celebrating archbishop or bishop, aided by his ministers, then started the celebration of Holy Mass, reciting the prayers at the foot of the altar, and then ascended the altar while the choir sang the introit. The Coronation Mass took the form of a Pontifical High Mass. While the celebrating prelate recited the Confiteor with his ministers, the emperor also recited the Confiteor with his domestic chaplains under the canopy of the throne, as directed by the coronation rite of the Roman Pontifical. The Coronation Mass followed the liturgical propers of the Mass of the day (including the introit antiphon, the reading of the Epistle, the gradual or tract, the reading of the Gospel, the offertory antiphon, the preface and the communion antiphon), but, at the occasions of the collect prayer, the secret prayer, and the prayer after Communion, special prayers for the emperor, prescribed in the coronation rite of the Roman Pontifical, were recited after the normal prayers of the liturgy of the day contained in the Roman Missal. Those special collect, secret and postcommunion prayers for the monarch were the same ones that are prescribed in the Roman Missal for the votive Missa pro Rege (Mass for the King), with the natural replacement of all mentions of "king" for "emperor". Because the coronation always took place on a Sunday, as required by the Roman Pontifical, the Gloria was sung after the Kyrie (except if the liturgy took place in the penitential liturgical seasons of Lent, Septuagesima or Advent) and the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed was sung after the reading of the Gospel. After the Gloria and the Collect of the day, the special Collect for the emperor was as follows:We humbly ask, all powerful God, that your servant N., our emperor, who by your mercy received the government of this Empire, may receive also the increase of all virtues, and that through them he may avoid all the monstrous vices, and that he may with grace arrive unto you, who are the way, the truth and life. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. The celebration of Mass was then continued until and excluding the 'Alleluia' before the Gospel (or, when there was no Alleluia due to the liturgical season, until and excluding the last verse of tract, or, when appropriate, until