The Huguenot Bartholomew Dupuy and his descendants

90 BARTHOLOMEW DUPUY IN HISTORY.
Chap. L Knights of St. John of Jerusalem was adorned
with a cross of silver, upon a field of red.
When Raymond Dupuy became Grand Master
of that order, and it assumed a military character,
according to the custom of chivalry, he
chose for the adornment of his shield the
two quartered, i. e., two lions and two crosses.
Coats of As yet, no decided traces of Coats of Arms
^""^'
have been discovered among the early crusaders.
It was not until the 13th century
that they came rapidly into use, not acquiring
a fixed character until the middle of the 14th,
and prevailed until about the close of the 15th
century; after which they became merely
ornamental and genealogical escutcheons, as
emblems of rank and family, and marks of
gentle blood. When such insignia did arise,
i. e., in the 13th century, the adornment dis-
played on the shield of the Dupuys of the
crusades was then adopted as a Coat of Arms,
with the addition of lion supporters and a
ducal crown for a crest, and the motto,
^'
Agere et pati forte virttite non genere vita.'''
But by what Dupuy,
or of what branch of
them it was adopted, and whether regularly
handed down from generation to generation,
is not known. Moreover, according to the
laws of Heraldry, governing the hereditary
transmission of a Coat of Arms, the eldest son
alone could fall heir to it, which in earliest
times he was allowed to change by a label.
The younger sons could not adopt the paternal
Coat without a material change, called in
heraldry a ''difference." These laws, regulating
the transmission of the Coat forced a
vast multitude of such arms, which finally
necessitated the appointment of commissions