ecclesiastical heraldry

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Arms of the see of Canterbury. The shield depicts a pallium, the white woolen garment that signifies the authority of the pope; the arms predate the break between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic church.

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ecclesiastical heraldry

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ecclesiastical heraldry, the conventions affecting the use of the arms associated with the church’s administrative and collegiate bodies and the portrayal of the arms of clerics. Abbeys, priories, and dioceses have their own arms, and high ecclesiastics have always impaled these with their personal arms. See heraldry.

Originally, in most realms, the church assumed arms motu proprio (by its own volition and authority). This is still the normal practice, not only in countries such as the United States and France, where there is no heraldic jurisdiction, but also in England. In the Roman Catholic church a special commission maintains armorial jurisdiction; the arms of the Church of England and of Anglican dioceses overseas are the subject of grants made by the Kings of Arms in London.

Anglican bishops in England place over their shield a mitre; but the bishop of Durham, as a bishop palatinate (bishop of a county whose lord had regal powers), has the mitre in a ducal coronet (a coronet decorated with three strawberry leaves), and behind his shield is a sword and crosier in saltire (diagonally crossed). Archbishops have two crosiers in saltire behind the shield.

According to international Roman Catholic usage, a cardinal bears over his arms a red hat with 15 red tassels on each side and behind his shield an archbishop’s cross (i.e., a cross with two horizontal limbs) and the pallium (vestment worn as a symbol of full episcopal authority). A Western patriarch has a green hat with 15 green tassels on each side and behind the shield an archbishop’s cross. The arms of an Eastern patriarch are more like those of an Anglican bishop insofar as they are surmounted by a mitre. Behind the shield there are in saltire the episcopal crosier and patriarchal baton on one side and the patriarchal cross and doctoral baton on the other. An Eastern archbishop has the same additaments as a Western patriarch but with 10 green tassels; a bishop has six green tassels with an episcopal cross behind the shield. A prince-bishop has the shield surmounted by a mitre and a bishop’s cross and crosier in saltire, in addition to a red state mantle with ermine surmounted by a prince’s crown.

An abbot nullius (“of no diocese”; i.e., exempt from episcopal jurisdiction) has over the shield a green hat with six green tassels on each side, a mitre over the shield, and a gold cross with a white veil, usually ornamented. An ordinary abbot has a black hat with six black tassels on each side and a gold crosier with a veil behind the shield; a mitre may be used instead of the crosier. A prelate di fiocchetto has a purple hat with 10 red tassels on each side, while a protonotary apostolic (one of seven members of the College of Protonotaries Apostolic of the Roman Curia) has the same with six red tassels on each side. A domestic prelate has a purple hat with six purple tassels on each side, and a privy chamberlain a black hat also with six purple tassels on each side. A canon has a black hat with three black tassels on each side, a rector a black hat with two black tassels on each side, and a simple priest a black hat and one black tassel on each side. (This last is allowed in Scotland to a parish minister of the Church of Scotland, to a rector of the Episcopal church, or to a Roman Catholic priest.)

Moderators of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church are entitled to a black ecclesiastical hat with 10 blue tassels on each side, and moderators of synods and of presbyteries to a hat with six and three tassels, respectively, on each side. The clergy of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal have red tassels, and chaplains of a royal castle have blue. The Presbyterian dean of the Chapel Royal of Scotland (who is also Abbot of Crossraguel and Dundrennan and Dean of the Order of the Thistle) has a green pastoral staff behind his shield. This is correct for the moderator also.

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heraldry

Also known as: heraldic design

Written by Leslie Gilbert Pine, Frederick Hogarth•All

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Jan 27, 2025 • Article History

Related Topics:: ecclesiastical heraldry; coat of arms; tartan; herald; monogram

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heraldry, the science and the art that deal with the use, display, and regulation of hereditary symbols employed to distinguish individuals, armies, institutions, and corporations. Those symbols, which originated as identification devices on flags and shields, are called armorial bearings. Strictly defined, heraldry denotes that which pertains to the office and duty of a herald; that part of his work dealing with armorial bearings is properly termed armory. But in general usage heraldry has come to mean the same as armory.

The initial meaning of the term herald is disputed, but the preferred derivation is from the Anglo-Saxon here (“army”) and wald (“strength” or “sway”). In the second half of the 12th century the men who supervised festivities and delivered invitations to guests were often the same minstrels who, after tournaments and battles, extolled the virtues and deeds of the victors. Heralds can be identified in the descriptions of tournaments from about 1170. The duties of minstrels and messengers appear then to have merged, and, as the minstrels recounted the deeds and virtues of their masters and their masters’ ancestors, their interest in genealogy developed. That new skill was related to their tournament duties, which included the necessity to recognize the banners and shields of all those invited to attend. As heraldry developed its elaborate technical language and as armorial display expanded in subsequent centuries, so the importance and consequent status of heralds grew.

Heraldry originated when most people were illiterate but could easily recognize a bold, striking, and simple design. The use of heraldry in medieval warfare enabled combatants to distinguish one mail-clad knight from another and thus to distinguish between friend and foe. Thus, simplicity was the principal characteristic of medieval heraldry. In the tournament there was a more elaborate form of heraldic design. When heraldry was no longer used on body armor and heraldic devices had become a part of civilian life, intricate designs evolved with esoteric significance utterly at variance with heraldry’s original purpose. In modern times heraldry has often been regarded as mysterious and a matter for experts only. Indeed, over the centuries its language has become intricate and pedantic. Such intricacy appears ridiculous when it is remembered that in the earlier periods swift recognition of a coat of arms or badge could mean the difference between safety and death, and some medieval battles were lost through a mistake over the similarity of two devices of opposing sides.

Like all other human creations, heraldic art has reflected the changes of fashion. As heraldry advanced from its utilitarian usages, its artistic quality declined. In the 18th century, for example, heraldry described new arms in an absurdly obtuse manner and rendered them in an overly intricate style. Much of the heraldic art of the 17th to 19th centuries has earned that period the designation “the Decadence.” It was not until the 20th century that heraldic art recovered a feeling for aesthetic beauty. There are still, however, a few drawings of poor quality emanating from official sources.

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