Since 1933, Inauguration Day has been observed on Jan. 20 (or Jan. 21 if Jan. 20 falls on a Sunday). The 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution even specifies the time of day when one four-year executive term of office ends and the next one begins: noon. In the American experience, Inauguration Day has almost always been a celebratory event. There have been exceptions, but when a president and a vice president take their respective oaths of office, peace and optimism have been the rule rather than the exception.
Since the rule of the Roman emperors, transitions of power in the West have generally taken place through heredity, oligarchic election, or civil war. After Augustus established the Roman Empire in 27 B.C., succession was a thorny problem because Rome had been a republic for more than five centuries. Most of the emperors after Augustus had short reigns and violent deaths because army factions usually were the force behind the rise of new rulers.
After the emperor Nerva ascended the throne (due to the assassination of Domitian) in 96, he and his four successors adopted men of merit as their sons. They, in turn, succeeded to the throne by hereditary claims. This solution lasted until 180 when Marcus Aurelius allowed his son Commodus to succeed him. Bloodshed in imperial succession resumed.
The Holy Roman emperor was elected by the German dukes beginning in the 10th century. One of the many reasons why Martin Luther was successful in staying alive during the early days of the Reformation was that his patron, Frederick the Wise, was the Duke of Saxony and an elector of the Holy Roman emperor. The papacy has also been decided by election by the cardinals since the 11th century.
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John is a professor of church history and philosophy and chairman of the Church History Department at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
