wheel was divided
(by cross lines) into four quarters, the two upper ones being occupied
by the names of the apostles St Peter and St Paul, and the two lower
ones by the name of the pope. The _Rota_ was placed on the left of the
subscription, the monogrammatic _Benevalete_ on the right. The two
signs were likewise adopted by certain ecclesiastical chanceries and
by feudal lords, particularly in the 12th century. From the same
period also the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs adopted the _Rota_,
the _signo rodado_, which is so conspicuous in the royal charters of
the Peninsula.

Sealing.

Besides the subscription, an early auxiliary method of authentication
was by the impression of the seal which, as noticed above, was
required by the Roman law. But the general use of the signet gradually
failed, and by the 7th century it had ceased. Still it survived in the
royal chanceries, and the sovereigns both of the Merovingian and of
the Carolingian lines had their seals; and, in the 8th century, the
mayors of the palace likewise. It is interesting to find instances of
the use of antique intaglios for the purpose by some of them. In
England too there is proof that the Mercian kings Offa and Coenwulf
used seals, in imitation of the Frankish monarchs. In the 7th century,
and still more so in the 8th and 9th centuries, the royal seals were
of exaggerated size: the precursors of the great seals of the later
sovereigns of western Europe. The waxen seals of the early diplomas
were in all cases _en placard_: that is, they were attached to the
face of the document and not suspended from it, being held in position
by a cross-cut incision in the material, through which the wax was
pressed and then flattened at the back. On the cessation of autograph
signatures in subscriptions, the general use of seals revived,
beginning in the 10th century and becoming the ordinary method of
authentication from the 12th to the 15th century inclusive. Even when
signatures had once again become universal, the seal continued to hold
its place; and thus sealing is, to the present day, required for the
legal execution of a deed. The attachment _en placard_ was
discontinued, as a general practice, in the middle of the 11th
century; and seals thenceforward were, for the most part, suspended,
leathern thongs being used at first, and afterwards silken and hempen
cords or parchment label