Catherine Pepinster
Hodder and Stoughton, £25, 352 pages
On October 11, 1521 Leo X con-
ferred the title Fidei Defensor on Henry VIII for his pious refutation – in his book Asserto septem sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum – of the troublesome German’s radical “95 Theses”. When Henry’s marital requirements occasioned his own break with Rome, he was deprived of the title by Paul III but it was restored to him by Parliament in 1544 when he was defending something different. Catherine Pepinster’s book has, inevitably, been overtaken by events. Its ample discussion of the then-Prince Charles’s suggestion that on his accession he might prefer to be a “Defender of Faith” rather than “Defender of the Faith” was swiftly determined and decisively squashed at the Accession Council – televised for the first time – when he was proclaimed Defender of the Faith in the traditional manner.
One of Pepinster’s other suggestions is that the Coronation Rite should be divorced from the celebration of Holy Communion. As she points out, there was no service of Holy Communion at the coronation of the last Catholic king, James II. Her suggestion is that the Japanese model should be adopted, where the secular assumption of the Imperial throne is separated by time and place from the Shinto religious rites proper to the new Emperor. As the United Kingdom’s Coronation Rite includes the anointing of the Sovereign with holy oil – the use of which is ineluctably sacramental – it is not clear what point she is trying to made. Why one sacrament and not the other? The decisions about significant changes were probably taken some time ago and are unlikely to be reviewed and changed now – and more’s the pity.
There have been suggestions in the press that some of the traditional elements of King Charles’s coronation will be unaltered, but the service will be much shorter. Reports suggest that it may be less expensive than in 1953, which is hardly surprising given the woeful economic circumstances the country finds itself in and which are unlikely to have been resolved by May. Given the King’s interest in inter-faith dialogue, it may be that some elements of diversity are to have a place; whether present in the congregation or the sanctuary remains uncertain, although whether with speaking parts or not is open to question.
Even as these become live issues, it is unlikely that this book will have much impact. Its history of the Coronation Rite and the spiritual lives and religious beliefs of our monarchs is fluent enough, but the prose is bloodless, pedestrian and plodding. The author is a regular contributor to Thought for the Day on Radio 4’s Today programme and, although my bedside wireless is invariably switched off as those words are intoned, enough has been heard over the years to know that the prose of most contributors rarely rises above the mundane and the platitudinous. The same is true of parts of this book. Repetitions and recapitulations also irritate, as does the ending of each chapter, which trails what is to come in the next. However attractive the packaging, the content is thin gruel.
The author is not alone in being exercised by the explicitly Protestant element of the oaths that a Sovereign must take, and which His Majesty now has taken. There are those in that strange hybrid that is the Church of England – Evangelical Protestant, Broad Church, Middle-of-the-Road and Anglo-Catholic – who would share such hesitations and reservations. The CofE is formed and constrained by history. The Henrician Reformation was less doctrinally ideological than that in northern Europe; Edward VI and his ministers were more explicitly and doctrinally Protestant. His reign was short and he was succeeded by his Catholic sister, Mary – but her reign was also short and any putative English Counter-Reformation disappeared.
The character of the Church of England was formed much more by Elizabeth I, who had “no desire to make windows into men’s souls”. It was significant that Henry VIII’s title “Head of the Church of England” was changed by his daughter who became, as her successors have remained, Supreme Governors instead. The phenomenon that was the Oxford Movement, given glancing reference, injected a more explicitly catholic sacramentality into the Church of England. Its detractors may have called it the “Mass in masquerade”, but its impact was profound.
Its residual influence could be seen in the obsequies for Elizabeth II, which included the Proficiscere, the Kontakion of the Dead from the Orthodox Liturgy, and a prayer of St John Henry Newman. Meanwhile, Cardinal Nichols led one of the prayers. Elizabeth was said to refer to Basil Hume, to whom she gave the Order of Merit, as “my Cardinal”; she referred to Cormac Murphy-O’Connor in the same way, and also attended Vespers at Westminster Cathedral. The author sees this as a cautious rapprochement between the monarchy and Catholicism. The King’s coronation may see further similar changes.
It is not impossible, of course, that the constraints of history and tradition may be loosened or jettisoned altogether. In an increasingly secular culture and polity, the sacred and the traditional have to be refreshed and their value argued for and defended. They cannot be taken for granted. Ecumenism has transformed the religious landscape since the last coronation; it is a very different world, for in the course of the last reign social, political and religious life all changed considerably.
It is not necessarily the task of a constitutional monarch to initiate change, but it is the monarch’s responsibility both to recognise and respond to changes in society and its composition – and above all to maintain a sense of cohesion and of unity in diversity. This was something that Elizabeth II recognised as she moved with the times. She was not given to dramatic statements like those of Queen Victoria, who with typical aggrandising self-pity said, “I have worn a thorny crown and carried a heavy cross.”
Throughout her reign the late Queen exemplified Christian virtues of duty, service and sacrifice. In her Christmas broadcasts of her later years she articulated her faith and her response to the will of God. She maintained the highest traditions of her office, but although monarchy is the supreme example of living tradition she was also fully aware that the survival of monarchy depended on it being able to change while remaining the same. On that principle alone, there is no reason that the rites and ceremonies of any coronation have necessarily to be preserved in aspic.
That said, there were paths down which she preferred not to travel. When asked by a Canon of Windsor who had responsibility for the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor Great Park whether he might wear a chasuble when celebrating Holy Communion, she simply replied: “Yes, of course, but not when I am there.” Principled and practical: the hallmarks of her glorious reign. With or without this book, the ceremonies of the King’s coronation in May will speak for themselves – and far louder than any words.
The Revd William Davage is a former Priest Librarian of Pusey House, Oxford
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