory. At the altar, the King lowered himself to his knees. The consecrator did the same before the faldstool 8 at the epistle side, and the others standing around, the Elector of Mainz and the legate of Trier, did so before their own benches brought for that purpose. Now the litany of all saints was begun, and immediately at its commencement, the legates of the Protestant religion returned to their stations. When the words were reached: That thou wouldst grant rest to all the departed, etc., the consecrator alone rose, and, fortified with the archiepiscopal crosier, poured out prayers over the King. Having fulfilled this blessing, he knelt again and awaited the end of the litany. Then the King and the rest also rose, but the consecrator, covered by his miter and equipped with his crosier, asked the King: Do you wish to hold the holy Catholic and Apostolic faith and preserve it with just works?

8) A faldstool is the seat of a Bishop, see du FRESNE in the Latin Glossary, vol. III, p. 319.