Catholic heraldry of a very different kind

Charterhouse Chronicle Mark Elvins
Cardinal Vaughan, as the third Archbishop of Westminster, of the restored Catholic hierarchy, inherited arms from his father Colonel John Vaughan of Courtfield in Herefordshire. As such he was the first Archbishop of Westminster to bear legitimate arms. He represented an old recusant family which had sided with King Charles I in the Civil War and had supported the Jacobite cause at the Battle of Culloden.
The Cardinal desired arms for his see of Westminster and so consulted a Catholic armorist, Alban Buckler, Surrey Herald Extraordinary, who provided him with arms similar to the see of Canterbury, with the field changed from azure (blue) to gules (red). The Cardinal then applied to Rome for a papal grant of the proposed arms, with the right to impale them with his own.
The arms were duly granted, but a subsequent letter was sent explaining that the grant was subject to the laws of arms in England. Pope Leo X III who granted arms to the see of Westminster in 1894 included restrictions that they be registered with the College of Arms before they be displayed.
The universal law of arms was prescribed in a book by the Italian jurist Bartolus Sasso-Ferrato and was accepted by all nations. However, in England in 1418 Henry V issued a writ to the county sheriffs proclaiming that no man should assume a coat of arms unless he possessed or ought to possess one in the right of his ancestors or by the gift of some person competent to grant it, excepting from this prohibition those who had fallen at Agincourt".
In 1484, Richard III granted a charter of incorporation for Kings of Arms, Heralds and Pursuivants thus founding the College of Arms, but in 1894 Cardinal Vaughan never registered the arms for his see of Westminster but simply impaled them with his own. He probably knew well that the College would allow them if he had asked approval, for Catholic dioceses are forbidden to bear arms by virtue of the fact that they have no corporate status in law.
Moreover a grant would have to be made to the diocese in name and Catholic sees are denied the use of territorial titles on pain of a fine (to this day) of £50. This is regulated by the Eeclesial Titles Act of 1871 which prevents anybody with a claim to ecclesial jurisdiction from obtaining arms other than the established Church of England.
The arms Alban Buckler had designed were similar to the see of Canterbury, but he suggested that the Cardinal change the colour of the field from azure to gules to commemorate the English martyrs. These arms have been criticised as in monochrome they are identical to those of the see of Canterbury.
Notwithstanding Everard Green, Rouge bury but simply alluded to the dignity or office accorded to Catholic archbishops with metropolitan status, signified by the pallium (not worn by Anglican archbishops). To support this argument he compared the insignia used by the old Catholic sees of Canterbury, Armagh, Dublin and York ancient, which all had symbolic of office. He gives examples of arms borne by pre-Reformation Archbishops of Canterbury such as Courtney and Arundel, who both impaled the pallium, and Sudbury who used only his personal arms because he was killed before he was able to reach Rome and receive his pallium. Moreover the Anglican use of Catholic insignia for the see of Canterbury has raised some questions as at the Reformation they would have no Mick with the pallium (the main charge on the shield), specifically rejected by Archbishop Whitgift, as a "popish bauble". These arms were briefly revived by Juxon and then abandoned until the 19th century and then reclaimed with the advent of ritualism in the Church of England.
pope Leo XIII as a sovereign had every right to grant arms and could legally grant as such throughout the world, but in Britain there was a unique heraldic authority in the College of Arms (and the Court of Lord Lyon in Scotland) which could challenge the papal grant. However, the Pope granted the arms subject to registration at the College of Arms. Despite this every archbishop since Vaughan has impaled the papal grant until now, and Cardinal Hume even bore the papal grant altered by the Church armorist Archbishop Heim.
The pastoral staff behind the pallium was changed to a fleur de lys, but even if the papal coat is ultra tires in this country it is legally granted and cannot be changed even by a nuncio. Mindful of this problem, the present Cardinal, Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, has dropped the use of the pallium altogether and awaits the Letters Patent of a grant from the Kings of Arms, designed by Cecil HumpherySmith.
However, as the Holy See now has an official representative in the person of the nuncio, there is an implicit recognition of the Catholic Church, thus it can only be a matter of time before Catholic dioceses receive legal status and the papal grant can be taken out of moth balls. Moreover when this happens the original design must be allowed to stand, as a basic principle of heraldry is that a grant is a legal document and cannot be altered except by a re-grant.
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor has in fact had an offical re-grant for the first coat, as designed by Archbishop Heim. contradicted the English laws of arms. This situation has highlighted two schools of thought, the old European Catholic tradition of adopting arms or the legal process established in England since King Henry V. However, most Catholic diocesan bishops still just assume arms upon taking up office, without reference to the official granting authority. Not so long ago they might have been summoned to appear before the Court of Chivalry for this breach of heraldic law, but the last time the court sat in 1959 it proved so expensive as to deter any future sittings.