[Illustration: Fig. 385.--Herald (Fourteenth Century).--From a Miniature
in the "Chroniques de Saint-Denis" (Imperial Library of Paris).]
Nevertheless the question of ceremonial, and especially that of
precedence, had already more than once occupied the attention of
sovereigns, not only within their own states, but also in relation to
diplomatic matters. The meetings of councils, at which the ambassadors of
all the Christian Powers, with the delegates of the Catholic Church, were
assembled, did not fail to bring this subject up for decision. Pope
Julius II. in 1504 instructed Pierre de Crassis, his Master of the
Ceremonies, to publish a decree, determining the rank to be taken by the
various sovereigns of Europe or by their representatives; but we should
add that this Papal decree never received the sanction of the parties
interested, and that the question of precedence, even at the most
unimportant public ceremonies, was during the whole of the Middle Ages a
perpetual source of litigation in courts of law, and of quarrels which too
often ended in bloodshed.
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