THE NOBLEMAN'S PARADISE 163'Dolega' or 'Doliwa' which clearly derive from battle-cries. Another line of
enquiry has explored the workings of patronage, and has coined the term rod
klientarny or 'clan of clients'. Sometimes the King would act as sponsor, assign-
ing new knights to clans of his choice. Sometimes prominent noblemen would
'receive' their friends and relations into their clan on their own private initiative.
Patronage at all events was not irrelevant. The most convincing hypothesis per-
haps is that which relates to the emergence of the heraldic clan to that other
unique feature of Polish noble life, the nagana szlachecka, or 'Test of Nobility'.
In Poland, with no College of Heralds, there was no authoritative institution
where records of ennoblement and entitlement were kept for public reference. If
a nobleman's title to nobility were challenged, the only place he could prove
himself was in the courts. In such cases, which were particularly frequent in the
fifteenth century, the defendant was required to present six sworn witnesses
who would confirm his noble descent from three generations on both paternal
and maternal sides. If successful, he received a certificate of the court's findings.
If unsuccessful, he faced the direst penalties. Whatever the result, the experience
was extremely troublesome and humiliating. It is entirely plausible to suppose
that the heraldic clan was formed to protect its members from the need to face
such tests. By attaching himself to a public association of known persons, a
nobleman could save himself from malicious insinuations against his rank and
status. In the unlikely event of prosecution, he could always count on six of his
fellow clansmen to stand witness in his defence. In this light, the 'heraldic clan'
constituted a sort of mutual benefit society. It served the interests both of the
noble estate as a whole and of its individual members, and it precluded the
necessity for a college of heralds, which could have been used by king or royal
officials as an instrument of control.^8
One consequence of the 'holding of arms in common' was that the pictorial
aspects of Polish heraldry remained extremely simple. There was no need to fol-
low the labyrinth of inheritance or marriage, or to modify and develop coats of
arms in response to changing events. Blazoning, marshalling, quartering, and
cadency were unknown. Each clan possessed one simple device, one motto, and
one coat of arms, which stayed the same throughout the centuries. All the coats
of arms which ever existed can be contained in one relatively slim volume.^9
If the emergence of the Nobility as a distinct estate was well advanced by the
reign of Casimir the Great, the process of reinforcing and codifying their legal
privileges continued for at least the next two centuries. Throughout the earlier
period, Polish rulers had granted immunities to individual knights or clerics,
freeing them from particular taxes or from the obligation to submit their sub-
jects to royal justice. But as from the late fourteenth century similar concessions
were exacted for the Nobility not by individuals, but by an estate demanding its
corporate rights. In times of crisis, during war or before a succession, the