HERALDRY.
ALL the ancient nations mentioned in history, wore some kind of defensive
armor when in battle; sometimes of leather, of brass, of iron, and of steel.
Some of the more luxurious had their coats of mail and helmets richly orna-
mented with gold and silver. In Bible times the sacred writers were acquainted
with shields, breastplates, and helmets. When coats of armor were of thick
leather, they were padded with some elastic material that would deaden a blow
of sword or spear. Scale armor was composed of plates of brass, iron, or steel,
so formed and joined together, as to adapt itself to the necessary movements of
the wearer's body. Armor originally only covered the head and the shoulders,
but in the days of William the Conqueror, men of war were clothed from crown
to toe in armor made of plate, or steel rings. In process of time the old
knights and chiefs had devices on their shields which represented their prowess
and were sometimes significant of their family name or place of residence; then
a crest was worn on the helmet, well known to the followers of the chief, that
could be seen in battle, and served as an ensign. These symbols and devices
painted on the shields were of endless variety, "from the highest things celes-
tial, to the lowest things terrestrial." Sometimes surcoats made of leather were
worn over the armor of polished brass or steel, to protect the wearer from the
heat of the sun, and the devices that had been painted on the shield, were also
embroidered on these overgarments; thus the arms became visible to every
beholder in battle, without the aid of a standard; from this method of display-
ing emblems and armorial bearings, arose the term, cote armure, or coat-of-arms.
Many of the ancient monumental effigies in England, represent men dressed in
armor, covered with a surcoat on which are their armorial bearings, exactly cor-
responding with those on their battle shields. In the middle ages, armorial
devices had become so systematized that they formed a language which the
most ignorant could understand. The learned and the unlearned could read the
symbolic picture, which was presented to the eye in a thousand ways, till the
system was interwoven with the character and teaching of the people. Nearly
every mansion was decorated with armorial insignia; the ancestry of a family
was known by the shields in the upper parts of the windows.
The church favored armorial bearings. Knights took their banners to be
blessed by the priests before going to engage in the Crusade wars, and on
their return, these trophies, covered with honorable decorative charges, were sus-
pended in the churches, and being of a perishable nature, the distinctions were
in time permanently displayed in the glass of the windows, the frescoes of the
walls, or carved in stone in the building itself.
