CARDINAL'S MONUMENT.
(Vol. iii., p. 106.)
Your correspondent and querist, J. D. A., asks for some information respecting the coat of arms surmounted by a cardinal's hat, sculptured and affixed to one of the pillars of the south transept in St. Saviour's Church, Southwark. I send in reply an extract from a now scarce book, Arthur Tiler's History and Antiquities of St. Saviour's, 1765, with which all the later historians of the church agree:—
"Anno 1400. 2 Hen. IV.
"The whole church was new built about this time; Henry Beaufort (second son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, son of Edward III.), Cardinal of St. Eusebius, and Bishop of Winchester from the year 1405 to the time of his death in 1447, might have contributed towards the building, being a man of great wealth, for which he was called the rich Cardinal, as the arms of the Beauforts are carved in stone on a pillar in the south cross aisle; and by the remaining sculpture on each side it appears to be done for strings pendant from a Cardinal's hat placed over them. The arms are quarterly France and England, a border compone argent and azure."
When the transepts were rebuilt, some years since, the cardinal's hat, which till that time was nearly defaced, was then restored, and the coat of arms newly emblazoned.
W. B.
19. Winchester Place, St. Saviour's, Southwark.
[G. A. S. and James H. Smith have forwarded similar replies.]
With reference to the Query of J. D. A. (p. 106. antè), it would appear that the cardinal's hat, but with a difference in the number of rows of tassels, is sometimes seen on the monuments of men who never were raised to that dignity.
In the Cathedral of St. Canice, Kilkenny, are two monuments placed there during the rule of the Confederate Catholics, viz., that of James Cleere, "Protonotarius et Rector ecclesiæ D. Joannis Diœcesis oporiensis," who died A.D. 1643, Nov. 14; and David Rothe, intrusive Roman Catholic Bishop of Ossery, who died some years after—on both of which the arms of the individual are surmounted by a cardinal's hat. It is quite certain that neither of these ecclesiastics had a right to this distinction as cardinals. For the right of Bishops and Prothonotaries to wear hats or caps of the same shape as the cardinals, with their colours and peculiarities, see Glossary of Heraldry (Oxford), under "Cap-Cardinals." Any further examples will oblige
J. Graves.
Kilkenny, Feb. 10. 1851.
The Cardinal's hat, with arms beneath, on a pillar near the poet Gower's monument, in St. Saviour's, Southwark, refers directly to the beneficence of that busy cardinal and very remarkable man,
Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, and who in that capacity resided in the adjoining palace; indirectly it refers to the marriage of James V. of Scotland with Jane Beaufort, the Cardinal's niece: and it is something to the honour of St. Mary Overies, (the church in question,) to add that it was within its walls that the ceremony took place. Besides Gower, the parish registers state that Edmond Shakspeare ob. 1607 (one of the brothers of the great dramatist), John Fletcher ob. 1625, and Philip Massinger ob. 1640. (See Mr. Knight's Old England, eng. 548. p. 147.)
Blowen.
A cardinal's hat is differenced by colour and the number of its tassels, not by its shape, which is the same for all clergymen. Thus, for simple priests, a black hat, with one tassel on either side; for a bishop, a green hat with three tassels; for a cardinal, a crimson hat with five or seven tassels. What the reason may be for the variation in the number of the tassels amongst cardinals, I should be glad to learn.
W. D-n.
In Ciaconius (Vitæ et Res Gestæ Pontificum, Rome, 1630), there is a list of all the cardinals created up to that date, with their armorial bearings; and the only instances of France and England quarterly (which is, no doubt, what is intended), are those of Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, and Cardinal Hallum, Bishop of Salisbury. I can find no mention anywhere of the family of Cardinal Hallum, or Hallam; and should be glad to know who he was descended from, and why he had those arms assigned to him by Ciaconius, who is tolerably correct.
A. W. M.