not for great sums be hired to do In this Game all manner of vices especially those of covetousness and swearing do predominate and bear chief sway Nevertheleâ—â— many men observing the casual chance of the Dice out of a covetous desire of gain and not being rightly informed of the use of this our mortal life do with vehemency prosecute their insatiable thirst and desire of gain as if that were the only scope whereto they ought to direct all their actions of this life whose folly or rather extream madness is lively expressed in the Book of Wisdome 15. 12. But they counted our life a pastime and our time here a market for gain For say they we must be getting every way though it be by evil means To conclude the hazard of Dice-playing according to Petrarch is an huge and insatiable Gulf a dreadful and sudden Consumption of Patrimonies and Inheritances a tempest of wind a cloud of same a spurr to wickedness and the roadway to desperation And howsoever other recreations are sports yet this is nothing but meer grief and vexation of mind To this Chapter may be referred all other Games as the Racket and that of Iacobus Medices General to Charles the fifth whose Device was a Ball with two Balloons with this word Percussus Elevor The harder I am stricken the higher I mount And this may serve for conclusion of all Arts and Professions civil whether liberal or illiberal necessary or delightful whatsoever CHAP. XIII WHAT manifold variety of Coat-Armours consisting of things Artificial is borrowed from the several Dignities Arts and Exercises of men of civil life and condition the foregoing Tracts and Examples have sufficiently declared There now remain such Artificials as are in use amongst men of military profession with which we will shut up this whole Section of things Artificial By things Military I understand all such as do pertain to the use and exercise of Martial Discipline and Service whereof some do serve for Order some for Execution of Order Of the first kind are those things which are for direction in Marchings Encampings Arisings Assaults Retreats c. and such are the Banner-Royal the Standard Guidon Penon Cornet c. For albeit it be true that Leges silent inter Arma Laws cannot be heard amongst clashing of Weapons yet without certain Laws of Discipline and Order it is impossible for any Martial attempt to be successful And therefore this is reckoned as Hannibal's highest glory that being Captain of an Army consisting of men of so sundry Nations and Conditions he notwithstanding kept them all under quiet Discipline the want whereof hath commonly been the cause when any great design hath proved unprosperous The valiant Zisca being stark blind yet sitting in the midst of his Army whiles they were in any pitched Field with the Enemies gave such directions upon all occasions as that his Army was ever Victorious And Caesar was in this kind so fortunate that he fought fifty pitched Fields with honour wherein he alone surpassed the valorous Marcus Marcellus who is said to have been forty times save one in the Field And requisite is it in matters of so high nature as are decided by wars an exquisite care both in directing and obeying should be observed because it hath often happened that the neglect or mistaking of someone small Circumstance hath been the overthrow of whole Armies and all the States thereon depending And since we are about to treat of such Artificials as are in use amongst men of Military profession I hold it not impertinent to discourse a little of Military Laws and some observations concerning Battels and Armies beginning with such Military Laws and Discipline as were divulged to the Israelites in the beginning of the second month of the second year after their coming out of Egypt The all-powerful and most provident God and wise disposer of all things having made special choice of a people selected out of all the Nations of the world for his own peculiar service and minding to exercise them under many afflictions to prove what was in their hearts to the end they might have a feeling sense of his Almighty presence and ready deliverance at all seasons out of all their calamities that so he might humble them and make them meet for himself he did not presently lead them into the Land of Promise so soon as he had brought them out of the Egyptians servitude but led them to and fro in the Wilderness by the space of forty years keeping them in continual exercise to prove their faith and to bring them out of liking with this world and to learn them to depend wholly upon his Divine Providence and in all their necessities to rest solely upon him and to seek their comfort and relief from him only This most gracious God having a tender care of these his people and foreseeing in his Divine Providence how needful discipline was for the ordering and conducting of so huge and populous a multitude in a passage so long and withal so full of perils and knowing that all Civil Discipline consisted in commanding and obeying prescribeth to his servant Moses a regular form of government whereby he might contain them in their several Offices and Duties First he commanded Moses to number the Israelites saying Take ye the sum of all the Congregation of the children of Israel c. Num. 1. 2. And then having given Moses and Aaron general directions for the marshalling and ordering the whole Army of the Israelites he saith Numb 2. 2. Every man of the children of Israel shall camp by his Standard and under the ensign of their Fathers house far off about the Tabernacle of the Congregation shall they pitch And those that do pitch next unto him shall be the Tribe of Issachar and Nethaneel the son of Zuar shall be Captain of the children of Issachar And his hoste and those that were numbred thereof were fifty and four thousand and four hundred Then the Tribe of Zebulon and Eliab the son of Helon shall be Captain of the children of Zebulun And his hoste and those that were numbred thereof were fifty and seven thousand and four hundred All that were numbred in the Camp of Judah were an hundred fourscore and six thousand and four hundred throughout their Armies These shall first set forth And his hoste and those that were numbred thereof were forty and six thousand and five hundred And those that pitch by him shall be the Tribe of Simeon and the Captain of the Children of Simeon shall be Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai And his hoste and those that were numbred of them were fifty and nine thousand and three hundred Then the Tribe of Gad and the Captain of the sons of Gad shall be Eliasaph the son of Reuel And his hoste and those that were numbred of them were forty and five thousand and six hundred and fifty All that were numbred in the Camp of Reuben were an hundred thousand and
against such an offender or wrong-doer Actione Injuriarum As touching the Antiquity of these Signs which we call Arms Diodorus Siculus maketh mention that Osyris surnamed Iupiter the Iust Son to Cham the Cursed Son of Noah called of the Gentiles Ianus being banished from the blessed Tents of Shem and Iaphet by reason of the Curse fallen upon his Father was constrained to seek some remote place wherein he might settle himself his children and people for which purpose he assembled a great Army and appointed Hercules his Eldest Son Captain And in this so ancient an expedition of Wars as well Osyris himself as Hercules Macedon and Anubis his Sons and others did Paint certain Signs upon their Shields Bucklers and other Weapons which Signs were after called Arms As for example Osyris bare a Scepter Royal insigned on the top with an Eye Hercules a Lion Rampant holding a Battle-axe Macedon a Wolf and Anubis a Dog And we find in Homer and in Virgil that the Hero's had their Signs or Marks whereby their persons were distinctly known and discerned in Battel as well as their Kings and Commons had their Publick Ensigns For the Athenians bare the Owl the Persians an Anchor or Sagittary stamped on their Coins the Romans bare in Eagle Minotaur and sundry other shapes which according to Pliuy they bare in Battel unto the time of Marius who bare in his Ensign an Eagle Argent Figured and Embossed Sus une haute longue as may be seen in ancient Medals and chiefly in which is found this world Allocutio Paulus Aemilius saith that anciently the French Kings did bear Argent three Diadems Gules Others say they bare three Toads Sable in a field Vert alias Sinople which cannot be good Armory as the Masters of that Mystery do hold because of Colour upon Colour Whence they received those Arms is not certainly known unless they had them from the Romans But their opinion is more probable who by the Blazon of the Shield of France would shew that the first Franks consisting of Sicambri a people of Germany inhabiting the Marches of Frizeland towards Holland Zealand and Gelderland gave unto them Azure which resembleth the water which being calm representeth the colour of the Heavens and therein three Flowers de Lis Or which do grow plentifully in those Marches and do flourish in May and Iune Others affirm that the same was sent by an Angel from Heaven to Clovis the first Christian King of France But Gregory of Tours in his History mentioned no such thing neither doth it appear that they bare those Arms before the time of King Pepin but after the time of Lewis le Grosse at which time it seemeth that Armories began to become hereditary and were transferred from Father to Son in each Family In the first assumption of these Signs every man did take to himself some such Beast Bird Fish Serpent or other Creature as he thought best fitted his Estate or whose nature and quality did in some sort quadrate with his own or whereunto himself was in some respect in quality like or wished to be resembled unto Ex iis quibus quisque maxime delectatur qualis etiam sit ipse cognoscitur The reason is for that no man is delighted but with things that are like himself Therefore wherein any man is specially delighted himself also is found to be in quality much like unto them Zanchius de immortalitate Animarum 133. Whereof it cometh that our Souls albeit they are naturally delighted with things that please and delight the External Senses yet shall we find that by how much the mind is more generous and noble by so much the more doth it apprehend a more solid delight in things pertaining to the inward faculties than in such as pertain to the exterior senses as we may see in those Arts wherein the Phantasie is chiefly exercised whereby they receive a greater contentment of things pertaining to the mind that is to say as well Moral as Natural and Supernatural Philosophy For like as our exteriour senses are delighted with corporal and corruptible things so in like manner are our minds affected to things Spiritual and eternal and are wonderfully delighted in them by reason of the Sympathy of their natural qualities Similitudo non currit quatuor pedibus ut aiunt in Scholis many things may be like yet nothing like in all points or respects As their Institution is not new but very ancient derived almost from the beginning of the world so their use was not limited or restrained to some few particular Nations Kingdoms and Countries but most largely spread all the World over insomuch as there is no Nation Country or People so savage or barbarous but that they have their particular Signs whereby they may particularly and distinctly be known and discerned from others As in Example The Nations of the Israelites Bare for their Ensigns The Hebr. Letter Tau Scythians A Thunderbolt Egyptians An Oxe Phrygians A Swine Thracians Mars Romans An Eagle Persians Bow and Arrows Corali a Savage people of Pontus bare 2 Wheels And Plutarch in the life of Marius saith that the Cimbrians a People inhabiting the parts of Denmark Norway and the Almains which in those days were cruel and barbarous nevertheless had their Shields adorned with the forms and shapes of savage and cruel beasts as also their Targets and other Military Instruments suited accordingly and that in such multitudes and in such glorious and glistering manner that they dazled the eyes of the beholders Neither were these Signs particularly restrained unto Nations Countries and Provinces but they were so universal as that there was no Tribe particular Person or Family but had their Armorial Signs or Notes whereby they were not only distinctly known and discerned from other forreign Tribes and Families but also apparently discerned amongst themselves one from another by means of interposition of some minute or small differences which after-comers were forced to devise for the preservation of Common peace and unity when the multitude of Bearers through long tract of time increased excessively Achilles had his Shield beautifully adorned with great variety of things Celestial as the motion of the Sun Moon Stars Planets and other the Celestial Spheres the Scituation of the Earth and the adjacent Islands the Seas with the ebbing and flowing thereof c. whereof I shall have better occasion offered to speak more at large hereafter Also Amphiaraus as Pindarus the Theban Poet affirmeth in his expedition to Thebes bare in his Shield a painted Dragon Capaneus one of the seven Captains that besieged Thebes bare the manifold headed Hydra that Hercules fought withal as Statius the Neapolitan Poet reported Polynices a Sphynx Agamemnon in the Trojan Wars bare in his Shield a Lion with this Epigram Terror hic est hominum qui nunc gerit est Agamemnon Vlysses bare a Dolphin and a Typhon breathing out flames of fire Perseus Medusa's head Autiochus a Lion with a white wand Theseus an
sundry other of the Ordinaries are as by these next and other subsequent Examples in their due places shall appear This form of Bearing may put us in mind of the manifold and those inevitable yet profitable afflictions which do attend this Mortal state of ours for so hath God ordained that they should be means to win and bring us to himself therefore must we receive them patiently as the evident tokens of Gods great Love and Mercy As the Preacher admonisheth us saying Whatsoever cometh unto thee receive it patiently and be patient in the change of thine afflictions for as Gold and Silver is tried in the fire even so are men acceptable in the furnace of Adversity Believe in God and he will help thee order thy way aright and trust in him hold fast his fear and grow old therein The parts of a Bend are Such as are deduced from it Bendelet Such as are derived from a Bend do contain Half Less than half That which containeth half the Bend is called a Gartier whereof you have here an Example in this Escocheon Such as do contain less than half the Bend are Cost Riband Both which be exemplified in these next Escocheons Thus much may suffice touching the Bend Dexter and the Subdivision thereof Let us now consider the Bend Sinister and how the same is subdivided A Bend Sinister is an Ordinary consisting of a twofold Line drawn traverse the Escocheon from the Sinister chief corner to the Dexter base point and differeth as we said from the Dexter Bend only in this that it is placed on the opposite part of the Escocheon as in Example The Bend Sinister is subdivided into a Scarp Battoon A Scarp as Leigh noteth is that kind of Ornament much in use with Commanders in the Field which we do usually call a Scarf as may be gathered by the derivation thereof from the French word Escharpe signifying that Ornament which usually is worn by Martial men after the same manner from the left Shoulder overthwart the Body and so under the Arm on the right side as in Example It is not lawful for those that are base born to usurp the Arms of their reputed Fathers unless it be branded with certain Notes or Marks proper to men Illegitimate devised of set purpose to separate and distinguish them from such as proceed from lawful Matrimony Moreover it is often questioned Whether such as be illegitimated by Act of Parliament or whatsoever other means may bear or assume the bearing of the Arms of their reputed Fathers Some are of Opinion they may Others do hold the contrary unless they do â—ear them with the apposition of some of the beforementioned Notes appropriated to the quality of their Illegitimate Generation and Procreation By Legitimate Issue is not to be understood Legitimate only that is to say such as be adopted Children For there is in such but a bare imitation of Nature of such we have no use in this Land of Adoption or Arrogation But of such as are both Natural and Legitimate Natural so termed Quia natur aliter generati Legitimate Ex Legitima parentum conjunctione approbata per Leges Such as are otherwise begotten are Bastards and the Issue of an unlawful Bed Consanguinity is a Bond or Link of Persons descended of the same Stock derived from Carnal Propagation So called Consanguinitas quasi sanguinis unitas viz. the unity or community of Blood To discern priority or nearness in Blood two things must be regarded principally viz. Linea and Gradus The Line is that that gathereth together the Persons containing their Degrees and distinguishing them in their Numbers This is called Collectio Personarum The other viz. Gradus sheweth the state or condition of the distant Persons how near they be or how far distant asunder in themselves from their common Stock or either from other This is called Habitudo distantium personarum Et dicitur Gradus ad similitudinem soalarum graduum sive locorum proclivium quia ita gradimur de proximo ad proximum This beforementioned Line is threefold viz. Ascending Descending Collateral The Ascending Line is from me to my Father Grandfather and so upwards The Descending Line is from me to my Son Nephew his Son downwards The Collateral Line is placed on either side This Line also is twofold viz. Equal Unequal The Equal Collateral is that where equally the Persons differ from their Common Stock as Brothers and Sisters be equally distant from their Father As also Brothers and Sisters Children from their Grandfather The Unequal Collateral is where one precedeth another Such are Brothers and their Brothers and Sisters Children Affinity is after the Laws Personarum proximitas proveniens ex justis nuptiis A nearness of Persons proceeding from lawful Marriage So called Affinitas quasi duorum ad unum finem unitas A union or consolidation of two that be of divers Kindreds by Marriage or other Copulation conjoyned By this Affinity is contracted two manner of ways viz. By Lawful Marriage Unlawful Knowledge The first is thus contracted My Brother and I are Consanguine in the first degree He taketh a Wife her they call personam additam personae per carnis copulam This is the first kind of Affinity contracted by means of my Brother viz. between his Wife and me and the first degree for thus they be the Kindred and Degrees discerned in Affinity viz. by the persons that be in Consanguinity or Blood either nearer or farther off As for Example My Brother is in the first degree to me in Consanguinity his Wife in Affinity My Brothers Son in the second his Nephew in the third his Nephews Son in the fourth They in Consanguinity Their Wives in the same degrees second third or fourth unto me but they in Affinity Note that they attain not in me by their addition that I have attained by Blood in the persons to whom they be added For herein that is to say in Attinency we be distinguished in Consanguinity and Affinity To make it plain My Brother is my Consanguine his Wife my Affine only they retain and participate with me the degree whether it be first second third or fourth that I have with the persons that they be carnally known by the which they alter not Consequently they shall be every person in Consanguinity to my Wife in Affinity to me in what degree in the one in that degree in the other But always in the first kind be they Brother Sister Nephew Neece c. But to return to our Battoon Vpton calleth this Baston or Battoon a Fissure and making mention of the variable forms thereof saith Istae Fissurae tot modis variantur quot modis fiunt bendae These Fissures have as many varieties of forms as the Bends have For there are of them saith he Planae Plain Ingrediatae Ingrailed Invectae Invecked Fusilatae Fusile Gobonatae Gobonated And he saith it is commonly called a Fissure which is a Cut or Rent pro eo quod
findit Arma paterna in duas partes quia ipse bastardus finditur dividitur à patrimonio patris sui in that it cuts or rents the Coat-Armour in twain because the Bastard is cut off from his Fathers Inheritance In some Countries they used to distinguish these from the lawful begotten by setting of two Letters upon their Garments S and P quasi Sine Patre without Father Cui pater est populus pater est huic nullus omnis Brats are priviledg'd above any We have but one Sire they have many And perhaps S P did signifie Satus Populo the Son of the People Chassanaeus saith that Bastards are not capable of their Fathers Patrimony either by Law or Custome Quia filius Ancillae non erat haeres cum filio Liberae The Servants Child must not part stakes with her Mistresses Leigh is of Opinion That the lawful Son of a Bastard shall change his Fathers Mark to the right side observing still the quantity thereof for so I do understand him in respect that he addeth immediately that the same may at the pleasure of the Prince be inlarged or broken after this manner Besides those bearings bendwise above demonstrated we mentioned another by the name of a Bendlet which hath greater resemblance with a Bend than any of the rest and by the Name it may seem to be some subdivision of the Bend. It hath yet no certain quantity but containeth evermore a sixth part of the Field according to the observation of Leigh whereof you have an Example in this next Escocheon CHAP. VI. OUR prefixed Order doth now call upon me to bend my course from bends with the parts and subdivisions thereof and to proceed to the Fess which challengeth the next place The Fess is an Ordinary formed of a twofold Line drawn overthwart the breadth of the Escocheon in the midst whereof is the very Center of the Shield And it containeth the third part of the Field and may not be diminished albeit the French Heralds do blazon three bars gemels for a Fess of six pieces This Girdle of Honour may seem to have been in ancient time given by Emperours and Kings and their Generals of the Field unto Souldiers for reward of some special Service performed by them and it is not improbable that such a reward it was that the General of David's Army Ioab would have given the Messenger that brought him news that Absalom was hanged by the hair of the Head in an Oak if he had slain him where Ioab saith Why hast thou not killed him that so I might have rewarded thy Service with ten Sheckles of Silver and a Girdle or an arming Belt For some translate it Cingulum some Baltheum Amongst the Macedonians it was ordained by a Military Law saith Alex. ab Alex. that the Souldier that had not killed an Enemy non militari Cingulo sed capistro cingeretur should not be girt with an arming Girdle but with a Halter And not without reason is a man adorned with a Military Girdle signifying he must be always in a readiness to undergo the business of the Weal Publick for the more speedy performance of which Charge he should have his Garments close girt unto his body that the loosness of them should give no impediment to the execution of his assumed Charge and enjoyned Services And these Tokens of Chivalry were so highly esteemed in ancient times that St. Ambrose saith in his Age Duces Principes omnes etiam militantes operosis Cingulis auro fulgente pretiosis ambiunt c. Great Captains Princes and Martial Men delight to wear their Belts curiously wrought and glittering with Gold c. As the bestowing of this Military Girdle was reputed very honourable because none were to receive it but Men of Merit so also was it ever accounted most dishonourable for any just cause to be again deprived of the Dignity thereof neither should such an one be restored thereunto but upon very singular and especial Desert as Ferettus noteth where he saith Augustus laudabiliter militarem disciplinam gessit severissime privatos militari Cingulo nunquam restituit nisi illos prae caeteris virtutum merita insignirent Augustus the Emperour got much honour by the severity of his Military Discipline for if a man were once deprived of his arming Girdle he never would restore it unless he performed some excellent Service above all others Notwithstanding there is also one kind of putting off the Belt of no less honour than the putting on of it yea much more glorious it is in that it is the end and perfection of the other and that is when the Victory is atchieved Victory being the end of Arming as Peace is of Battel To which purpose is that saying 1. Reg. 20. 11. Ne jactet se qui se accingit ut qui discingit Let not him boast who girds himself as he that doth ungird meaning we must not triumph as the saying is before Victory but it being once attained it is the Honour of a Generous Mind to put off his Belt and not to Sanguine his Blade with cold blood For those Gallants who in times and places of Peace are still drawing their Swords like Warriours in times and places of War prove for the most part peaceabler and calmer than they should be But if a Knight be disarmed of his Military Girdle by his Demerits and Offence he is therewithal deprived of all Military Priviledges like as it fareth with a Captain who if he happen to lose his Ensigns is disabled to advance any other in the Field until he hath either regained the same or by his Valour extorted some other from the Enemy Which kind of deprivation of Knights and Martial Men for any notable transgression was of frequent use in times past and in some places is continued unto this day with greater severity and much more infamy than in former times Depositio Cingulorum Baltheorum saith Wolfgangus Lazius quod genus poenae proprio seorsim vocabulo discinctura recinctura vocabatur manet hodie adhu◠in ordine Equestri majori quam olim ignominia Quo ritu ut nos dicimus Equites aur ati digradantur The depriving of the Belt which was wont to be termed the discincture or ungirding is at this day still in use amongst Knights and with more ignominy than was in ancient times which is nothing else but that which we call degrading of a Knight If any ask me How this comes about that such Degradation of a Knight is more infamous than of old I answer it is because it is more rare and therefore more remarkable If again you ask Why it is more rare than of old I answer because it is more infamous and therefore Princes more unwilling to inflict it Howsoever the truth is that base and unknightly actions and qualities deserve a base and unknightly chastisement So much of a Fess now of a Chevron A Chevron is an Ordinary formed of a
fifty and one thousand and four hundred and fifty throughout their Armies aud they set forth in the second rank Then the Tabernacle of the Congregation shall set forward with the Camp of the Levites in the midst of the Camp as they encamp so shall they set forward every man in his place by their Standards And his hoste and those that were numbred of them were forty thousand and five hundred And by him shall be the Tribe of Manasseh and the Captain of the Children of Manasseh shall be Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur And his hoste and those that were numbred of them were thirty and two thousand and two hundred Then the Tribe of Benjamin and the Captain of the sons of Benjamin shall be Abidan the son of Gideoni And his hoste and those that were numbred of them were thirty and five thousand and four hundred All that were numbred of the Camp of Ephraim were an hundred thousand and eight thousand and an hundred throughout their Armies and they shall go forward in the third rank And his hoste and those that were numbred of them were threescore and two thousand and seven hundred And those that encamp by him shall be the Tribe of Asher and the Captain of the Children of Asher shall be Pagiel the son of Ocran And his hoste and those that were numbred of them were forty and one thousand and five hundred Then the Tribe of Naphtali and the Captain of the Children of Naphtali shall be Ahira the son of Enan And his hoste and those that were numbred of them were fifty and three thousand and four hundred All they that were numbred in the Camp of Dan were an hundred thousand and fifty and seven thousand and six hundred they shall go hindmost with their Standards Here have we in this second Chapter of Numbers an uncontrollable warrant pronounced by the mouth of Almighty God for the use of two sorts of Ensigns the one general being in number four only ordained for the leading and direction of the four Regiments as I may so call them And the other particular serving for the demonstration of the several families and for the distinguishing of the particular persons of each family for the more commodious distributing of them into bands a thing most behoveful for the bestowing and conducting of so huge a multitude considering how many thousand of persons were comprised in and under every of the above-named Regiments So as it is most clear that these are no less requisite in their kind than the former in theirs for the more orderly and effectual managing of this military expedition of so long a continuance and withal subjected to infinite dangers As touching the tokens or sings used in the general Standards we have shewed what they were after the opinion of Martinus Borhaus who differeth from Speed his very words you may read in the first Chapter and first Section of this Book But since here is mention made of signs pertaining to particular families and persons it may perhaps be questioned what these signs were Whereto I answer That they must of necessity be signa existentium in rerum natura because there cannot be a representation of things that are not If then they consisted of the similitude of the things in Essence or being no doubt they were such as not only the skilfuller sort but the vulgar also through frequent use and custome did well know by their daily fight and use of them as being the express pourtraitures either of Celestial Bodies as of the Sun Moon Stars c. or of things Sublunar as Meteors fiery Meteors watery whereof we have before spoken in their due places Or else of Vegetables as Trees Shrubs Plants Fruits Herbs Flowers c. Or else they were resemblances of sensitive Creatures as of Man Beasts Fowls Fishes Reptiles Or else of Instruments or Tools of familiar use in the exercise of Mechanical Trades pertaining to life Civil or Rustick Which in respect of their common and ordinary use were best known to men and therefore served most fitly for notes or marks or precise differencing of each particular family and person from other When a King or Prince do enter the field to give battel to their enemies it behoveth that he be strongly fenced of the Army both before and behind and that he have his being near the great Standard in the heart of the battel for the more safety of his person and that he may the better give directions upon all occasions to the whole Army as the necessity of the service shall require It is a thing very dangerous for a King Prince or other General or whatsoever other their great Commander to be over-forward or venturous to encounter his enemy in battel in his own person It sufficeth such to command and to give direction and never to hazard their persons in battel But if he must needs put his person upon the jeopardy of the uncertain and dangerous events of a battel it behoveth that he deferr the same to the last conflict for that upon the safety of his person dependeth the hopeful good success of the battel and the safety of the whole Army Besides so long as the chief Commander is in life and safety albeit he be foiled and discomfited yet may he repair his Forces and subdue him by whom he was foiled but his person being either slain or surprized there is no hope of recovery Upon the first display of the Banner of a King or Prince or of their General or chief Commander it behoveth that some discreet and ancient Counsellor should make known publickly the cause why those wars were undertaken to the intent the same may be known to be grounded upon lawful cause and that the King or Prince doth not rashly attempt the same but that he doth it in a lawful quarrel and upon just cause Which done then should he command the chief Herald to unroll and display the said Banner and deliver it to him that is appointed to bear the same who before he take the same must receive the order of Knighthood if he be not before Knighted with a strict charge and command to hold the same fast and to maintain the honour thereof even with the extream hazard of his life and thereupon to advance the same in the Name of God the sole Author and Giver of all Victory Like as the Laws of Civil Magistracy and Government were ordained by God so also were Military Laws and Ordinances grounded upon his express Commandment uttered by the mouth of the Prophets and Priests as you may see particularly for the exhortation of Priests Deut. 20. 1 2. and of other Officers Deut. 20. 5. and Iud. 7. 3. besides Military Laws for fight Numb 21. 21. that the Conditions of Peace must be offered Deut. 20. 11 12. c. for Spoil 20. 19. and the division thereof 1 Sam. 30. 26 c. 1 Chron. 26. 27. Iosh. 22. 8. 2 Chron. 28. 15. for Victory that
be his that weareth it you cannot erre in your judgment touching the true distinction of the dexter-side of the Escocheon that is due to the Man as to the more worthy from the sinister part that is allotted to the Woman or the Inferiour The manner of such impaling of Coat-Armours of distinct Families as Baron and Femme by persons Temporal is divers from this before mentioned for they do evermore give the preheminence of the dexter side to the man leaving the sinister to the woman as in Example If these were not Hereditary Coat-Armours yet should they have this form of marshalling and none other because the same is common as well to single marriages having no hereditary Possessions as to those that be hereditary Only in this these have a prerogative which the other have not that the Baron having received Issue by his Femme it is in his choice whether he will still bear her Coat in this sort or else in an Inescocheon upon his own because he pretendeth God giveth life to such his Issue to bear the same Coat of his Wife to him and to his heirs for which cause this Escocheon thus born is called an Escocheon of pretence Moreover the heir of these two Inheritors shall bear these two Hereditary Coats of his Father and Mother to himself and his heirs quarterly to shew that the Inheritance as well of the Possessions as of the Coat-Armours are invested in them and their Posterity whereas if the wife be no heir neither her husband nor child shall have further to do with her Coat than to set up the same in their house Paleways after the foresaid manner so to continue the memorial of the Fathers match with such a Family Examples whereof behold in hese following Escocheons These Coats are thus born by William Mountagu Esq son and heir to the Honourable William Mountagu Lord Chief Baron of his Majesties Court of Exchequer This form of bearing of divers Coats marshalled together in one Escocheon impaled as aforesaid was in use near hand within a thousand years since within the Realm of France as appeareth by Frances de Rosiers lib. Stemmatum Lotharingiae where amongst many Transcripts of Kings Charters made to Religious Houses under their Seals of Arms he mentioneth one made by Dagobert King of France to Modoaldus Archbishop of Trevers for the Cell of St. Maurice of Toledo in Spain which Charter was sealed with three Seals His words are these Hoc diploma tribus sigillis firmatum est primo aureo Dagoberti which was as he had formerly described it habens insculptum scutum liliis plenum secundo cereo Cuniberti tertio etiam cereo Clodulphi in quo est scutum partitum impressum prior pars decorata cruce ac Escarbocle seu Carbunculo altera fascia Dat. Gal. Maij Anno Dominicae Incarnationis 622. Concerning the orderly bearing of such Coat-Armours Paleways in one Escocheon note that Gerard Leigh making mention of the marshalling of divers Femmes with one Baron saith If a man do marry two wives they shall be both placed on the left side in the same Escocheon with him as parted per Pale The first wives Coat shall stand on the Chief part and the second on the Base Or he may set them both in Pale with his own the first wives Coat next to himself and his second uttermost And if he have three wives then the two first matches shall stand on the Chief part and the third shall have the whole Base And if he have a fourth wife she must participate the one half of the Base with the third wife and so will they seem to be so many Coats quartered But here you must observe that those forms of iâ—palings are meant of Hereditary Coats whereby the Husband stood in expectancy of advancing his Family through the possibility of receiving Issue that so those Hereditary Possessions of his wife might be united to his own Patrimony It was an ancient way of impaling to take half the Husbands Coat and with that to joyn as much of the Wives as appeareth in an old Roll wherein the three Lions being the Arms of England are dimidiated and impaled with half the Pales of Arragon The like hath also been practised with quartered Coats by leaving out half of them as in Example And for the Antiquity of bearing divers Coats quartered in one Escocheon the same Author Francis de Rosiers reciteth a Charter of Renate King of Angiers Sicily and Ierusalem c. concerning his receiving of the Brethren of the Monastery named Belprey into his protection Actum Nanceij Anno 1435. adding in the end thereof these words Arma Arragoniae Siciliae Hierusalem Andes Whereby if I mistake him not he giveth us to understand that his Seal of Arms did comprehend all these Coats born together quarterly in one Escocheon because he holdeth the same form of description of Seals of that kind throughout all his Collection of Charters As touching this quarterly bearing of many Coats pertaining to sundry Families together in one Escocheon William Wicley doth utterly mislike it holding the same to be better fitting a Pedigree to be locked up in a Chest as an evidence serving for approbation of the Alliances of Families or Inducements to title of Lands rather than multitudes of them should be heaped together in or upon any thing ordained for Military use For Banners Standards and other like Martial Ensigns were ordained for no other use but for a Commander to lead or be known by in the Field to which purpose these marks should be made apparent and easie to be discerned which cannot be where many Coats are thronged together and so become unfit to the Field and therefore to be abolished of Commanders Only he holdeth it expedient that a Prince or Noble-man having title to some Countrey for the obtaining whereof he is inforced to make warr should shew forth his Standard of the Arms of that Countrey quartered with his own amongst those people which in right and conscience do owe him obedience that they may be thereby induced the sooner to submit themselves to him as to their true and lawful Sovereign or Lord. So did Edward the third King of England when he set on foot his title to the Kingdom of France shewing forth the Arms of France quartered in his Royal Banner with the Arms of England But for such persons as are but Commanders under them it is very absurd since thereof ensue oftentimes many dangerous errors Et irrecuperabilis est error qui violentiâ Martis committitur Having before made mention of an Inescocheon and of the bearing of the Arms of the Femme by the Baron after Issue received by her she being an Inheritrix I will now here give you an Example as well to shew the occasion of such bearing as also the manner and situation thereof As for antiquity of bearing of Inescocheons I find them very anciently used a long time by the Emperours of Germany for they always