The banners of the communal troops bore the effigies of Saints, each parish gathering round the flag on which its particular saint was portrayed. This usage was as old as the time of Louis VI. of France: "Tunc ergo communitas in Francia popularis instituta est a præsulibus, ut presbyteri commitarentur Regi ad obsidionem vel pugnam cum Vexillis et parochianis omnibus[233]."
The word Gonfanon, Guntfano, so frequently occurring in the writings of this period, seems to be indifferently applied to the leader's standard, the knightly banner, and the lance-flag. It has been derived from the German _kunden_, indicare, and _Fahne_, vexillum; or from _Fahne_ and the Old-Scandinavian _Gunna_, prœlium. Mr. Kemble inclines to the latter derivation; see glossary to _Beowulf_, in v. _Guth_. A capitulary of Charles the Bald gives the name of Gonfanon to the banner of the Church vassals: "Let our envoys (missi nostri) see that the troops of every bishop, abbot, and abbess, march forth properly equipped, and with their Gonfalonier (cum Guntfannonario)." The standard sent by the pope to William the Conqueror is by Wace named a gonfanon:--
"L'Apostoile Un gonfanon li envéia."--_Line_ 11,450.
He gives it also to the barons and more powerful captains:--
"N'i a riche home ne baron Ki n'ait lez lui son gonfanon; U gonfanon u autre enseigne, U il se maisnie[234] restraigne."
In the following passages, it is the lance-flag:--
"Les lances bessent, o sont li gonfanon."--_Rom. de Garin._ "Baisse la lance ou li gonfanon pent."--_Rom. d'Aubery._ "Moult si siest bien au col la lance au gonfanon." _Rom. de Duguesclin._
The Pennon, as we have before seen, (p. 95,) was the flag of those knights who had not attained to the dignity of banneret. It appears to have terminated in a point or points, but its exact form at this period has not been ascertained. It probably differed in nothing but its size from the lance-flags seen in the Bayeux tapestry and on the seals and other monuments of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Wace, however, in the following passage, seems to use the word in a more general sense; for it is the Vicomte du Cotentin, lieutenant of the duke of Normandy, of whom he is speaking:--
"Les li fist un penun porter, U lur gent pussent recuvrer."--_Rom. de Rou_, l. 7839.