« ATAVIS & ARMIS » and other expressions of Lazarite identity seen in their proper context

Abstract

The arms of the Order, Argent, a cross Vert, may well have existed already during the era of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem but, records having been wilfully destroyed at repeated sackings of Boigny, first during the Hundred Years War; then during the Wars of Religion; and lastly by the mobs of the French Revolution, there is precious little preserved. On the other hand, the Memoires of the Order, printed in 1649 claim that the green cross was adopted shortly after the transfer in 1254 of the Magisterial Seat to Boigny. A manuscript from 1314 with the Statutes of the Order, preserved at Seedorf, Kanton Uri, in Switzerland, indicates that Knights and Priests of the Order wear a green cross, sewn onto their habit. The Motto of the Order, ATAVIS & ARMIS – By Ancestry and Arms – made perfect sense when it was introduced by a Règlement promulgated on New Year’s Eve 1778.