Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/311

 EXAMPLES OF MEDIJIVAL SEALS. 269 portion of the seal, and supply fresh wax beneath, as described in an epistle of Pope Innocent III., quoted by Mabillon, p. 155 ; and it was, probably, to guard against frauds of this kind, that a counterseal on the reverse of seals so made was used by the princes of Lombardy, as early as the year 901. In other parts of Europe the counterseal is of more recent usage, and was first introduced into the regal seals of France by Louis VIL, a.d. 1137 — 1180. It would seem, that when the fashion of appending seals had become established at that period, the counterseal would naturally accompany the change. F. MADDEN. REMARKS ON A SEAL AND CHARTER OF PETER BISHOP OF BEADVAIS OF THE YEAR 1123. The seal of Peter, Bishop of Beauvais, recently acquired by the Department of MSS. in the British Museum, furnishes another example en jjlacard. The practice of affixing seals in that manner is said to have continued longer among bishops and abbots than with sovereigns ; though even with these ecclesiastics it does not appear to have been in use after the end of the xiith century.^ There were several bishops of Beauvais named Peter ; this was distinguished as Peter I. For some time his parentage and condition in life before his election to the bishopric were unknown. It now appears, according to Gallia Christiana, that he was of a noble family, and a brother of Fulk, a previous bishop of that see, who filled it from 1089 to 1095, having been a pupil of Lanfranc, and before his election a monk at Bee, under St. Anselm, then the abbot, and afterwards, like Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury. There was another brother of Peter, named Ralph, who was also a monk at Bee. They were the sons of a Lancelin Count of Dammartin, in the Isle of France, and brother of Lancelin de Bulles (de Bubulis) whom the same authority calls count, and therefore he probably succeeded his father. Their grandfather is said to have been Fulk, and surnamed de Beauvais. The suc- cession of the Counts of Dammartin in " L'Art de Verifier les Dates " is very defective and otherwise unsatisfactory ;
 * De Values Diet. Raisoniie de Diploiu. ii. 309,