Societas Silvestris – a Heraldic Mendicant Order

Pietari Uv

Originally published in the Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium held on June 11–13, A.S. XXXIV

There is an old saying that the heralds in our Society, as a group, are in many ways like the clergy of the Middle Ages. They have a hierarchy of their own which is – to some extent – outside the control of the secular government, they have a canon of sacred texts, they have a language not readily understandable by the lay people, their interests are closely tied to written education, and so on. According to this interpretation, you are at the moment reading the proceedings of one of an ongoing series of synods, and one which is scheduled to include the investiture of a new pope.

This analogy has for a long time had a certain appeal to myself, but this appeal increased quite a bit when I got inducted to the Order of the Pelican. According to Nuorteva (1997), throughout our period virtually all Finns with university degrees ended up with offices within the church, with only a handful going to secular offices in the government. Since my persona is a 15th Century Finn, and since I had just got the title of Master, it seemed most natural for me to get a canonicate at some Cathedral Chapter.

On the other hand, we have in my home Canton a heraldic commenting group.[1] There had been some talk among the core people of this group that perhaps we should formalise our relationship in some way, perhaps founding a household. However, there was some bafflement over what kind of household we should be. At some point during this process someone got an inspiration that connected our wish for a household with the heralds / clergy analogy and the period precedents for Masters acquiring church office.

The most typical period model for the commenting group would have been a Cathedral Chapter, as these were often staffed with not only prelates and senior canons with academic degrees but somewhat more junior clergy as well (for an example of a Cathedral Chapter, see eg. Arhnung 1937/70). On the other hand, this model was not immediately comfortable to even myself, and it would have been rather difficult to accept by someone who is devoutly non-Christian, either in persona or in the real world.

There was, however, another type of clerical community that would serve our purposes. We were, by the history of our group, determined to further heraldic education and knowledge, and to help the College of Arms in such ways that we could.[2] We were, in other words, involved in education of junior clergy, preaching to the lay people, and serving the 'church'. This happens to correspond rather closely to what the mendicant orders – in period, the Dominican, Franciscan and Jesuit Orders – did (see eg. the Catholic Encyclopedia).

The Dominican Order would have been the most obvious choice for a model, as it is the one most clearly dedicated to these ideals.[3] However, the Rule of S. Francis (1223) was easier to come by, as it is available on the net. We therefore took that as our model.

The changes to the Rule are, for the most part, pretty straightforward. The Church has been changed to the College of Arms, the Christian faith to the ideals of good heraldry, and so forth. The only things that we removed altogether are the requirements for poverty and celibacy. The former is, we feel, rather incompatible with the goals of heraldic splendour; the latter did not really feel right, considering the situations in which we lived.

As for the vows, the Jesuit one is easily available on the net. We therefore adapted it to our purposes, although they required much more work than the Rule. After all, one of the ideals of the SCA is that people strive for a well-rounded set of skills, so a commitment to heraldry should not be as all-encompassing as the commitment of the period monks. All in all, our goal was to write the vows so that they encourage us to strive to become better heralds.

Hagiography

The society is named after the 17th Century Jesuit, Silvestre Petra Sancta, who is most commonly known in these circles as the inventor of hatching (Friar 1987). While starting the society we initially considered another patron as well: Bartolo of Sassoferrato, the 14th Century legal theorist who wrote the first treatise on the law of arms, still relevant (see eg. Levin, undated). We eventually chose Petra Sancta because of mundane considerations.[4]

Of course, since religious orders were named after saints, these gentlemen are not as such possible patrons. Fortunately people were usually named after saints, and so we can find a S. Bartholomew (one of the apostles) and a S. Sylvester (a 4th Century pope) in, for example, Farmer (1987).

Organisation

Since the society is still in its infancy[5] this section is largely hypothetial. However, the intention is to organise the society along these lines, in case it is going to take off. If you are interested in starting a convent, contact me.[6]

At the local level the society will consist of local convents. Each convent has a prior, whom the full brothers and sisters of the convent choose from their own number; the prior has the authority to receive the vows of new novices, and to release novices from their vows. The convent may have other officials as well, such as lecturer or librarian.

The Convent of S. Sylvester in Hukka has as its origin a group of local heralds. In the past the group has been involved in doing commentary both at Kingdom level and on the College of Arms; it has also been a discussion group about heraldry, provided consultation services, encouraged its members to hold heraldic office above local level, and provided support for those that have done so. The intent is that a well-functioning convent should do more than one of these things.[7]

At some point it may be necessary to establish a level of hierarchy above the local convents, a province.[8] The priors of the convents of such a province form a Provincial Convent to discuss matters relevant to the province; as their chairperson they elect a Prior provincial. The Prior provincial, in addition to being the chairperson of the Provincial Convent, has the authority to receive the vows of new full brothers and sisters, at the completion of their novitiate.

The entire society is governed by a General Convent. This body consists of the Priors provincial and the Custodes, a group of people specifically nominated to be permanent members of the General Convent, and approved by the other Custodes. It elects as its chairperson the Brother or Sister general. This person is the titular head of the society, and is the only one with the authority to release full brothers and sisters from their vows.

Bibliography

Arhnung, J.O. 1937/1970:

Roskilde Domkapitels Historie / History of the Roskilde Cathedral Chapter. Vol. I (until 1416), Roskilde 1937; Vol. II (1416–1536), Copenhagen 1970. Vol. II ISBN 87–12–04466–0.

Farmer, David Hugh 1987:

The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Second Edition. Oxford. ISBN 0–19–282038–9.

Francis of Assisi 1223:

The Rule of the Friars Minor. English translation, available at the Internet Archive

Friar, Stephen 1987:

A New Dictionary of Heraldry. London. ISBN 0–906670–44–6.

Catholic Encyclopedia.

Electronic version, via the Internet Archive

Levin, Craig (Dom Pedro de Alcazar), undated:

The Law of Arms in Mediaeval England. Available at the Internet Archive

Nuorteva, Jussi 1997:

Suomalaisten ulkomainen opinkäynti ennen Turun akatemian perustamista 1640 / Finnish Study Abroad before the Foundation of the Royal Academy of Turku (Academia Aboensis) in 1640. DD Thesis, Helsinki. ISBN 952–5031–10–1 / 951–710–064–7.

Notes

1. The commenting group is in fact somewhat older than the Canton, but that is beside the point.

2. I had, at the time, just stepped down as Schwarzdrachen Principal Herald; Lord Johan had recently taken the office of Edelweiß Herald, the submissions deputy for our Kingdom; and Lord Dubhghall was Susi Herald, one of our regional heralds.

3. The Jesuits would also have been a good choice, except that they were only founded in 1540 and we felt that a slightly earlier-period model would be more appropriate.

4. One of the most prominent figures of Heraldry Society of Finland has adopted Petra Sancta as his patron, and our choice was a compliment to this gentleman; similarly, the blasted tree in the badge of the Societas Silvestris is a canting reference to another senior Finnish heraldist.

5. At the moment, we have one convent, with three full brothers and one novice.

6. My e-mail address ‹antti . leino﹫iki . fi› is supposed to not go away in the foreseeable future; other contact information is likely to be available from the College of Arms.

7. Two of the three full brothers of our Convent hold currently offices in the Heraldry Society of Finland as well. While this sort of involvement in heraldry outside the SCA is nice when possible, Societas Silvestris is primarily interested in SCA heraldry.

8. This shouldn't be confused with the SCA local group designator of Province; rather the model is the division to provinces of the real-world mendicant orers. The Silvestrian provinces can – and in some cases quite likely will – be larger than Kingdoms, but this too is like in the real world. For instance, the pre-reformation Dominican province of Dacia included all of Scandinavia.