HERALDRY.

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some modern etymologists have derived the name of thisoffice, as Du Cange says our term comes from the Saxonhere, or German heir, army, and aid, servant ; becausechiefly serving in the army. Others will have the two words,thus compounded, to imply champion of Ike army; becauseof their office in denouncing war or proclaiming- peace, &c.Du Cange adds, they were originally called also clarigarii,as well as heralds. Borel, we are told, derives the wordfrom the Latin herns, master, g. tl. high lord ; others fromherald, which is the same with Dorn inns ve/ranus; andothers, lastly, from hea, master, or army, and hold, q. d.hound to his lord, or the army. See Edmondsons completeBody of Heraldry, vol. i. p. 81—83.

The Greek name tor the office was v*ff, and Eipjvo^tAxof:the Romans called them feciales. It appears that the last-named people had a college of heralds, appointed to decidewhether a war was just or unjust; and to prevent its comingto open hostilities, till all means had been used for the deci-sion of the difference in a pacific way.

jEneas Sylvius, in an epistle, written anno 1451, refersto a MS. about heralds, w hich he had seen in St. Raul’schurch, London , compiled, as he asserts, about (iOO yearsbefore that time: if the alleged antiquity of such MS. beadmitted, the office was recognised in this kingdom asearly as the year 851, which would serve to vindicatethe long suspected genuineness of the statute abouttournaments, said to have been made by the EmperorHenry I. in the year 938, in which are mentioned kings ofarms, heralds, and their respective duties. But, it is said,Sir Henry Spelman hath proved that this MS. ought to bereferred to the time of the Emperor Charles IV. and not tothat of Charlemagne , when .Eneas Sylvius imagined it tohave been written. Mutius furnishes a constitution of Fre-derick /Enobarlms, who came to the empire in 1152, aboutthe immunity of heralds, which lias been considered lessexceptionable than the statute of Henry I. Accordinglythe establishment of heralds has been referred by a learnedand noble author to an event that occurred about that period,who conjectured they owed their origin to the crusades, orreligious expeditions to the holy land. This opinion appearsto have been adopted by most modern writers. it isconjectured, that could the point at which we are essay-ing, he once ascertained, to achieve the duties assignedthem, and the purposes for which they were first appbintedin European courts, a firm step would be made towardsascertaining their comparatively modern origin in EuropeanVOL. II. li