368 JOINVILLE'S MEMOIRS OF SAINT LOUIS IX. [YT. IL day of St Mark the apostle and evangelist On this day, crosses were carried in processions in several parts of France, and were called " the black crosses,"* a sort of superstition among the people, in commemoration of the great multitudes who died as it were crucified in the expeditions of their holy pilgrimages ; that is to say, in Egypt and before Carthage. This caused much grief and moaning in this world, and at present there is great joy in paradise among those who died for the faith of God in these devout pilgrimages. He was crowned t the first Sunday in Advent, on which Sunday the mass begins with these words, " Ad te levavi an imam m earn," which is as much as to say, " Good Lord God, I have raised my heart and soul toward thee: I put my trust in thee." In these words the good king had great convase of freestone, elevated on a high pedestal, which is said to be the font wherein S t Louis was baptised. * Durandus, in RationaH Divinor. Offic. lib. 6, cap. 102, remarks, that this procession, which is annually made on the feast of St. Mark, and which the whole church acknowledges, under the name of Litania major, was instituted by Pope Gregory the Great, is now known under the name of the Black Crosses, from the sitare and crosses being that day covered with black, in remembrance of the great mortality which happened at Rome in consequence of the plague, and which caused this great pope to institute public prayers. With regard to what the lord de Joinville says, that in certain places this procession was called the Black Crosses, it is only the mode of expression of those times, when all sorts of processions were called Crosses. f On the first day of December, 1226, by the hands of the biahop of Soissons, the archbishopric of Rheims being then vacant I found in an old roll in the Chamber of Accounts at Paria a state of the expenses of this coronation, entitled, " Expense; pro Coronatione Regum," in these terms :— " Expenses incurred for the coronation of the king Saint Louis, in the month of November, 1226." Bread 896 livres. Bread for the king, pies, and making . . 38 Wine . . . . ..99 1 Kitchen expenses . . . . 1356 4 sola. Wax and fruit . . . . ..13 8 The king's chamber ..91 4 10 The queen's expenses 320 Wages and deliveries for the king's household, and for the king when beyond sea . . . . . . 400 Sum total . . . . 5053 14