714 
Heraldry. family carried a beard or for their arms ; because the 
“—_—" historian, in order to mark that a red beard was a 
common feature in that family, says— Quod insigne 
mansit et in posteris ejus, et m pars rutila barba 
fuerunt.” (Sueton. in Nerone,c. 1.) And yet nothing 
ean be more certain, than that passages in ancient au- 
thors, of a complexion exactly similar to this, are the 
only authorities for half the armorial bearings of the 
Greeks and Romans. Because Seleucus had a mark on 
his thigh which resembled an anchor, he and all his de- 
seendants are said to have borne an anchor for their 
arms. It is wonderful that Augustus is not alleged to 
have blazoned on his shield the Ursa Major, since it is 
well known that he had on his back as many moles as 
there are stars in that constellation, and arranged in the 
same manner: (Sueton. in Aug.) The figures on the 
legionary shields of the time of Augustus were exactly 
of the same nature with those of the Greeks of the he- 
roic ages, or of the Egyptians, Anubis and Macedo. 
‘Fhe 8th the And, upon the whole, if we lay aside the dreams of 
when.” enthusiastic heralds, and scholars, equally enthusiastic, 
*"Y: who will not-condescend to. allow to the moderns the 
honour of inventing even the arts which they them- 
selves despise, we believe we shall find that to be the 
most rational theory which maintains, that armorial 
bearings were invented in the 10th century, perfected 
in the 11th, and have accordingly been for about seven 
hundred years only, in an of the world, the dis- 
tinguishing marks of families, and of noble birth. 
Its proofs 9. In many parts of Europe, there remain tombs of 
from tombs, princes, lords, and gentlemen of every degree, more 
ancient than the year 1000; and yet in no one of 
can the smallest trace of armorial bearings be discover- 
ed. The most indefatigable antiquaries have explored 
Italy, Germany, Flanders, and the various provinces 
of France and England, without the least success ; and 
have been obliged to confess, that neither im manu- 
scripts, nor upon the gateways, and vaults of castles, nor 
upon the altars of the most ancient cathedrals, have 
they been able to find any thing more early than the 
well known arms of Varmond, Count of Vasserburg, 
on his tomb in the church of St Emeran at Ratisbon. 
He is represented as lying on his back upon his tomb, 
with a lance in his left hand, and on his right his shield 
without ornaments—“ Coupé of argent and sable, and 
over all a lion, with this. epitaph on the border of it : 
« Anno D’ni MX. in die S. Leonis PP Dnus Varmun- 
dus nobilis comes de Vasserburghquihuic monasterio de- 
dit Hofmarchiam in Vogterrereut hic sepultus.” ‘There 
is even some reason for suspecting, that this tomb has 
been rebuilt by the religious of the abbey. All the 
tombs of the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries, have simple 
inscriptions with the image of the deceased. The great- 
er part of those of the 10th and 11th centuries also are 
without arms ; and the practice of representing them 
on tombs does not appear to have universally prevailed 
till the 12th century. The first Pope who can be 
ved to have borne arms is Boniface VIII. of the house of 
Cajetano, whose escutcheon is in the church of St John 
Lateran, and in the vaults under St Peter’s at Rome. 
The bearings of all the Popes before him are now as- 
certained to have been the inventions of Ciaconius, An- 
,tonio Cicarello, and Gian Baptista Cavalieri. Coins 
before the year 1200 haveno arms. The seals of princes 
and kings before that time bear nothing more than their 
effigies, and those of bishops and chapters representa- 
Coins and 
seals, 
* Pausanias describes the shield of Agamemnon as bearing a lion’s head, with the motto, “80g mtv Qoees tors Cporave dD exavA vay,” 
A lion crowned is in like manner ascribed to Dicterick om the other heroes of the Sagi sa : SORECT EE 
HERALDRY. 
tions of the satehrpanints of their churches; as, for 
instance, those of the popes, which bear commonly on 
the one side the heads of St Peter and St Paul, and on 
the reverse the name of the pontiff. } 
10. If, before these times, the figures on bucklers had 
been hereditary and fixed in so many families, why hap- 
pens it that the sons of so many f carried 
the devices of their fathers, and the glorious marks of 
their illustrious achievements ? Whence comes it, that 
when notice is taken of Helenor being introduced in 
the 9th Aneid without any ensign on his shield, a suf= 
ficient answer is mp poset to be given, by saying, that 
young men, who had as yet done nothin, ties, 
carried. shields without ornament? Could they not 
then, as at present, carry their father’s bearings? The 
truth is, these marks were al or else 
common to, all the individuals of a military corps. 
Cuncta phalanx insigne Jovis, celataque gestat 
Tegmina, trifidis ardoribus ignes. 
‘aler. Argon. 6. 
And it was on account of this latter character that they 
received from the Greeks the appellation of detypcr 
It may however be alleged, (and M. Court de Gebe- op; 
lin has laid much stress,on the cireumstance,) that there refuted, 
are pay: cities, the armorial i of which are to pi 
be found on monuments of very high antiquity ; as, 
for instance, those of Rome, which we every day see 
resented on so many basso relievos, or those of 
Nismes, which are so common on the reverse of medals. 
To this it may be answered, that these cities have, with- 
in the last seven or eight hundred years, framed for 
themselves armorial ensigns out of their ancient de-« 
vices, and that, before that time, no examples can be 
found of these marks bei laced on eseutcheons. 
S. P. Q. R. was the device of the Romans ; but not, as in 
the present day, disposed secundum artem on a band 
saling down between two fillets. The crocodile at« 
tached to a palm-iree was the ensign of Egypt con- 
uered, which the people of Nismes put anciently on 
eir coins, with these words abridged, Col. Nem. ; and 
accordingly, the modern city blazons the same on its 
blic el ces. We by no means assert, that no king- 
oms or republics had fixed devices before the use of 
armorial ensigns: on the contrary, the eagle was a com- 
mon device of the Romans, and com part of their 
military standards ; but they had also the dragon, the 
minotaur, the wolf, and ated ‘ear and the 
e have in every ag the symbols of royalty ; 
eccrine tad Gog iy Ciera ua, aii Yhe! yaa? of 
birds, * : 
11. It is necessary to be at all times on our guard False 
ainst the monuments of , which are produ- ments.” 
ced by our old writers as of a date prior to the 12th 
century. They are in general the inventions of silly 
monks, who had little else to do but to gratify their 
own yanity, and that of their benefactors, by these 
harmless fictions, _Much. contempt, indeed, has been 
thrown on the whole study, by, the detection of the 
gross absurdities which they contain, and by nonemore 
than those of the celebrated Chronicle of the Tore 
ted 
Ely, long preserved in the college of the English 
nedictines at Douay. In this MS. we are 
with the history of some chiefs of King Harold’s army, 
who, after the defeat at Hastings, defended themselves 
for seven years in the isle of Ely. The conqueror, 
