Seals and forgeries: Cardinal Otto's comments

Cardinal Otto was appointed legate in 1227.  His time in England a decade later, in 1237, was not without incident - at Oxford, somehow a brawl broke out between his men and some Oxford students, and a couple (of his servants) were killed.  All this at the Augustinian Priory of Oseney.  The Merton Annals' account of it is here - excitingly in manuscript!  (You'll need to find fo.178r.)  Otto made various constitutions that year.  Among them were these two sections.

The more necessary the use of sealed instruments is in England, where there are no public notaries, the greater ought the caution to be, lest through the unskilfulness of some they be abused. For we hear letters are drawn and sealed, not only by lesser clerks, and prelates, in which it is implied that such a man made a contract, or was present at the making of it, or at any business, or was summoned to court, or had letters of summons shewed him ; who yet was not present, nor any where to be found, nay perhaps was then in another province or diocese. Now since such writings do plainly imply forgery, we strictly forbid the drawing of them, and do enact with a provident deliberation that they who shall be convicted of offending in this respect, and who knowingly use such letters to the damage of another be punished as forgers, and as those who use forged instruments. 

Because notaries public are not used in England, and therefore there is more frequent occasion for authentic seals; that there may be no want of them, we ordain, that not only archbishops and bishops, but their officials, and deans rural, as also cathedral chapters, and all colleges, and convents, have a seal, either jointly with the rectors [heads] or distinct from them according to their custom or statutes.  Let every one of the aforesaid have a seal with their several distinctions; that is, the name of their dignity, office or college, as also the proper name of the men who enjoy the dignity, or office, graven in plain letters or characters, if the office be perpetual. Let them who have taken an office which is but for a time, as rural dean, and officials, forthwith, and without trouble resign their seals at the expiration of their office to him from whom they received it; which seal is to have the name of the office only graven upon it.  And we charge, that they be very careful as to the custody of their seal, that every one keep it himself or commit it to the keeping of one only, of whose fidelity he is assured, and let him take an oath that he will keep it faithfully, and not lend it to any one for the sealing of any thing, nor seal any thing himself to the prejudice of another, but what his principal hath first read and viewed with attention, and so commanded him to seal.  Let there be a faithful and provident caution used in setting the seal; faithful, so as that it be easily granted to those that want it: provident, so as that it be wholly denied to falsaries, or forgers.  We also ordain, that the proper date of the day, time and place, be inserted at the beginning of end of every authentic writing.

These are interesting for the comments about notaries (the common law system already making different structures from the Roman law one), but also about the keeping and use of seals.  As someone - probably Giles Constable - pointed out, English is unique among its neighbours in having a special word for 'forgery'.  In French, things are either true or false.  English forgeries are a grey area in between!

William Wykeham and the Seal of Merton

In 1387, William Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, visited Merton.  He wrote a lengthy set of injunctions, causing much protest from the Prior.  They accused the canons of keeping hunting dogs, of persons of both sexes from outside the convent wandering about where they shouldn't, and so on.  Since there are other copies of these injunctions, it seems that his monitions were generic, so we can't use it necessarily as evidence of Merton's backsliding.

One of his chapters is on the seal:

'Also, we will and order that your common seal be kept under five common locks at the least, of which one shall be kept by the Prior, the second by seal the Sub-prior, the third by the Precentor, and the other two by other Confraters named for the purpose ; prohibiting under pain of the greater excommunication anything being sealed with it, except sealed letters, unless in the presence and with the knowledge of the greater part and the wiser of the whole Convent, and that it be done with the general consent.  Any one doing to the contrary to be punished by fasting on bread and water for six ferial days in the month next following.'

Locksmiths tend to be a bit sniffy about medieval locks - they are quite pickable.  (When I've got a proper job again, I'm going to treat myself to some pick-locks.  I do think that they should teach you that at school.  We learn nothing very useful.)  Five locks would have deterred someone, but for the determined, they wouldn't have posed much of a problem.  As to the container with the locks - with 5 locks, it must have been fairly big.  Here's a book box with two locks.  And here's a chest from St George's Church, Anstey (Herts), with two locks - presumably for vestments.

Given the seal box was to have 5 locks they were probably padlocks - here's an article on domed chests with padlocks.

Delightfully, Wykeham also stipulates that parents or other close family visiting canons must be received with proper hospitality.  And that relics, vestments and vessels must not be pawned........

Carlisle

Carlisle Cathedral was founded c.1122 by Henry I and Archbishop Thurstan as part of a programme of church building and reform in the north.  It was staffed by the Augustinian canons of Carlisle Cathedral Priory - the only Austin cathedral in England.  The first prior was Aethelwold (sometimes called Adelulf), who had been both prior of Nostell and Henry I's chaplain.  Carlisle was Arrouaisian (they followed the observances of Arrouaise - like many Irish priories).

Being on the Borders, Carlisle was a target of many Scottish raids and attacks, leading at one point to the temporary dispersal of brethren to other monasteries while the priory was rebuilt.  There's a good article on fourteenth-century Carlisle here, and it's this century we're going to for the seal.

The seal is from about 1303 (Birch).  Above is a photo from the VCH; left is a drawing from the Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Arch. Soc., really to give you the advantages and disadvantages of drawings and photographs.  Probably like botany, if you really want to get to know your seal, you should draw it!

This is a splendid seal.  It's round (obviously), with the BVM holding (it looks like feeding) the Child between a couple of censing angels (see, for more of these, the Canterbury third seal.)  Below is a cathedral, which could be Carlisle or could be just fantasy - it's symmetrical with three lancets and a trefoil (lovely number symbolism), which suggests to me that it's fantasy.  However, the crenellations below are probably not:  the Priory no doubt was somewhat fortified, although not enough to stop the marauding Scots.  The arch is a lovely detail:  two more trefoils, and in the middle a vesica (pointed oval) with the cross in.  Underneath it, the bishop (sinister) and the prior (dexter) pray.  The cross suggests that they are praying not just to the BVM and Babe but to the altar of the Cathedral; directly underneath the Child, it gives a picture of the whole life of Christ, and emphasises his innocent sacrifice.  Nice!

+ SIGIL’ ECCLESIE • SANCTE • MAR[IE KARLELO]LI.

Birch also notes 'a small pointed oval counterseal, perhaps of Adam de Warwick, the Prior.'  Warwick was prior c.1284-1304.  Birch's description continues:  'Impression of an antique gem : a winged Fortune or Minerva, helmeted, full-length, in profile to the left, in the field a faintly engraved inscription:  — DIVS F . . .'  You can read about the use of ancient gems in (12th-century) seals here.
The counterseal has two shields of arms:  in chief, three bars, in base, fretty.  Apparently the Medieval Dictionary of Arms is online, but I can only seem to find volume 2, which is Bend-Chevron, so no good!  (I'm beginning to feel the want of a library now.  I hope one opens again soon.)  The inscription is + SIGILLVM • FRISINGTON (Frizington).

This is a bit of a mystery.  None of the priors around then was from Frizington, from their surnames.  Three later 12th-century priors have no surnames, but they are a little early for shields - not impossible, but unlikely.  Frizington itself seems to have been a one-horse-village.  Further research needed here!

Butley

Oh, for an pictorial edition of Birch.  Butley Priory is best known for its flamboyant 14th-century gatehouse.  There's a good Wikipedia article on the Priory, and the Priory website itself has some gorgeous pictures.  The Gatehouse displays the shields of all the local - and some not-so-local - worthies.  (I used to know all about this in a former life, but it means digging out some very old notes and trying to decipher my scrawl, which, as any former pupil or student will tell you, is nigh on impossible.)  The diaper work is splendid - and the buttresses make virtues of necessity.  Notice even the little cinquefoil rose above the small doorway - a reminder that this priory was dedicated to the BVM - but with the shield of Sir Guy Ferre, the patron, in the centre.  It's a lovely piece of Dec.

The seal ought to be a similar riot, and it seems so from Birch's description, and, as soon as I can, I'll get a snap of it:

14th cent.  Pointed oval : the Virgin, seated on a throne, with crown, the Child, with nimbus, on her left knee, in the r. h. a sceptre fleur-de-lize, with birds billing in the foliage at the top, in an elaborately carved niche with buttresses at the sides, and canopy pinnacled and crocketed. [I bet that's glorious.  I like the sound of birds billing in the foliage.]  In the field outside the niche, on each side a palm branch. In base under a carved arch with a window of tracery on each side, the Prior kneeling in prayer to the left. [Was this the prior who managed to get Ferre to part with da goods?]

: S'. CE’. ECCE’. SC [E’. M]ARIE ❀ ‘’ ❀ DE [ : BV]TTELE :

Birch also has the seal of a 14th-century prior.  Birch names him as Roger de Bungay, but the VCH lists no Roger.  It's a rather fine seal, though.

Pointed oval : in two niches with carved canopy, the Virgin and Child on the left, and St. Margaret trampling on the Dragon and piercing its head with a long cross on the right. In base under an arch with sloping sides, the Prior kneeling in prayer to the right on a shield of arms : two wings conjoined in lure?

MARGARETA • PIA P[RO] • ME • DEPRECARE • MARIA.

The wings conjoined in lure could be a reference to Wingfield, local gents and patrons.  (Wingfield has both a fine castle and a fine college.) It wouldn't be surprising if one of the priors was from the family, although this is sheer speculation:  the priors are all local boys, however.  The hexametric rhyming couplet tag follows a fine sigillographic tradition.

Agnes the Anchoress

No, she's not an Augustinian canon or canoness.  I've just accidentally come across her in Birch. 

Agnes, Anchoress of the Church 'de la Hethe', Colchester.
2987 [A.D.1284-5.] Discoloured white: a fragment.  About 1 1/8” x 1” when perfect.  [Harl. ch. 44 E. 17]  Pointed oval: a fleur-de-lis, inverted.  Legend reversed:  + S’ AGN’T…

This church is St Leonard-at-the-Hythe. (The wonderful Simon Knott has visited it, so there are some nice photos.)  VCH says that an anchoress was associated with the church in 1290-1.  Clearly, her name was Agnes.  (Agnes Dei? Groan.)  Anchoresses lived in a cell next a church.  They spent all their time in it.  There's a nice article on anchoresses here, although it doesn't answer my ever-nagging questions - what did they do about going to the loo (or, rather, clearing it up) and what about washing (mainly that horrid female curse, the period)?  The most famous anchoress was another East Anglian, Julian of Norwich, who was about 100 years Agnes' junior.  There's a good cell (the vestiges of) at St Anne's Lewes, too.

About Agnes, however, we know nothing.  Except that she had a seal.  This is most peculiar.  Why should an anchoress need a seal?  I don't yet know what the seal is sealing, as Birch's reference doesn't seem to tally with the current BL catalogues...  Another rabbit-hole to disappear down.......

Drax

Drax is one of those places hard done by progress.  It's been the home of a massive, ugly power station for years.  But once upon a time, a much prettier building stood - the Austin priory of Drax.  (There's still a handsome, largely Perp, church.)  The place name comes from the OE for 'portage', for this is where the Ouse meets the Aire.  (These rivers occasionally flooded, to the great detriment of the priory, and everyone else.)  The priory's arms show three drakes, so perhaps the origins of the name had been forgotten, or they just liked a good pun.

Drax was one of the many Austin foundations that saw the eminence grise of Archbishop Thurstan, although it was actually William Paynell who founded it.

By the later 12th century, standards at Drax were slipping.  It came out badly from Archbishop William Wickwane’s 1280 visitation.  The sub-cellarer Elias had been involved in a fight with another canon, and possibly a layman too; canons were keeping property and talking too much and letting far too many layfolk in, etc., and the prior seems to have been quite divisive.

Presumably this prior (was he Adam?) was replaced by Thomas of Campsall, who used this seal as his secretum (photo:  Durham cathedral.)  ✠ SIGILLUM : PRIORIS : DE : D.  You can get a really good impression (haha) of Augustinian dress from this - the outer cloak, which canons were required to wear inside and outside the cloister (and which was to be black - not blue or white or any other scandalous colour), and the almuce or rochet.  Thomas sports a great tonsure, too. You can read about Augustinian dress here (if you can get into JSTOR).

Thomas' successor was Elyas of Burton.  Is this the Elyas who lamped a fellow canon?  If so, I don't suppose anyone would argue with that father prior...

The seal itself shows St Nicholas, the priory's dedicatee.

He's vested for mass, as is usual with episcopal seals.  His crozier is a crook turned inwards, and he has a nicely tassled maniple.  He also wears a pall.  The folds are stylised, and the seal is very different from those of the priory's episcopal superior, the archbishops of York.  SIGILLUM CAPITUL[I] [SANCTI] NICH[OLAI] DE DRAX

For another episcopal priory seal, see Merton (which, I have to say, is much lovelier.)

Much later, around 1510, one of its canons was charged, along with several priests and laymen, with trying to obtain treasure by witchcraft; this canon had made a circle and tried to summon the spirit Belphares.   Needless to say, the whole enterprise failed miserably and the canon and his 5 cronies were made to walk through the streets of York being ridiculed and whipped.

Drax was dissolved in 1536.

St Andrews

If Guisborough's seal perhaps depicted its actual church buildings, there's little doubt that St Andrews' seal really does.  (Ah. St Andrews Cathedral.  I used to revise for medieval history exams in its cloister, although its sunny tranquillity was a little too soporific to recommend it as a place for work.)

But this central tower to me looks like St Reg's Tower (it seems officially to be St Rule's Tower - but St Rule's Tower is a bit of a mouthful, so everyone used, at any rate, to call it Reg's).  And lo, so it says, here (with a nice bit of audio from Richard Fawcett).  You can see traces of the roof-lines of the east and west bits (this Wikipedia/ Geograph photo shows several roof-lines), and the west end is very like what's left of the east and west ends of the St Andrews Cathedral building next door (there's a bit of an optical illusion going on in this photo!).  I wish they'd put the spire back on St Reg's - especially if it really was that rather nice snail-shell spiral in the seal!

The seal says SIGIL' ECCLESIE SANCTI [ANDRE]E APOSTOLI IN SCOTIA, and has two crosses in the field:  dexter, the saltire and sinister a cross cross.  I can't quite make out from this photo what the things are above it, but Henry Laing's descriptions of the Chapter's various seals (all using St Reg's) say that:

‘issuing from the upper part is a dexter hand, the forefingers pointing upwards.  At the lower part of the seal is an ornament composed of three semicircles interlaced.’  (It's not this one, but I like the idea of fingers of right reason pointing upwards.  St Andrews was where I first encountered the finger of right reason.)

‘in addition to the saltire and the hand, there is in this a crescent and an estoile, and on the sinister side of the tower is a cross in the place of the saltire’  (That's more like it - the second seal, or, at least, a later one than the above.

 Here's a rather nice reconstruction of St Andrews.  The history of St Andrews is very interesting, but too long for here.  It's an example of an Augustinian house taking over a much older one, in this instance a Culdee house.

 The counterseal is St Andrew himself.  This slender figure is a little disturbing! It looks late 12th-century.  The inscription is SECRETUM C[ON]VEN' S ANDREE.

The thumb or finger prints are magnificent.  (There's a fingerprint project on seals here.)

(In 2016, a teenage detectorist dug up the seal of William Lamberton, bishop of St Andrews (1297-1338).)

Photos of the seals are from Durham University Library.

             -------------------------------------

I didn't particularly enjoy my student days at St Andrews, although it was a beautiful place to be in, and there were some very good tutors.  But I did make some very good friends, and it's rather nice that the bottom of the seal should have such a topological design - my best friend from St Andrews is now one of the leading topologists in the world.

St Osyth's

St Osyth's Priory (or Abbey, as it soon became), Chich, Essex, is absolutely gorgeous.  You can see it here.  The Austin priory was founded by Richard Belmeis, Bishop of London, c.1121, and its first prior was William de Corbeil, who became Archbishop of Canterbury.


Osyth was the daughter of Anglo-Saxon aristocrats, who, with St. Erconwald, founded Chertsey Abbey (675). Being the daughter of A-S aristocrats, she wasn’t allowed to become the nun that she wanted to be, but was forced into marriage.  When her husband, King Sighere of Essex, was out hunting, she nipped down to the local bishops and got them to nun her.  Sighere, being a decent chap, gave her some land at Chich, and she founded a convent there.

Osyth died twice.  The first time happened when she was a girl. Her aunt, St. Edith of Aylesbury, sent her to deliver a book to St. Modwenna of Northumbria at her convent. Bt the convent lay the other side of a stream (presumably a pretty big stream). It was swollen, and she drowned. No-one missed her - Aunt Edith thought she must with Modwenna; the book was a surprise gift, so Modwenna knew nothing about it or its bearer. When Osyth still hadn’t come back the next day, Edith went looking for her - picking up Modwenna on the way. They found her wet corpse by the stream, and prayed. Osyth got up.

Later, once she had set up her convent and enjoyed being abbess for a while, some nasty pirates raided the convent and chopped off her head. BUT… she picked up her head and walked to the convent door, before collapsing. (The story gets transferred to Quarrendon in Bucks, where she was born, so it’s all a bit confused.) Anyway, this makes her a ‘cephalophore’ - that’s a new word on me (thanks, Wikipedia!), but it’s easy to dissect - ‘cephale’ is Greek for ‘head’, and ‘phore’ is carrier (from ‘pherein’, to carry).

There are two seals catalogued by de Gray Birch.  The first is from 1285, and the second from the 15th century.  Both have similar subject matter, viz. Osyth.  (The 15th-century one has, in addition, an angel holding a shield of the 3 crowns of East Anglia.)

This seal is the 13th-century one.  Under a fine canopy, with lovely slender columns, and the sword and key of Paul and Peter, is Osyth with her head.  Glorious.

S' • ECCE • SCE : OSYTHE • DE : CHIC : AD • CAS •

Its counterseal is, in the field, left, a cross;
Christ nimbed, lifting up right hand in benediction.