82 



these symbols were, both of them, parts of an hieroglypliical re- 

 cord of the primagval promise of the Redemption. 



In order tliat I may unfold, in a satisfactory manner, my con- 

 jectures upon this dark but interesting subject, it is requisite that 

 I should dwell shortly upon the origin and antiquity of armorial 

 devices ; and trace them to that period, when, used as distinctions 

 merely personal, they were the symbols of the character, or the 

 memorials of the actions of individuals, or bore some other alle- 

 gorical meaning, through which they acquired veneration, in some 

 cases amounting even to worship. 



I pass over the history of gentilitial* or family arms, and that 

 custom among the Romans, the " Jus imaginum,"-f- in some res- 

 pects so similar to Heraldic institutions, that it serves to illustrate 

 their growth ; and shall but observe, that there are very many 

 expressions in the classical writers of Rome and of Greece, from 

 which it might appear, that they were not altogether unknown in 

 the age which formed the subject of their works, or at least in 

 that period during which the writers flourished. In a tragedy of 

 Seneca, Hippolytus;]: is known to have been of the family of 

 Actaecui, by the insignia of that race ; and Ovid supposes ^geus 

 to ha\e recognised his son Theseus, by the devices engraven upon 

 the hilt of his sword, which are expressly called, " signa sui 



* The ordinances regulating the first public tournament, holden in the year 938, 

 demonsti ate their existence long previous to that date. See Goldastus Constit. Iniper p. 212. 



f Mr. Kennett asserts this to have been " much the same thing as a right to bear a coat 

 of arms among us;" (Uom Antiq. p. 99.) but there was no such external resemblance; 

 although the right, confined to the great, and hereditary in every branch of the family, 

 doubtless assisted the change by which armorial bearings became gentilitial from personal, 

 and was probably the origin of adorning the funerals of illustrious persons with the escut- 

 cheons of their ancestors. 



t A. 3. 



I 



