prelate then immediately stood and recited aloud the following prayer to God (the prayer Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui Hazael super Syriam...), that was repeated in a low voice by the other assistant bishops, with the emperor still kneeling, as follows:Let us pray. Almighty everlasting God, who made to be anointed as kings, Hazael over Syria, and Jehu over Israel by [the hands of] Elijah; and also David and Saul by [the hands of] the Prophet Samuel, we beseech You, grant Your blessing to the work of our hands, and to this your servant N., whom we, though unworthy, today anointed as emperor with a sacred unction, bestow the force and efficacy of the said ointment: constitute, O Lord, the principality over his shoulders, that he be a strong, just, faithful, and prudent ruler of this Empire and of Your people; a purger of the infidels, a cultivator of justice, a rewarder of merits and repayer of faults, a defender of Your Holy Church and of the Christian faith, for the honour and praise of Your glorious Name. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, your Son, Who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. With this prayer, the consecration of the emperor was complete. From this point onwards, the monarch was never again referred to in liturgical prayers as "emperor elect" but as "emperor". It must be noted, however, that although the Catholic coronation liturgy treated the sovereign as "the elect" on coronation day prior to the moment of his anointing and the associated consecratory prayers, under the Constitution of the Empire of Brazil and its laws an emperor succeeded to the crown and to the imperial title as soon as his predecessor died or abdicated. The consecration and coronation of the monarch, therefore, was a solemn sacramental intended to bless the sovereign and to confirm his accession to the throne, but the assumption of the imperial dignity did not depend on it. From the perspective of religion, however, the anointing of the monarch bestowed upon him a sacred character, and the coronation rite placed him in a special position within the Catholic hierarchy. The anointed sovereign became a mixta persona: no longer fully a layman; endowed with some of the status of the clergy, but also not a clergyman, and tasked by the words of the coronation ritual with the mission