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

of Trier removed the crown from the Emperor, through whom it came into the hands of the first Hanoverian legate, and from him to the substitute hereditary treasurer, who held it over a red silk cushion, standing with the other bearers of the insignia, until the sacred Eucharist of the Emperor had finished. Then the Emperor, led to the altar by the Elector of Mainz, Ingelheim, and the assistants, supported himself only on his knees, his cushion having been moved away, and from the consecrator, who had already partaken of the sacred feast, he likewise received the Holy Communion. Prayers and the priestly blessing by the work of the consecrator followed according to the ecclesiastical rite. Once these were completed, the Emperor was returned to his seat by the retinue I indicated before, but the first Hanoverian legate took the crown from Count Stolberg and placed it upon the cushion before the Emperor, at which place the Elector of Mainz and Ingelheim grasped it together and placed it upon the August one. There was also another crown for Charles VII resting among these ceremonies on the table of insignia. The Hanoverian legate handed it to the substitute treasurer, while the master of the imperial court placed the Golden Fleece and the collar of the Bavarian Order of St. George around the Emperor. During these times, all things that constitute the holy mass had gradually reached their end, and the Emperor, with the crown on his head and the scepter and golden orb in his hands, entered the throne reverently, accompanied by the consecrator and the Elector of Mainz, both of whom appeared adorned with miters and their archiepiscopal crosiers, the first legates, the assisting bishops, prelates, and hereditary officials. This was in place of the Aachen throne, which they say still survives from the age of Charlemagne himself; it stood out on the right of the imperial oratory with six steps and much display. Occupied by the Emperor, the consecrator added pious words: Retain the royal (more correctly, august) seat which you know is delegated to you not by hereditary law, nor by paternal succession, but by the Electors of the Kingdom of Germany (more correctly, in the Roman-German Empire), especially by the authority of Almighty God and our tradition (thus, the induction into that throne is a certain symbolic tradition, than which surely none is more noble), present and of all the bishops and other servants of God, and the closer you look at the clergy for the sacred altars, the more you should remember to bestow upon them a greater honor in appropriate places, as the mediator of God and men may make you a mediator of the clergy and the people (more correctly, of the populace) on this throne of the Kingdom (Empire) and confirm you to reign with Him in the eternal Kingdom, Jesus Christ our Lord, King of Kings and Lord of lords, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God forever and ever. According to these things, he congratulated him upon the highest dignity in the Christian world, and commending the safety of the Empire, he withdrew to the altar, where he intoned the Ambrosian hymn in a loud voice. The modulations of the choir joined in, which they helped with strings, flutes, and other instruments of musical scholarship, amidst the ringing of bells, the explosion of a hundred war cannons, and the people's acclamations: Long live Charles VII, Emperor! Long live! The consecrator, the Elector of Mainz, and the first legate of Trier withdrew into the sacristy, the former to be clothed again in electoral vestments, the latter to resume that vestment which is familiar to canons. Meanwhile, and while the Te Deum laudamus continued, the sword of Charlemagne was offered to the Emperor by the first legate of the Saxon Elector, who had received it from the hereditary marshal of the Empire. With this, knights were to be created according to the rite of the ancestors. The Electors had nominated certain noble men to acquire this honor and had insinuated them to the Mainz directorate the day before the imperial coronation, from which the names were carried into the august court. Now the candidates approached according to the order of the Electors who had presented them, to whom the Emperor himself had added some; the captain of the guards called out each one individually. Then one after another, kneeling before the Emperor, they withdrew after being touched on the shoulder by the sacred imperial majesty with the sword, carrying away equestrian honors. The first was, due to the ancient privilege of his Family, Friedrich Baron von Dalberg 12, chamberlain of the church of Worms