_ There is nothing, perhaps, that so saddens the heart 
of the scientist as the lack’ of adequate and exact data 
awd detail in formulating and founding a science. His 
vance is marked by hard and fast lines like the rails 
a railroad. Nothing avails but the deeply cut groove 
an absolute law. And therefore the absence of accur- 
acy and details in the records of ancient heraldry must 
be counted a sad misfortune in Heralds College. In the 
evolution of this great social insignia of today, the coat 
of arms, there is not only one missing link, there are any 
‘number; until the garment is literally in rags, moth 
‘eaten by time and periods of neglect, if one may use 
this figure of a coat originally designed of steel links. 
_ But we, as casual loiterers in Time’s great museum 
of historic and human phenomena, may however de- 
rive some little satisfaction and pleasure in the play of 
thought that the ancient fragments and historic patch- 
work provides for us so abundantly and temptingly. 
_ The art apparently had its beginnings in the use of 
‘seals. They are very ancient.. The seal of Judah is 
‘mentioned in the Bible 1730 B. C., which scholars tell 
“us is 250 years before Genesis was written. In the 
classics also are found minute descriptions of sym- 
‘police seals. The notary public in daily practice is re- 
-peating an act dating from most remote periods in 
the attestation of public and private documents. These 
scals are important in marking the events and periods 
of history, in that these seals are recognized as distine- 
_ tive insignias of nations and individuals and of certain 
‘periods. As the dating of documents prevailing now 
was not the practice then these seals are the only evi- 
- ments. : 
Clear records of English seals date back to Edward 
the Confessor. In the annals of old English towns re- 
ferences are made to these seals. Before that the sign 
of the Cross as a sacred pledge was affixed to docu- 
ments of all kinds and any writing bearing this sign 
was considered most sacred. From this custom dates 
the usage of an illiterate person making his mark (X) 
- of a cross. This has led to some confusion in endeavoring 
tc harmonize the insignia of the Crusaders Cross with 
former seals of a cross that are without any significant 
connection. © <0 ee 
Every grant of land or contract then as now was 
_ affixed with a seal by parties entering into a contract. 
At the close of the 12th century seals had become 
highly embellished in the evolutionary process of the 
art and the coat of arms as afterward perfected and 
systematized began to appear upon public documents. 
Rouge-Rose, herald contemporary of Elizabeth, writes 
that at first only the King, the nation and a few of the 
nobility were entitled to use seals; but during the reign 
of Edward III the use of seals became quite common. 
All this is ground for contention as to the use of 
insignias from which heraldry ‘had its rise. 
- Heraldry proper, as today classified, had its origin 
-in the Crusades and is a product’ of a’ virile, fighting 
and not an effeminate. christianity.’ The Heraldic Cross 
is distinctly of military origin. It was quite naturally 
in great veneration as a martial insignia from the days 
o 
Be ee ee ee 
-dences often of the age and authenticity of the docu-: 
to prevail. 
NORTH SHORE BREEZH 1 
A Tale of Heraldry. 
BY REV. LOUIS H. RUGE. 
(COPYRIGHTED, 1910, BY L. H. RUGE.) 
ii 
of Constantine to the chief of the Crusaders, who em- 
blazoned it upon their banners, helmets, shields, sur- 
coats and even upon the trappings of their horses. At 
first a cross of differing colors was worn on the right 
shoulder, as for instance, the English, white; French, 
red; and the Flemings, green. 
The art of heraldry is largely indebted to the church 
not only for the art itself, but for the beauty of tne 
art. There is no finer symbolism extant than ecclesias- 
tical heraldry. . 
The chiefs resplendent in this blazonry of battle, 
both in the test of knightly skill and on the field could 
be-easily distinguished by their individual insignas and 
devices. To the German tournaments belongs the or- 
igin of the individual coat of arms, passing then suc- 
cessively to France and England in its practice. 
Taken prisoners the device was in more ways than 
one a shield of safety. It was often worth while to 
spare the man with armorial bearings for the ransom 
he brought and the more distinguished the person the 
more surely were they spared for the larger ransom de- 
manded while the common soldiers were slaughtered. 
Thus always the unemblazoned, unexalted have literal- 
ly and figuratively,—if I may be forgiven the colloquial 
but forceful expression,—‘ gotten it in the neck’’, or 
wherever the fatal blow is struck, as when the ‘‘beef 
barons’’ direct their blow at the common people’s 
stomach, and at the half fed coming generation at school, 
while the great and powerful ‘‘barons’’ escape. 
At first, until he achieved some valient deed of chival- 
ry, daring or conquest, a knight wore his shield plain 
after which the design was significant of his achieve- 
ment. Often the coat of arms bore the devices of an 
eriemy conquered in battle. 
Gradually these devices lost their significance. Cer- 
tain designs also were repeated and confusion began 
Where mistakes were made in duplicating 
one another’s designs one knight had to relinquish it 
ix. favor of the other or settle the matter by single com- 
bat the victor retaining the chosen device. Finally 
however, devices were largely changed again to con- 
form to memorable events in the history and achieve- 
ment of the wearer as originally intended in the art of 
heraldry. 
Up to the 13th century, some say later, the here- 
ditary coat of arms was not in use. The coat of arms 
was originally intended simply as an individual, not a 
femily mark of distinction. Although a son might step 
into his dead father’s shoes he had to go and somehow 
‘get his own coat in so sad an emergency. 
This soon became changed in the exigencies of the 
social and folde-rol standards of rank in such effeminate 
and luxurious days of Richard II, who introduced the 
surecoat, hitherto worn only by warriors in battle, into 
his sumptious court affairs, until it was not long before 
a warrior’s armorial bearings passed down the line and 
became the family inheritance to be used as a mark of 
distinction, today however quite a common affair in 
Europe. 
At first only the shield and its device was thus in- 
herited the crest still] remaining the mark of the indi- 
