e, as denoting a king or
supreme governor[14]. There is a very early form of delivering this
ensign of authority preserved in the Saxon coronation services; and the
coins and seals of succeeding reigns usually place it in the hand of our
monarchs. Very anciently, too, our kings received at their coronations a
sceptre for the right hand, surmounted by a _cross_; and for the left,
sometimes called the verge, one that terminated in a globe, surmounted
by a _dove_. The two great symbols of the Christian religion are thus
professedly embraced; but the monarch never appears with two sceptres
except on this occasion.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 14: Gen. xlix. 10.]

No. 4. _The Ampulla, or Golden Eagle_

And the "holy oil" which is poured from it, are connected, like the
royal chair, with some of the miracles that no one now believes, and
with some interesting historical facts.

Amongst the honours bestowed by the Virgin on St. Thomas a Becket,
(according to a MS. in the Cotton Library,) he received from our Lady's
own hands, at Sens, in France, a golden eagle, and a small phial of
stone or glass, containing an unction, on whose virtues she largely
expatiated. Being then in banishment, he was directed to give them in
charge to a monk of Poictiers, who hid them in St. Gregory's church at
that place, where they were discovered in the reign of Edward III., with
a written account of the vision; and, being delivered to the Black
Prince, were deposited safely in the Tower. Henry IV. is said to be the
first prince anointed with these vessels.

"Holy oil" still retains its use, if not its virtue, in our coronations.
The king was formerly anointed on the head, the bowings of the arms, on
both shoulders, and between the shoulders, on the breast, and on the
hands; but the ceremonials of the last two coronations only prescribe
the anointing of the head, breast, and hands. In these, too, nothing is
said of the "consecration" of the oil, which seems anciently to have
been performed on the morning of the coronation[15].

Historically, the custom of anointing kings is to be traced to the times
of the Jewish judges; the consecration of one of whose descendants,
Abimelech (before noticed), connects the subject with the earliest and
one of the most beautiful fables of the East--that of the trees going
forth to anoint a king[16]. Selden regards this fable as a proof "that
anointing of kings was of known use in the eldest times," and "that
so