By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Salisbury. 239 
Nativity. The Blessed Virgin is seated on the ground, at the side 
are the ox and the ass; above is a star, and a legend which I cannot 
read. The document to which this is attached is dated 1381. The 
second represents a lion passant, with a legend round it, in which 
the words de Forwood occur. It is attached to a document dated 
1884, 
We now must give a short account of Post-Reformation seals up 
to that of the late Bishop. These seals differ naturally very much 
from those that precede them. They all agree (1) in having the 
legend in Roman characters ; (2) in containing the surname of the 
Bishop; (3) in dropping the formula Dez gratia. They fall into 
two distinct classes. he first, from the reign of Henry VIII. to 
the end of James I.; the second, from the time of Charles I. on- 
ward to the present day. 
In the first of these two classes the seals have generally some 
central figure in a niche with a shield of arms beneath. In the 
second the shield of arms of the see, as now customary (viz. the 
Blessed Virgin, crowned and sceptred, standing and holding the 
infant Saviour on her right arm), impaling those borne privately by 
the Bishop, take the central place, and in fact become the sole 
figures upon the seal. In the first class we have examples of the 
following five Bishops :— 
36.* John Capon or Salcot, 1539—57. Of strange transitional character. 
37.* John Jewel, 1560—71. 
39.* John Piers, 1577—91. The Good Shepherd. 
40.* John Coldwell, 1591—96. 
42, Robert Abbot, 1615—18. A Bishop seated, teaching. 
The second class of seals consists of arms only with an inscription, 
which some time in the last century began to be in English. 
Class I., 1539—1618. The seal of John Capon* has the peculiar 
legend sIGILLUM IOHIS CAPON DEI P(ER)MISSIONE SARUM EPISCOP, 
and represents the Blessed Virgin and child, the former crowned, 
under a canopy with small figures in niches to right and left in the 
upper half of the seal. Below is the legend cor pgo paTsT, on a 
