Seal of the grand master of the Knights Templar

According to a papal bull issued by Innocent IV in 1251, it was customary for successive provincial masters to use the same seal.

The reverse, a small oval counter-seal, with beaded borders, shows on the right a couped bust of a bearded man wearing a cap.

The seal symbolic of their vow of poverty, showing two knights riding on one horse appears only to have been used by the order in France; there is no example of its use in England.

Some of the seals of the English Templars were a semi-typical Pascal lamb bearing sometimes, not the flag of St George (or the cross), but the Beauseant, the battle banner of the order.

Bertram von Esbeck, Master of the Temple in Germany, 1296 depicts an eagle with two six-pointed stars.

The seal of Brother Roustan de Comps, commander of the Order of the Temple at Richerenches, 1232, shows a single knight on horseback, bearing a shield with a cross: probably St. George.

Seals of Brother Widekind, Master of the Temple in Germany, 1271, and Brother Frederick Wildergrave, 1289, showed Christ's head (or John the Baptist's head by other opinions) The seal of Templar officials in Yorkshire c.1300 shows a tower with a pointed roof.

Legend: S. COMMAND.....BARBERA Here is a Templar cross found in the oldest tower of Château de Guilleragues in the Aquitaine region of France.

The image most associated with Abraxas is that of a composite creature with the head of a rooster, the body of a man, and legs made of serpents or scorpions; carrying a whip and shield.

Amulets and seals bearing the figure of Abraxas were popular in the 2nd century, and these stones survived in the treasuries of the middle ages.

[2] Seals of Brother Otto of Brunswich, commander of Supplingenburg, shows a lion; A seal of one Knight Templar, England, 1303 is showing the Lion of England and the cross pattée and the crescent moon of the Mother Goddess with stars.