Pepin le Bref, son of Charles Martel and founder of the second dynasty, was the first of the French kings who was consecrated by the religions rite of anointing.  But its mode of administration for a long period underwent numerous changes, before becoming established by a definite law.  Thus Pepin, after having been first consecrated in 752 in the Cathedral of Boissons, by the Archbishop of Mayence, was again consecrated with his two sons Charlemagne and Carloman, in 753, in the Abbey of St. Denis, by Pope Stephen III.  Charlemagne was twice anointed by the Sovereign Pontiff, first as King of Lombardy, and then as Emperor.  Louis le Debonnaire, his immediate successor, was consecrated at Rheims by Pope Stephen IV. in 816.  In 877 Louis le Begue received unction and the sceptre, at Compiegne, at the hands of the Archbishop of Rheims.  Charles le Simple in 893, and Robert I. in 922, were consecrated and crowned at Rheims; but the coronation of Raoul, in 923, was celebrated in the Abbey of St. Medard de Soissons, and that of Louis d’Outremer, in 936, at Laon.  From the accession of King Lothaire to that of Louis VI. (called Le Gros), the consecration of the kings of France sometimes took place in the metropolitan church of Rheims, and sometimes in other churches, but more frequently in the former.  Louis VI. having been consecrated in the Cathedral of Orleans, the clergy of Rheims appealed against this supposed infraction of custom and their own special privileges.  A long discussion took place, in which were brought forward the titles which the Church of Rheims possessed subsequently to the reign of Clovis to the exclusive honour of having kings consecrated in it; and King Louis le Jeune, son of Louis le Gros, who was himself consecrated at Rheims, promulgated a special decree on this question, in anticipation of the consecration of his son, Philippe Auguste.  This decree finally settled the rights of this ancient church, and at the same time defined the order which was to be observed in future at the ceremony of consecration.  From that date, down to the end of the reign of the Bourbons of the elder line, kings were invariably consecrated, according to legal rite, in the metropolitan church of Rheims, with the exception of Henry IV., who was crowned at Chartres by the bishop of that town, on account of the civil wars which then divided his kingdom, and caused the gates of Rheims to be closed against him.

[Illustration:  Fig. 386.—­Coronation of Charlemagne.—­Fac-simile of a Miniature in the “Chroniques de Saint-Denis,” Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century (Imperial Library of Paris).]