3 oo HERALDIC SCIENCE. 



In the thirteenth century the cognisances became in universal use, and 

 henceforward not only the nobles, but towns, villages, and abbeys also, 

 assumed armorial bearings. The cognisances then received the name of 

 blazon, the etymology of which gave rise to much debate among the learned, 

 though this debate might have been spared had they noticed that in early 

 French the word blazer (to shine, to blaze), of Celtic origin, is often used 

 instead of shield or buckler. Thus the author of the romance " William-the- 

 Short-Noscd," describing a battle in the twelfth century, writes that the 

 assailants crushed the helmets and broke the blasons in pieces ; and in the not 

 less ancient romance of " Garin le Loherain," which is referred to in another 

 part of this volume, the hero is overthrown by a terrible blow dealt at his 

 blason by Chevalier Ivait : in another place, King Amadus, attacking a 

 Gascon, strikes the buckle, or central part, of his adversary's blmon. Blason, 

 then, simply means the buckler, the shield, upon which the coat-of-arms was 

 at first displayed. The science of blazonry, begotten of the necessity for having 

 some means of distinguishing between so many different signs and emblems, 

 was but the result of studying the various manners in which were arranged 

 the enamels and divisions which appeared in the coats-of-arms. It was also 

 called heraldic science, because it was the special study of the heralds, whose 

 functions became of considerable importance in the feudal organization of the 

 Middle Ages. The duties of the heralds are alluded to in the volume on 

 "Manners and Customs" (chapter on Chivalry), but it may be added here 

 that these officers of the household, who only obtained their diploma, or com- 

 mission, after an apprenticeship of seven or eight years in the service of their 

 feudal lord, had over them the kings of arms (Fig. 221), appointed by the 

 sovereign to draw up a list of the nobles and gentry of each province, with 

 their different armorial bearings, for the compilation of a general peerage, 

 which was placed in the custody of the premier King of Arms of France. 



Figuring in their capacity of public officials at certain ceremonies, where 

 they received, in accordance with the established custom, many valuable 

 presents, the heralds of arms were, as a rule, men of considerable erudition, 

 incessantly engaged in verifying the titles of nobility and the genealogies, in 

 deciphering the blazons, and in establishing generally the true principles of 

 heraldic science. It was they who laid down the laws with regard to the 

 mass of distinctive decorations, the original selection of which had often been 

 guided by ignorance or capriciousness. 



