Marshalling

In heraldry, marshalling is the practice of displaying two coats of arms on one shield. In a sense, the two become one, and thus serve to show marriage, descent, patronage, or office. In ecclesiastical heraldry, only the last two are encountered. The most common use of marshalling in Catholic heraldry is in the coats of arms of bishops, who join their diocese's coat of arms with their own personal one. (See below the example of the former archbishop of St. Louis.) Since this marshalling of their see's arms is to show they are the ordinary of the see, a bishop only marshall the two coats while he is in charge of the a particular diocese. If he is removed or transfered, he drops the see's coat of arms and uses his own coat of arms by itself. Shields of bishops who die while in office are customarily depicted with their see. A bishop who retires and becomes the bishop emeritus of a diocese should not continue to use both coats of arms as he is no longer that see's ordinary.

Coat of arms of the Archdiocese of St. Louis		Personal coat of arms of Archbishop Raymond Burke		Coat of arms of Arcbhishop Burke impaled with the arms of the Archdiocese of St. Louis

There are three ways to marshall arms -- quartering, impaling, and escutcheon of pretence -- the first two being the most common. In the English speaking world, impaling is the usual method, but in Europe and especially in Germany, quartering is preferred. The arms of the office are always given the place of honor on the shield. For impalement, this is the side on the viewer's left, and for quartering this is the upper corner on the viewer's left and the lower corner on the viewer's right. An escutcheon of pretence is always placed in the center.

The arms of the Diocese of Metuchen in an escutcheon of pretence Courtesy of designer & artist Fr. G. Selvester		The arms of the Archdiocese of Vienna in quarters