34 THE ECCLESIASTICAL SEALS OF CORNWALL. 



The clay or wax employed to receive the impression was in 

 early times left uncovered. In the fourteenth century a rush 

 fender or some similar contrivance was placed to encircle and so 

 protect it, and in the fifteenth century the custom began of at- 

 taching to the face of the wax a covering of paper. This was 

 intended to strengthen it, but the result was a deadening of the 

 effect of the device. The practice did not become general, but 

 wafer seals are, of course, so made even in the present day. 



A person of high rank, in the Middle Ages, usually had, be- 

 sides his official seal, a private seal "Secretum," or more than 

 one , and a dijfferent seal for each office held. 



Ecclesiastical seals were generally either circular or of a 

 pointed oval form, and most commonly exhibited in the central 

 space an effigy of the patron Saint with, sometimes, a small 

 figure of an ecclesiastic kneeling below. On others the princi- 

 pal figure was that of the ecclesiastic himself. Border legends 

 were introduced, and heraldic shields, also canopies and taber- 

 nacle work of the period. Some of the Cells dependent on 

 Abbeys displayed on their seals subjects traditionally connected 

 with the dedications of the superior houses. 



It follows then, from the circumstances of the case, that in 

 studying Cornish ecclesiastical history, we may not, with any 

 prospect of success, look for seals of earlier date than the 

 Mediaeval period. Far more interesting and instructive it would 

 have been for us had more ancient seals connected with our , 

 Church existed. 



In preparing a list of the Ecclesiastical Seals of Cornwall we 

 have first to decide what can rightly be included. Only those 

 which properly belong to the district come within the descrip- 

 tion, and we must exclude all seals which merely carried 

 authority with them into Cornwall from a distance. Thus we 

 cannot class, as Cornish, the official and other seals of Popes 

 and Archbishops, nor those of such Bishops, Chancellors, Arch- 

 deacons, Abbots, Deans and Chapters, &c., as exercised rule in 

 Cornwall in common with some other locality. 



The Cornish Church, however, prizes no less their discovery, 

 and values as highly having been connected with them. 



Thus it is very interesting to find that our Museum contains a 

 "BuUa" of Pope Urban VI (1378-89.), dug up at St. Saviour's 



