The consecration of Pippin is referred to, not as a coronation but as an unction. Of it we are told that ‘Pippin was elected as king according to the custom of the Franks, and was anointed by the hand of Boniface, archbishop of Mayence of holy memory, and was raised by the Franks to the kingdom in the city of Soissons[155].’ Here no formal act of coronation is mentioned. Pippin was elected ‘according to the custom of the Franks,’ and it is possible that this same ‘custom’ covers the unction, and refers the ceremony of inauguration back to pre-Carolingian times, but it is not probable, for everything points to the importation of an inauguration rite to give recognition to the new dynasty of Pippin. Possibly again in the expression ‘was raised to the kingdom’ we may see some reminiscence of an enthronization. But the central feature of the rite is clearly the anointing, and this is the only feature mentioned in the account of the second consecration of Pippin by Pope Stephen, where we are told ‘Pope Stephen confirmed Pippin as king with holy unction, and together with him anointed his two sons, Charles and Carloman, to the royal dignity[156].’ And so we find the same feature, the unction, the central point of the rite both in Spain and France. It is natural to draw the conclusion that the French rite was brought from Spain and was of the same type as the Spanish, just as the other liturgical books of France and Spain are of the same type, commonly called the ‘Gallican.’ The rite, when it was introduced into England, most probably was brought over from France, for there was considerable intercourse between the Saxon and Frankish kingdoms, and some intermarriages between the Frankish and Saxon reigning families. To a Frankish origin may also probably be assigned the early German rites, such for example as that by which Otto of Saxony was crowned in the tenth century. In the year 800 Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope at Rome as Roman Emperor. For this purpose it was necessary to have a coronation rite, and hitherto no Roman Emperor had ever been crowned at Rome, though a Pope had travelled into France to consecrate a Frankish king. But this was the case of a Roman Emperor. We are told little of the details of the rite by contemporary writers. None of the Western contemporary historians mention any anointing, though they all speak of the crowning. On the other hand a contemporary Greek writer, Theophanes, does definitely speak of the unction, but it has been suggested that he is here confusing the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor with the anointing of his son Charles as king of the Franks, which took place on the same occasion.