Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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CORONATION, ROYAL

The ceremony by which a monarch is crowned by the Pope or by someone in ecclesiastical authority. Early coronations in the West record that the Visigothic kings were crowned by the Bishop of Toledo in Spain. The rite of anointing was introduced in the East about the twelfth century. In Protestant regimes, where Church and State are closely united, the coronation follows the pattern of pre-Reformation times and may, as in England, include a special oath for the defense of Protestantism.