The classifying of the different developements of the rite even of one country is a work of considerable difficulty. The ‘Recensions’ by means of which the developement of each rite is marked are, to a certain extent, arbitrary, and simply mark periods at which the process of developement has evolved definite changes. There is a vast number of forms in existence, many of which were probably never used but simply served to render the Pontificals in which they occur complete. The history of the rite is most easy to follow in the older kingdoms of England and France, in which both the monarchical and the national spirit were most marked, and which accordingly were inclined to shew a somewhat independent spirit towards the Papacy. Germany and Hungary were largely influenced in their rite by the Roman, while those lands, such as the Scandinavian kingdoms and Scotland, which emerged somewhat late from a condition of semi-barbarity, only attained to the dignity of possession of a coronation rite at a time when the prestige of things Roman was well established, with the result that their rite appears to have been more or less Roman. THE ENGLISH RITE There are six well-marked recensions of the English rite. (1) The Order of the so-called Pontifical of Egbert. (2) The so-called Order of Ethelred II. (3) The Order of the twelfth century. (4) The Order of the _Liber Regalis_, which lasted (in English from the time of James I) until the reign of James II. (5) The Order of James II. (6) The Order of William and Mary, which with comparatively unimportant changes has been used down to the present time. I The earliest form of the English rite is that which is found in the so-called Pontifical of Egbert, Archbishop of York 732-766. Of this rite Dom Cabrol[63] says that it is ‘sans doute le plus ancien qui existe.’ But the whole question of the date of this Pontifical, and its connection with Egbert is one that much needs investigation, and in the absence of any recent and thorough discussion of these points, it is precarious to deal with this document as belonging to the eighth century. As to the existence of a coronation rite among the Anglo-Saxons, we find two allusions to a religious ceremony in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at the end of the eighth century. Thus under the year 785 we are told that Ecgferth, who was associated on the throne by his father Offa, was in that year ‘hallowed as king[64]’ (to cyninge gehalgod). The same authority speaks of the consecration of Eardwulf on his accession to the Northumbrian throne in the year 795; ‘he was then consecrated and raised to his throne’ (geblestod ⁊ to his cinestole ahofen). Eardwulf who was of the old line of kings had been called to the throne after a usurpation.