| Summary: | In the early thirteenth century a new seal matrix was made for Chichester Cathedral. At its centre is an anachronistic architectural depiction, engraved underneath with the words “temple of justice”. The matrix’s combination of image and format is unique in English ecclesiastical seals. It is a pointed oval rather than a circle as preferred by other institutions which employed architectural images. This article is an investigation into why these distinctive choices were made. For the first time the seal matrix (in the British Museum) is brought together with its counterseal drawn from extant casts and wax seals attached to charters. Doing so reveals that the Chichester seals were artistically based on a seal and counterseal made for Christ Church, Canterbury, between 1155 and 1158. I argue that the architectural image on the Canterbury seal was understood as the first “temple of justice” and that this was related to the teachings and writings of Master Vacarius and John of Salisbury, both of whom worked at Canterbury prior to the production of the seals. The context for the reinterpretation of the Canterbury seals at Chichester coincides with the appointment of Ralph Neville as bishop. Neville’s own episcopal counterseal displays a similar type of image to the cathedral’s counterseal. I suggest that Neville was responsible for commissioning the seals and that through them he promoted a relationship between himself and an Old Testament palace administrator named Eliakim, who was given the Key of David by God. This interpretation relates to Neville’s combined roles as bishop of Chichester and chancellor to the young Henry III, at whose court theocracy was a potent tract amongst the circle of archbishop Stephen Langton. A further and more general point of this article is that Neville and the artist responsible for the seals were able to borrow from the Canterbury seals because of the authority invested in architectural archetypes.
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