THE ECCLESIASTICAL SEALS OF COBNWALL. 33 



have been very ably commented upon by Mr. "Worth in the 

 fourth volume of this Journal, (p. 278). He has moreover 

 treated of the oldest corporate seals, ecclesiastical and lay, 

 hitherto found in this county. There are but few of the Cornish 

 ecclesiastical seals which he has not described, — to his paper, 

 therefore, the reader is referred for many details which 

 otherwise would have required introducing here. 



On the subject of Seals, their age, and devices, the late Rev, 

 C. Boutell* wrote, to the following effect:— One of the first uses of 

 any symbolical device would be for marking property or authen- 

 ticating documents relating to important transactions, and some 

 kind of stamp would be formed for affixing the required symbol. 

 Various modes of doing this have been, from time to time, 



adopted It is somewhat remarkable, he observes, that 



seals should not have been in use in England before the time 

 of Edward the Confessor, — eleventh century. Their adoption, 

 however, preceded the introduction of true Heraldry, for that, 

 as a science, reached us from Germany, through France, as late 

 as the second half of the twelfth century. A few Saxon f seals 

 exist, but it was not till after the Norman Conquest that seals 

 came into general use in England When once fairly established, 

 they were engraved in vast numbers. 



To the archaeologist they afford the most prolific store of in- 

 formation bearing upon public and private history, illustrating 

 the progress of various arts, the tastes, feelings, fancies and 

 superstitions of their times. 



Boutell has stated further, that the modes of affixing Seals 

 depended to some extent on the character of the deeds or on the 

 fashion of the age. Some seals were pendent — the wax being 

 melted upon parchment strips or upon cords. Some of the pen- 

 dent seals were impressions struck upon lead. They were 

 called "bullse," and, from being so sealed, certain instruments of 

 importance issued by the Popes acquired the name of Papal 

 " Bulls." Another writer has gone so far as to state that seals 

 of grace were attached by a silken cord, seals of justice by one 

 of hemp. J 



* Boutell's "Manual of British Archaeology," p. 179, &c. "English 

 Heraldry," pp. 4, 10. 



t Concerning Earl Aelfric's circular brass seal, &c., see Knight's " Old 

 England," pp. 77, 82. 



t R. Lanyon, M.D., floyal Institution of Cornwall, Report 1847, p. 58. 



C 



