‘ 
very one 
_ father’s houfe, 
el taken, and authorifed to be retained, or originally 
nted by potentates or fuch as they have duly authorifed 
for that purpofe, as hereditary tokens, by which families 
and perfons of ancient and worthy defcent are not only 
illuftrated, diftinguifhed, and differenced among themfelves, 
but feparated and known from the ignoble and common 
rank of people, who are not entitled to ufe fuch badges of : 
honour and refpe any advantages obvioufly refult 
from the knowledge of thefe gentilitial marks of diftinétion. 
It ferves to illuftrate national and family hiftory, ange has 
a tendency to preferve the obfervance of a due fubordination 
among the feveral ranks and clafles of mankind. See 
_ Few fubjeéts have engaged fo much attention, and led to - 
fuch a variety of inveftigations and opinions, as the origin 
: “ eu; Py 2s aa et 1 F 3 a 
armories. 
to various eras and countries, not excepting the moft ancient 
and the moft remote. Some have traced them to the ante- 
dilavian world, and even to the pofterity of Seth, who are 
aid to have been thus diftinguifhed from the children of 
Cain. Rabbinical writers allege, that the divine command 
fignified to the children of Ifrael, in the fecond year after 
their entrance into th ce ie } : BR age GEE Sb PACT 
tical 
Numbers (ch. i. 52. ii. 2.), that they fhould pitch their tents 
by his own ftandard, with the enfigns of their 
is a full proof of the ufe of armories among 
the Egyptians, at the time of the departure of the Ifraelites; 
-and they even pretend that their antiquity is afcertained by 
the 49th chapter of Genefis, where notice is taken of the 
patriarch Jacob's blefling his children, and alfo by the 
breaft-plate of the high prieft, which was garnifhed with 12 
Precious ftones of diferent colours. 
= 
as they fay, had its peculiar flag, 
oe i or Fi og by 
Hebrews of note. Others have pretended that the Pagans 
heroic ages made ufe of armorial bearings ; alleging 
alerius Flaccus, are adduced in con- 
ures on the fhields of 
96 Troy ; the 100 erpents painted on 
the thield of Aven : irgil his paternal enfign, 
faye, * >cutis qualibus apud Trojam pugnatum eft con- 
and by 
qa of Cyrus,” tus, in his 
PRs ‘multacles,* of a golden eagle borne on a buc 
‘ . Neeson ie I 2 Slee 
xpedi- was not fully eftablifhed until the reign 
HERALDRY. 
the royal enfign of the Medes; the affurances of the Schos 
liaft on Ariftophanes, that it was cuftomary for thofe people 
to paint and reprefent eagles on their fhields; and the fre- 
quent mention, made by the Geeek writers, of the devices 
ufed by Arfaces, Cyrus, Cambyfes, Darius, Xerxes, &c. 
have induced many to conclude, that armories were originally 
ufed by the: Medes and Perfians, at the time of the eltablifh- 
ment of their monarchy. The inftitution of heralds has been 
referred by fome perfons to Alexander the Great, who, as 
they fay, not only regulated the ufe of armories and their 
blazons, but granted peculiar arms to many of his principak 
officers, as tokens of his favour and recompences of their 
valour. 
have likewife been honoured with being the inventors of 
armory. The emperor Charlemagne is fuppofed, by the 
writers of his life, to te the great regulator of armories, 
which, as they pretend, were not only known, but genes 
rally ufed, in his time. Some, with greater probability, 
trace their invention to the Germans in the roth centuryy. 
and fuppofe that they were coeval with tilts and tourna- 
ments. But the crufades or expediticns to the Holy Land 
have more generally, and perhaps more juftly, been fuppofed 
to have given rife to the ufe of armories. Some again 
afcribe the introduétion of them to the emperor Frederic 
Barbarofla; and others attribute their origin to the power- 
ful factions of the Guelphs and Gibelins, who diitinguifhed 
their refpeétive partizans by fuch devices. Upon the whole 
we may obferve, that thofe writers feem to approach neareft 
to the truth, who are of opinion, that the primary inititu- 
tion of armories is to be referred e tournaments held 
toward the end of the 10th century, their growth to the 
crufades, and their perfection to juits and other feats of 
arms. For a brief fketch of the hiftory of armories, 
Arms, in Heraldry. 
We hall clofe this detail with obferving in general, that 
heraldic 
ith: bade: 
the diverfity of opinion which has prevailed amon 
writers concerning t 
to potterity to retain thofe arms 
played the Holy Land in that holy fer vid againit the 40h 
o a 
d enemies of Chriftianity ; and tha 
that» Gai t itary ule of —e 
te ae of Winchelter, and the two Lacies, earls af 
