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9 8 Coronation Oaths
contrary to previous opinion, Du Bellay's work had * '
almost no originality
(except to apply to French what had previously been applied to Italian) ;
and (2)
that the glory
of the work was its fortune to be * the programme of
the Pliade.' As a collation of sources and a crisp, learned, and
satisfying
analysis of the results, M. little
Villey's book is a capital exposition of the
art of historical literary
criticism.
ALL constitutional subjects have a special antiquarian interest, sometimes
acute, as in the case of the coronation oath. Scotland's concern in the
subject may safely be reckoned vital in view of the part that religion played
in Scottish history, constitutionally considered, not only from the Reforma-
tion to the Union of 1 707, but ever since. Dr. Hay Fleming has there-
fore chosen the fit hour for publishing his Historical Notes concerning the
Coronation Oaths and the Accession Declaration (pp. 20 ; The Knox
Club, 1910, second edition, price threepence).
The pamphlet traces the position by law and practice in Scotland from
1329, when the long-sought privilege of unction and consecration was
granted to Scottish kings at their coronation, down to the Act of Union.
By the papal bull of 1329 the privilege of unction was granted subject to
an oath by the successive monarchs to exterminate all heretics (universes
hereticos exterminare). At the Reformation, under a statute of 1567, the
kings were required thenceforth at their coronation to * make their faithful
promise by oath in presence
'
of the Eternal God' to maintain the 'true
as * now received and preached within this realm,' and * to root
religion
out all heretics and enemies to the true worship of God that shall be con-
victed by the true Kirk of God.' Oath in these terms was made by
James VI., Charles I., Charles II., William and Mary, and Anne, but not
by James VII. and II.
Though superseded by the Act of Union, the Scottish enactment of
1 is 567 yet unrepealed, and remains, however dormant, on the statute book,
in terms of the Statute Law Revision (Scotland) Act of 1906. Some of
the anathemas of Roman Catholic councils and confessions are printed for
comparative purposes by Dr. Hay Fleming. He would doubtless find
instructive suggestion in the coronation oaths of King George of Bohemia
in 1458, and the
dubiety consequent on the king's silence or indirectness
regarding the Compacta and the utraquist tenets of the bulk of the Bohemian
people. The current question in view is too political to be discussed here,
but the pamphlet is
timely
in now offering a short survey of Scots
coronation practice. It is a valuable supplement to Professor Cooper's
paper in the Transactions of the Aberdeen Ecclesiological Society for 1902,
itself a mine of Scottish coronation-lore.
In the English Historical Review (July) Miss Dilben groups a great many
references to the position or office of Secretary in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries
shewing an original connection with the English
king's < secret '
council, coming to be associated with a clerk, and from
1307 until 1367 combined with the keepership of the king's privy or
secret seal. There were many varieties of the species, however, and Miss
Dilben's collection of specimens throws much light on the official evolution.