403 HERA 
bearing of fuch devices upon the armour of any man ; 
having referved every fuch grant or authority wholly 
to himfelf. 
The hiftory of the Mechlenburg arms, if not entitled 
to much credit, is at lead extremely curious, and ferves 
to prove the high antiquity of fuch bearings. It is no¬ 
ticed by Collins, in his Peerage; and by Mifs Knapp, 
in her Anecdotes of Heraldry. Antyrius, who had re- 
ceived his warlike education under an Amazon in Scy¬ 
thia,, and fought under the banners of Alexander, put 
himfelf at the head of the Heruli, and affumed the title 
of king; Quitting his native pofleffions at the head of 
a warlike people, in purfuit of conqueft he embarked 
with them.on-board his fleet; and the principal veflel, 
in which he led the way, was decorated on her ftern 
with the head of an ox. Arriving at Mechlenburg, 
they drove out the Angli, and took poffefllon of the coun¬ 
try ; from which period that duchy has borne the ox as 
its armorial enfign. The houfe of Mechlenburg fprung 
from Artyrius; whence this bearing mult have been for 
ages hereditary in that family. 
The arms of Germany and Poland boaft of an origin 
almoft as remote. Varus, the Roman proconful, and 
governor of Syria, being made commander in chief of 
the legions in Germany, was furprized by the enemy, 
and his army cut to pieces, a diVgrace which he could not 
endure; and therefore put an end to his exiftence in the 
year io of the Chriltian era. In this defeat the Romans 
loft two of their ftandards, a white eagle, and a black 
one. The,white was feized by the Sarmatian auxilia¬ 
ries ; and the black by the Germans themfelves; whence 
came the arms of the German empire : on a field or an 
eagle with two heads fable, which denote the eaftern 
and weftern empires. And thro’ the ancient Sarmatians 
came the.arms of modern Poland, an eagle argent on a 
field gules. It alfo happened that a third ftandard was 
loft., which was fuppofed to have fallen into the hands 
of the Sclavi, or Selavonians, from whom defcehded to 
the Ruffians their prefent arms, being an eagle fable on 
a field or. 
It has been held, however, that none of the bearings 
of the Roman generals were heraldic. »The reafon of 
this is fo amply fet forth by the ingenious Nifbet, that 
we cannot give the reader a more perfect idea of the 
-l'ubjedt, than what may be collected from the following- 
remarks of that efteemed author : 
- '“Thofe who mention arms to be as old as the Roman 
commonwealth^ fays this writer,) feem to have fome fhow 
of reafon on their fide; becaufe with then\ fome devifes 
on their fhields and military inftruments were then ufed 
fuecelTively by father and fon, and fo downward : for 
inftance they give us the family of the Corvini, who bore 
a raven or corbie for their creft, according to that of 
'Silius Italicus: 
Corvinus, Phccbca fedet cui cajfide fulva, 
QJlcntans ales proavitre Infignia pugnce. 
•“ But ftill this conhe was no more than an ornament, 
which reprefents a combat of one of his anceftors, from 
which they had the name Corvinus, becaufe during the 
action a raven lighted on his head ; had it been otherwife, 
1 mean arms of the family, the poet would have called 
it Infigne proavorum. What others allege out of Sue- 
tonius, Caligula Vetera familiarum infignia, NobiliJJimo cuique 
» ademit, Torquato, Torquem, Cincinnato Crincm, (d Pompeio 
Jlirpis antiques, Magm Cognomen: imports no more than 
that Caligula, being dilpleafed with the grandeur of 
thefe families, commanded to take from their images or 
ftatues, as that of Torquatos the collar or chain that he took 
from one of the Gauls, and from that of Cincinnatus the 
tuft of hair which that brave Roman had fpoiled of one 
of tire enemies of the Romans, and likewile ordered the 
epithet Great to be defaced in the infcription of the 
ftatue of Pompey ; the word Great makes it evident, 
that the other marks, the collar and hair, were not here- 
LD.RY. 
ditory ones as arms; otherwife the author had exprefled 
himfelf thus, that Caligula caufed the chain to be taken 
from the Torquali and the tuft of hair from'the Cincinnati, 
and not Amply from Torqudtus and Cincinnatus. 
“We may date then the origin of arms'as hereditary 
marks of honour, foonafter the fubverfion of the Roman 
empire by the Goths and Vandals, who funk many 
liber?.! arts and fciences, but gave birth and life to 
Heraldry, placing it in the room of Jus imagiitum, which 
was made up of the figures'pf animals, vegetables, and 
of other things fuitable to ftieir genius, for diftindtion 
in time of battle, fo Ex Us quibus quifque magis deledatur, 
qualis etiam ipfe Jit, cognofcatur. Thus the ftro.ng and 
magnanimous carried lions, boars, wolves, 6 ?c. and fuch 
as took pleafure in wit and craft, carried ferpents, dogs, 
and pther figures agreeable. This being the practice 
of the conquering Goths, it was afterwards through the 
ambition of fome, and virtuous defire of others, continued 
to reprefent their progenitors, as well by carrying the 
marks of their honour, as by bearing their names, and 
enjoying their fortunes; which natural figures being 
call in a form by rules, their pofition, difpofition, fitua- 
tion, and colours, became hereditary and fixed witliin the 
Jhield, an enfign of honour from which the titles Scutifer. 
and Efcuyr became honourable titles to diftinguilh them 
from thofe of an inferior rank ; fo that thefe enfigns. 
were alfo defired by others (befides thofe of the military- 
employment) who juftly thought they merited no lefs 
of their prince by the fervice they had performed in 
their civil capacities, than others did by their military 
achievements, upon which many devifes were continued 
and formed into arms, and fo gave growth to armories.’' 
See Ni/bet’s Ancient and Modern Ufe of Arms. 
From the preceding extract we derive a very clear 
idea of the features which diftinguifti what has been 
called the ancient, from that denominated the modern, 
heraldry; or rather, we are here inftrudted in what thofe 
devices conlift, that are foreign to heraldry as a fcience, 
and what thofe bearings are which conftitute legitimate 
heraldry: namely, “ natural figures,, or marks of honour, 
as lions, tigers, wolves, &c. caft into form by certain 
rules, their pofition, difpofition, fituation, and colours, 
being hereditary, and fixed within the thield.” And 
here we are likewife told that thefe fcientific rules ori¬ 
ginated with the “conquering Goths;” which in point 
of chronology feems belt to correfpond with the firft 
fack of Rome under the Gothic chief Alaric, in the 
year of Chrift 410. 
It has been objedted, that this northern hive of Scan¬ 
dinavian barbarians, whofe ignorance was fo great as to 
have become proverbial, was the leaft likely of any 
race of people to invent fcientific rules for heraldic 
devices, fince their kings, for the fpace of upwards of 
two hundred years, at leaft till the reign of Euric, in 
472, had not even gained the acquifition of writing, and 
had till then been incapable of forming any civil code 
for the government of their own people. See the article 
Goths, vol. viii. p. 725. It muft however be recol¬ 
lected, that thefe ignorant Goths had eventually become 
humanized by the mild influence of the Chriftian dif- 
penfation;—had evinced great powers of mind and of 
invention, as well as prowefs and glory in arms —and 
in the midft of the days of darknefs, and during the reign 
of ignorance and confution, had the high reputation of 
calling into exiftence fome of the earlieft of thofe vene¬ 
rable and ftupendous edifices raifed as monuments of 
the Chriftian faith in feveral parts of the continent.— 
When, therefore, we contemplate the fplemn and de- 
ferved awe with which thefe noble fabrics fail not te 
infpire the mind of every beholder, we are not to deny 
to this people the powers of intellect, or the gifts of 
invention. From thofe fpecimens of Gothic architec¬ 
ture in Italy, the Saxons and Normans borrowed their 
ideas, and our monks or artifts the plans on which they 
eredted our venerable cathedral churches. 
Some 
