A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF ARMORIES. 3,
" Children or" Israel shall pitch by his own standard, \viththe ensign of his father'-
"
house." And further, they urge the use and practice of armories in succeeding
ages among the Egyptiar nans, Grecians and Romans.
And indeed it is true, that, as mankind increased and grew numerous, certain
marks and distinctions, by which, persons, families and communities might be
known one from another, were in a manner absolutely necessary ; and, therefore,
us the learned Becmannus saith, " Hominem ab liomine distingucrc, ac variis dis-
" criminare nominibus &- signis, labor fuit primorum parentum, &. pullulantis or-
"
bis negotium." Neither can military marks be younger than Mars himself,
seeing, without distinguishing marks and signs, no martial discipline could be exercised.
But, notwithstanding this, neither the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Gre-
cian emblems, nor even the banners and ensigns of those, or other ancient nation^,
the antiquity of which is unquestionable, can properly be called aims. The
former of these having never been looked upon as such ; and the latter, viz. ban-
ners and ensigns, being rather to be reckoned among the regalia of these nations,
as ensigns of power and dominion, than hereditary marks of honour, which we now
call arms.
There are others who do not ascribe the rise and use of arms to the light of
reason and nature, but rather to common practice and custom, as distinguishing
military marks, or symbolical figures, used by these nations upon their shields,
head-pieces, standards, or pennons, &c. which, as they were not hereditary marks
of honour, transmitted from father to son, so neither were they ever regulated to
the titles and rules of armories, being only temporary devices, which were taken
up, and laid aside at pleasure, and intended partly for distinction, and partly for
ornament's sake. And this is plain, particularly with respect to their use amongst
the Romans, who never looked upon them as hereditary marks of nobility : For,
had the Romans been conversant in the science of heraldry, as now practised all
over Europe, we had certainly received from them the terms of that science,
whereas, on the contrary, we find them handed down to us in Gothic and old
French words, which the ancient writers of heraldry were obliged to dress up in a
barbarous sort of Latin, when they wrote for the use of the learned world.
The Romans had, for their badges and signs of nobility, the statues or images of
their ancestors ; and, among many other divisions of the Roman people, we find
them divided into that of Nobiles, Novi y Ignobiles, which distinction of persons
and families was taken from their right to have images or statues, an honour
granted only to those, whose ancestors had borne some ollice in the state, such as
Curule Edile, Censor, Pnetor, Consul, &tc.
He who had the privilege of using the images or statues of his ancestors was
termed Nobilis ; he who had only his own was called Novus ; (the same with our
and he who had neither
upstart, or first of a family, that obtains a coat of arms)
his own statues, nor those of his fathers, Avent under the name of Ignobi/zs, as the
common people among us, who have no right to armorial bearings ; so that their
Jus Imuginuw, was the same with our right to carry arms : And therefore, Abrahainus
Fransus, Lib. II. de Armis, says, " Quemadmodum apud Romanos, eorum
"
familiae obscura habebantur quarum nullae sunt Imagines, sic &. illi jam ignobile>
"
existimantur, qui majorum Anna non possunt ostendere."
These images or statues were made of wood, brass, marble, and sometimes in
wax-work, and the better to represent the perso'n intended, painted according to
the life (as Polybius observes), and dressed out answerable to their quality ; adorned
with the robes of the offices they had borne, with marks of their magistracy, and
the spoils they had taken from the enemy. Thus the collar or chain on the statue
of Torquatus, and the tuft of hair on that of Cmcinnatus, were the trophies of
which those brave heroes had despoiled two of the Roman enemies.
These statues commonly stood in their courts, in a cabinet of wood, (from
whence our cabinet of arms and ambries, where the several pieces of the honours
of the nobility, such as, helmet, crest, gauntlet, spurs, banners, &c. ^ ere kept) and.
upon solemn days, these presses or cabinets were set open, and the statues being
adorned as above, were exposed to public view, in their courts before the porch
and gate of their houses, (as now our nobility and gentry have their coats of arms
cut in stone, or painted on escutcheons over their gates)
not ; only that the people