Seal
Category
Desktop & office
Date
1509 - 1539
Materials
Copper alloy
Measurements
61 x 37 x 13 mm
Collection
Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire
NT 1675801
Summary
A seal matrix for Hailes Abbey.
Full description
COPPER ALLOY SEAL MATRIX FROM HAILES ABBEY LEGEND: *Sigillu fraternitat' monasterii beate marie de hayles The seal-matrix was discovered in a field called Low Garth, near Langrick on the Ouse, a short distance from Drax, in 1821 (Gentlemans Magazine). However, the legend leaves no doubt that it was originally intended for use at Hailes Abbey in Gloucestershire. The matrix has been regarded as the Abbey's conventual seal (Birch, 1887, no. 3261) but this is not confirmed by comparison with either the legends or the imagery of other late medieval Cistercian seals. From c. 1350-1530 seals of English and Welsh Cistercian abbeys employ the legend formula ‘Sigillum commune…’ or an abbreviation of it (e.g. at St Mary Graces, Netley, Ford, Beaulieu, Wardon, Tiltey, Hulton, Stoneleigh, Thame, Sawtrey, Furness, Vale Crusis, Neath, Aberconway, Cleeve). The alternatives; ‘Sigillum conventus…’ (e.g. Quarr, Buckfastleigh, Newenham, Basingwerk), ‘Sigillum abbatis et conventus…’ (e.g. Jervaulx, Waverley, Swinehead) and ‘Sigillum ecclesie…’ (Bordeswell, Buckland) are all earlier than c. 1350 (except Basingwerk, c. 1400). Therefore, it will be apparent that ‘Sigillum fraternitatis…’ is not an option for this category of seal. Furthermore, all English and Welsh Cistercian conventual seals from the fourteenth century onwards carry a representation of the Virgin Mary (with the single exception of Netley). Indeed from 1335 (and Netley is probably before this date) there is legislation stipulating that they should do so. Such a seal was made for use at Hailes itself, where the Virgin and Child are shown enthroned in an elaborate circular traceried surround, not unlike a rose window. There is an original impression attached to a Hailes Charter in the Gloucestershire Archives (GBR/J1/1089) and a cast of it in the British Library (seal cast CXLII 49). Legends like that on the bronze matrix appear instead on seals of ‘guilds, chantries and confraternities’ (Birch, I (1887), nos 4450-4484) where they are normal. Where the Hailes matrix differs is in stating ‘fraternity of the monastery’. In most other cases the fraternity is expressed in terms of its devotion e.g. ‘fraternity of St George, Holy Trinity etc.’ followed by a place ‘within the church/monastery of…’. However, this difference does not invalidate the suggestion that the Hailes seal was made for a confraternity. Indeed, the use to which the seal would have been put is clearly demonstrated by a surviving letter of confraternity issued at Hailes to Charles, lord Herbert of Raglan, in 1509, offering him the spiritual benefits of and full participation in the life of the community (Baddeley (1908), p. 73). The seal appended to this document is almost identical in size and iconography to the bronze matrix and is referred to as the ‘sigillum fraternitatis nostri monasterii’ in the sealing clause at the end of the charter. The only significant difference in content between the wax impression of 1509 and the bronze matrix is that the central figure is shown on the latter standing on top of a short flight of three steps rather than on the ground. Otherwise the two seals can be taken as showing the same subject, a tonsured man in the simple vestments of an acolyte holding in his right hand a globe-like vessel with a cylindrical neck out of which emerges a cross. Birch surmised that this was ‘in allusion to the Holy Blood of Our Lord, a portion of which was preserved in this Abbey’. It indeed seems very likely that this object is the reliquary containing the Blood, though whether in the globe or the cross itself is not clear. A late thirteenth-century description of the relic calls it ‘a gold cross with an enamel base which contains a most noble portion of the most precious blood of the cross of Christ’, which suggests that it was the cross which held the relic, apparently a splinter of wood stained with the Blood. Birch called the object in the man’s left hand ‘a sprinkler’, which is to say an aspergillum for sprinkling holy water. This identification is much less certain, since it would normally be carried in conjunction with a situla, a kind of small bucket, containing the water. Particularly in the version shown on the wax impression, the object looks more like a taper with three wicks. This would make sense if, as we may assume, a light was kept burning in front of the relic. It raises the possibility that the figure is not that of a real man but of a sculpted image made to hold both the container of the Blood and an accompanying candle. Such an explanation might also be used to account for the appearance of the steps; they might be a new base made for this image sometime between the engraving of the matrix used for the impression on the 1509 confraternity and the making of the bronze matrix discovered in 1821. All the indications are that the bronze matrix was engraved after 1509 at which date the earlier one was still in use. Its artistic character is perfectly in keeping with the style of the early sixteenth century; the figure has lost the Gothic elegance which is still evident on its mid fifteenth-century predecessor. The existence of these seals is important evidence for the vitality of the cult and the strength od the confraternity well into the sixteenth century. T.A. Heslop, 9th October 1990 SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY The Gentleman’s Magazine, 92, pt. 1 (1822), p. 545 W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. 5 (edn., 1825), p. 687 Archaeological Journal, 12 (1855), p. 296 Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 34 (1878), p. 343 W. de G. Birch, Catalogue of Seals in the British Museum, vo. 1 (1887) W. St C. Baddeley, The Cotteswold Shrine (1908), p. 73