The date at which an unction was introduced into the Eastern rite is a matter of uncertainty. There is no definite statement to be found that the Eastern Emperors were anointed before the time of the intruding Latin Emperor Baldwin I who was crowned in 1214, and the rite by which Baldwin was crowned was a Western rite. There is no mention of any anointing even in the rubrics of the twelfth century Euchologion. The first definite reference to the anointing of the Eastern Emperor is found in the account of the rite given by Codinus, in which we are told that he was anointed on the head in the form of a cross. Mr Brightman thinks that there was no anointing in the Greek rite before the twelfth century, but it is difficult to believe that this was the case[157]. In the earliest accounts of the Eastern Coronations there is nothing at all said that can be in any way construed as implying any anointing. In the year 602 Theodosius the son of the Emperor Maurice, fleeing for refuge to the Persian monarch Chosroes, ‘was received with great honour by the king, and he (Chosroes) commanded the Catholicos to bring him to the Church, and that the crown of the Empire should be set upon the altar, and then set upon his head, according to the custom of the Romans[158].’ Since the detail of the crown being deposited on the altar is given in this passage, it is most improbable that all reference to an anointing would have been passed over, had such anointing been at this date ‘the custom of the Romans.’ On the other hand St Gregory the Great, commenting on the anointing of Saul, speaks of the anointing of kings in his own day; ‘“Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head.” This, surely, is signified by this unction, which is even now actually seen (materialiter exhibetur) in holy Church; for he who is set at the head of affairs (qui in culmine ponitur) receives the sacraments of unction.... Let the head of the king, then, be anointed, because the mind is to be filled with spiritual grace. Let him have oil in his anointing, let him have abundant mercy, and let it be preferred by him before other virtues[159].’