Recension III

6. Pontifical , Oxford, Magdalen College MS 226 (now in the Bodleian Library), second half of the twelfth century: coronation order ff. 99–110, ed. Wilson (1910), 89–97.

With respect to the origins of Vivat rex and Unxerunt , on the one hand, I need add nothing to what was said above. Unxerunt and other items, on the other hand, can profitably be traced through the manuscripts of the fourth recension. To discuss these sources it is necessary to distinguish the date of the manuscript from the date of the order it contains. John Brückmann identified those giving the ordo for Edward II's coronation, 1308.^[3] It is generally agreed that the order in manuscripts a—d below was written prior to the coronation of Edward II, and that the order in manuscripts g—i was prior to the coronation of Richard II, 1377. Brückmann thinks there is little direct evidence to associate the intervening manuscripts with the intervening coronation of Edward III, 1327. The occasion and purpose of manuscripts j and k , fifteenth-century copies or conflations of earlier orders, is uncertain.^[4] Although agreeing that the orders of a—d and g—i were drawn up prior to specific coronations, Brückmann questions whether ordines were necessarily prepared directly for specific ceremonies. I shall confirm this important point.