Agnus Dei on Templar seals
The Lamb of God with its banner, which the Knights Templar in England, Provence and Aragon used on their seals.
Meaning
The lamb was the Templars’ seal badge in Provence, England and Aragon, part of a visual code that let each province’s seals be recognised at a glance, the European Templar Route explains. The National Archives holds a grant of 1189–1190 by Geoffrey son of Stephen, “servant” of the order in England, sealed with a small round seal of the Lamb of God and the legend SIGILLVM TEMPLI. On the seal of William de la More, the last Master of the Temple in England, Charles Addison read the motto TESTIS SVM AGNI, “I am a witness of the Lamb”, around a bearded head. The Middle Temple in London kept the lamb with its banner as its badge, and the Masonic Knights Templar keep it as an officer’s jewel.
Origin and history
The lamb is one of the earliest symbols of Christ in the church’s art, Albert Mackey notes. When the lawyers came into the Temple in London they found the Templars’ arms carved on the old buildings: a red cross on a silver shield, and over it the holy lamb bearing the banner of the order, Addison writes. The Middle Temple kept the lamb, and Cecil Headlam found it in 1909 figuring “so prominently upon the buildings of this Inn”; the Inner Temple took a Pegasus (Two knights on one horse).
In the Masonic order
In American commanderies of the Masonic Knights Templar the Paschal Lamb is the jewel worn by the Generalissimo, Mackey recorded in 1874, and the Grand Encampment’s statutes still give the Generalissimo a square surmounted with the Paschal Lamb in place of the passion cross on his shoulder straps. The Masonic order is separate from the medieval one (Cross and crown).
Read next
- Next in Knights Templar symbolsCross and crownThe emblem of the Masonic Knights Templar, an order of Freemasonry first recorded in the 18th century: a red passion cross with a gold crown. It is not an emblem of the medieval Knights Templar.
- The same shape in Christian symbolsArmenian cross (khachkar)The cross as the Armenian Apostolic Church carves it, its arms ending in curling leaves. On the khachkars, Armenia’s carved cross-stones, it stands on a rosette and sprouts leaves and tendrils: the cross as the tree of life.
See also
Two knights on one horse, Templar cross, Beauséant, The dome on the Templar seal.
Sources
- The Seals of the Order of the Temple, Arnaud Baudin, Deputy Director of Archives and Heritage of the Aube, European Templar Route
- Grant by Geoffrey son of Stephen, servant of the Order of the Temple in England, DL 25/2348/2036, 1189–1190, The National Archives (UK)
- The History of the Knights Templars, the Temple Church, and the Temple, Charles G. Addison, Longman, London, 1842, Project Gutenberg, Preface; Chapter IV; Chapter XIII
- The Inns of Court, Cecil Headlam, A. & C. Black, London, 1909, Project Gutenberg, Chapter II, the Temple
- An Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences, Albert G. Mackey, Moss & Co., Philadelphia, 1874 (Cornell scan on the Internet Archive), Internet Archive, Agnus Dei
- Constitution and Statutes of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the U.S.A. (2022), Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the U.S.A., Section 244
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles, crosses or curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
Added .