Next in importance to the royal seals are those of the ececlesiastied bodies and dignitaries. At first the bishops only used a private or peculiar seal, but at the close of the 9th century each prelate began to use a particular form of seal, in which was impressed the name and titles, and image, at first half length, then standing or seated, clad in his pontifical dress, and holding a crozier in one hand while giving the benediction, or holding the gospels in the other. During the II th and 12th centuries the bishops were presented either standing or seated, but in the 13th and 14th the seated attitude specially designated the episcopal office. Sometimes the figures of the saints were substituted for those of the bishops. During the 13th century :mottoes were Introduced. In the 14th century the designs became more rich and varied, and in Germany the bishops and other religious functionaries placed their escutcheon on their seals beside their figure. In the 15th ctntury the cacuteheon, used at first only for the counterseal, became substituted for all other devices with few exceptions. Latterly the devices of the episcopal seals in Franco have been an imitation of those of the 13th century. The corporate seals of the abbeys, chapters, and other ecclesiastical bodies often have a representation of the religious edifices to which they belonged, or figures of the patron saints. The abbots and priors and prioreeees often impressed their own images; the numerous minor functionaries were restricted to a device, or the figure of the patron saint.
The corporate seals of the 12th century have the towers, castles, gates, or city walls, the use of armorial bearings, which superseded ultimately all other subjects, not being older than 1365. The mayors and other municipal functionaries used a device or the city arms. In England the cinquc ports have ships of war. The devices of the seals for the passes or passports of labourers were prescribed by the statute 12 Richard II., 1388.
The use of seals, as a legal formality, was introduced into England by the Normans during the 11th and 12th centuries. All persons of the ranks of knights and above used a horseman armed at all points going to the fight or chase; females had their effigies; but rude forms, birds, eagles, hawks, lions, dragons, crescents, and stars, are the common devices of the period. The legend surrounding the device, generally iu Latin, contained the name and titles of the bearer. Secular persons used circular seals, ecclesiastics and women the pointed oval ; counter seals, sccreta, do not occur earlier than 1170: the wax used was white been-wax, sometimes painted red, but green wax became common at the close of the 12th century; during the 13th and 14th centuries armorial bearings were introduced by the knights and others entitled to wear them, while the middle casses adopted arbitrary devices— fleur-de-lis, agnus dei, &c., grotesques, and emblems of their craft or calling. From the reign of Henry III. the style and art much im proved ; the shape of almost all the seals of this period is oval, the wax generally green, and the counterseal from the year 1200 in common use. After the year 1400, personal seals, not of an armorial character,
decline in size and importance ; and merchants' marks composed of monograms, introduced by the Flemings, are common devices of the 15th and 16th centuries. From the 12th to the 15th century antique gems set in silver were often used.
Personal seals have either the representation of the person to they belong, armorial bearings or arbitrary devices ; only the nobility used personal effigies, as armed, on horseback, or holding their shields ; ladies stand holding a bird or fleur-de-lis. Equestrian seals are circular, the others pointed. Armorial bearings been in the 12th and continue till the 13th century ; at the end of the 15th the middle class assumed coats of arms. Plain arms on pointed shields are the oldest ; at the 15th century the shields are surrounded with drapery. They are generally orbicular, elliptic, or in form of a shield, and the matrices were slat, with a dorsal ridge and little ring ; at the middle of the 14th, helms with feathers, crests, and support appear, and Gothic letters, which become common in the 15th century. Seals with grotesque devices and mottoes, assumed at pleasure, were in general use during the 14th and 15th centuries : love seals had two heads facing ; and a favourite device was a squirrel. But after the 15th, and in the beginning of the 16th, a great change took place, the wax was covered with white paper and impressed, and at a later period wafers placed between paper were introduced, while sealing-wax was invented by Rousseau in the 17th century, and the seal, originally the substitute for the signature, at last degenerated into a legal formality and fiction.
The matrices of the early medieval wax seals were made of lead for the middle and poorer classes, silver appears to have been used by the nobility ; and in the 13th century a mixed metal resembling brass, long confined to Cologne, was used for the matrices; jet was used occasionally, and the matrices worn as amulets. The matrices are generally flat disks, about inch thick, sometimes with a dorsal ridge and a ring or loop for suspension. The double seals have projecting rings at the sides, with pins for securing them when in the press. The shape varied at different epochs: under the Meroviogians they were orbicular; under the Carlovingians, email oval. In the 14th and 15th century the sizes increased ; but the ordinary forms are pointed vesica, oval, and angular ; although trefoil, horseshoe, lozenge, square, octagonal, and other varieties occur. The matrices were sometimes forged, dies of l'ius II. for making false bulbs having been found in London, and a false leaden matrix of Henry II. for Ireland still exist ing. The colour of the wax differed according to the period : white was employed by the French kings of the first three races, the emperors and prelates of Germany, till the 13th century; the kings of England from the time of Charles I., and some orders of knighthood.