. The arms of the Scottish bishoprics. he seals of every mediaeval Bishop whose seals have comedown to us. The first is that of Bishop Alan ; there isrepresented St. Moluag-; and in the base, the Bishopadoring his patron. Later Bishops also bore their paternalarms. From an examination of the seals of the mediaevalBishops, then, the weight of such evidence as there is, israther in favour of the second interpretation of the shieldof arms, namely, that the crosiers are borne in allusion tothe famous old crosier of the saint who, according totradition, had so close a connection with the diocese. B
. The arms of the Scottish bishoprics. he seals of every mediaeval Bishop whose seals have comedown to us. The first is that of Bishop Alan ; there isrepresented St. Moluag-; and in the base, the Bishopadoring his patron. Later Bishops also bore their paternalarms. From an examination of the seals of the mediaevalBishops, then, the weight of such evidence as there is, israther in favour of the second interpretation of the shieldof arms, namely, that the crosiers are borne in allusion tothe famous old crosier of the saint who, according totradition, had so close a connection with the diocese. Butthe evidence, it must be admitted, is so meagre, that it ismuch more probable, when we remember that in 1675 thepalmy days of the science of heraldry were past, that thearms assumed for the see are merely of a conventional this may be, the choice of crosiers as the heraldicbearings of the diocese was in this case a happy coincidence. The arms are blazoned thus:—Asure, two crosiers insaltire and in chief a mitre, CHAPTER XVII. The Isles. In the nineteenth century the Lyon King- of Armsgranted armorial bearing-s to the newly-founded college ofCumbrae. And this shield bore as its first and fourthquarterings the arms which had been previously assumedfor the diocese of the Isles. The shield of the see repre-sents St. Columba, the patron of the diocese and of theMonastery at lona, in a coracle holding in his left hand adove, and looking towards a blazing star. The story of , his mission to the Picts, and his foundation ofthe monastery at lona, are so well known that there is noneed to relate them here : suffice it to say that we shallfind reference to the saint and his work in the seals ofmediaeval Bishops of Sodor or The Isles, and moreespecially in those of the post-reformation Bishops. Of the seals of the pre-reformation Bishops, only veryfew have survived, two of them of early date. On thesetwo seals, which belonged to Bishop Richard (consecrated
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidarmsofscottishbi00lyonric
