Toward the second half of the ninth century, a monk, known in his cloister under the name of Constantine, but afterwards, when a bishop, as Cyrillus, became earnestly wishful of bringing all the many tribes of the Sclavonic race to a knowledge of Christianity; and warming in the heart of his brother Methodius a like hope, they both bethought themselves, the sooner to succeed, of inventing an alphabet which should be better adapted for that purpose than either the Greek or the Latin one; and because its invention is owing, for the greater part, to St. Cyril, it immediately took, and still keeps, its name from him, and is now denominated Cyrillian. Of this invention we are told by Pope John VIII. to whom the two brothers had gone together, to ask authority and crave his blessing for their undertaking: "Letteras Sclavonicas, a Constantino quodam philosopho repertas, quibus Deo laudes debitæ resonant. Ep. ad Svaplukum, apud Dobrowsky, Institutiones Linguæ Slavicæ." This great and successful missionary took not any Gothic, but a Greek model for his letters, as is shown by Dobrowsky. The Sclaves who follow the Greek rite, use the Cyrillian letters in their liturgical books, while those of the same people who use the Latin rite employ, in their service, the Glagolitic alphabet, which was drawn up in the thirteenth century. The probability is that this latter—a modification of the Cyrillian, is no older than that period, and is not from the hand, as supposed by some, of St. Jerom.
A short time ago, the Sclaves celebrated with great splendour the thousandth anniversary of St. Cyril, to whom they owe their Christianity and their alphabet; and among the beautiful wall paintings lately brought to light in the lower church of St. Clement at Rome, by the zealous labours of Father Malooly, an Irish Dominican, the translation of St. Cyril's body from the Vatican, to that church, is figured.
Section IX.—HERALDRY,
And how the appearance of it, real or imagined, under any
shape, and upon vestments, was made available, after different
ways, in our law-courts, ask for and shall have a
passing notice.
At the end of the fourteenth century, there arose, between the noble houses of Scrope and Grosvenor, a difference about the legal right of bearing on their respective shields the bend or on a field azure; and the suit was carried to the Court of Honour which sat at Westminster, and commissioners were sent about the country for the purpose of gathering evidence.
