Attributed arms are Western European coats of arms given retrospectively to persons real or fictitious who died before the start of the age of heraldry in the latter half of the 12th century. Once coa
Example of arms attributed to Jesus from the 15th-century Hyghalmen Roll, based on the instruments of the Passion
Arthur as one of the Nine Worthies, tapestry, c. 1385
Lancelot (arms with three red bends) and Tristan from a 15th-century manuscript
Tristan and Iseult kissing, with attributed arms on a field of green in center
Papal coats of arms are the personal coat of arms of popes of the Catholic Church. These have been a tradition since the Late Middle Ages, and has displayed his own, initially that of his family, and
Arms of Innocent VIII (Giovanni Battista Cybo, 1484–1492) as shown in the contemporary Wernigerode Armorial. The coat of arms of the House of Cybo is here shown with the papal tiara and two keys argent in one of the earliest examples of these external ornaments of a papal coat of arms (Pope Nicholas V in 1447 was the first to adopt two silver keys as the charges of his adopted coat of arms).
Pope Adrian IV (d. 1159, born Nicholas Breakspear, the only Englishman to occupy the papal throne) did not use a personal coat of arms; Nevertheless, he was given attributed arms (showing a broken spear) in this 17th-century portrait.
An example of ecclesiastical heraldry