Body, mind and soul
by Mike Oettle
Christoffel Snyman / De Savoye
THE first member of the Snyman family to register arms was the Rev Roy Snyman TSSF, a senior Anglican priest.[1]
The arms as registered have several intriguing aspects, and it is worth studying their composition in detail. But to begin with, the formal blazon of the arms, according to the official certificate from the Bureau of Heraldry dated 10 January 1979:
Arms: Gules, a saltire Or, on an inescutcheon Azure, issuant from a cloud at sinister base a dexter cubit arm vested, holding a sickle, all proper; on a chief Argent, surmounting a yoke Sable, a descending dove Gules.
Crest: Three ears of wheat Gules enfiled with a coronet of three fleurs-de-lis Or jewelled Gules.
Wreath and mantling: Or and Gules.
Motto: Non Agit Perperam.
Especially interesting is the crest in these arms, which Fr Snyman himself explains – with due acknowledgement to input received from Major F G Brownell, who later became State Herald and served until 2002.
Fr Snyman’s full baptismal names are Robin Roy. He writes:
“A Christian person has three ‘parts’: body, mind and soul. The Herald included this concept in the use of three ears of corn.
“Robigus was the ancient Roman god to whom Roman farmers prayed to deliver their crops from infection or ‘rust’. From the name Robigus come the words ruby, ruddy,
robin, rosy, et cetera.
“In this coat of arms Robin is represented by three ears of wheat, which are indeed
‘rusted’ or (in Christian terms) fallen. Robigus is not triumphant.
“Christian
persons believe that they are saved and delivered from fallen-ness or sin by Jesus the Christ. Christos (CristoV) means ‘the anointed one’, ‘messiah’ or ‘King’. Jesus is a Person in the Holy Trinity, who is the Word-made-Flesh and the Perfect Man, the ‘second Adam’ in St Paul’s writings. He is ‘King Jesus’. “Anyone who has Faith in Jesus the Christ, and is baptized into Him, shares the blessings of Salvation. Jesus Christ is, indeed, Le Roi – the King who is the reigning, risen Saviour-King. “In this coat of arms, Roy is represented by the coronet. The coronet of Christ the King encircles the fallen three ears of corn and thereby brings salvation to Robin. He, the True God-King, fulfulls that deliverance that the ancients thought could be achieved by Robigus, the heathen god. “Robin (from Robigus) finds salvation, fulfillment and maturity in the royal of Roy (from Le Roi) – i.e. fallen Robin Roy finds salvation and glory in Christ the King, not in Robigus the heathen god. “Also, the coronet has in it the fleur-de-lis, a symbol of the Holy Trinity, and a heraldic symbol of a French or French-derived family. Christ is a Person in the Holy Trinity, and the Snyman family, both maternally and paternally, are direct descendants of Marguerite Thérèse de Savoye – distantly connected with the De Savoye family, Dukes of Turin, Kings of Sardinia and Cavour-chosen first Kings of the united Italy.” (See below.) “Also, the coronet has in it five red rubies. They symbolize the glorious wounds of the risen, ascended, enthroned and eternal Christ in heaven (as in the Book of Revelation). “This crest thus sums up the names and Faith of the holder of the arms, Robin Roy Snyman.” Regarding the position of the coronet, and the helmet, Maj Brownell also added this comment: “The coronet of the crest does not rest upon the helmet, so the holder of these arms does not claim rank, but the coronet ‘harks back’ to the De Savoye family. Thus, too, the helmet has a nobleman’s gold visor. If the helmet faced forward and was all gold it would be a claim to royalty.” Concerning the shield, Fr Snyman writes: “The chief of the shield contains a yoke used by cattle-keepers. It here harks back to the fact that both the Snyman and Viljoen families were farmers.” The Snyman family traces its lineage back to Christoffel Snyman, son of Catharina van Palicatte. Her husband was Anthonij van Bengale, but Christoffel’s father appears to have been Christoph Schneider (known at the Cape as Christoffel Snyman), who came from Heidelberg, in Germany. The younger Christoffel probably married Marguerite de Savoye in 1789, and died before 1707. “But these Snymans are also direct descendants of the Voortrekkers. “This generation’s direct forefathers were a) Andries Hendrik Potgieter, the Voortrekker leader, and b) Commandant Jan Viljoen, the great hunter-explorer – who is reputed to be (in family legend) the discoverer of the Victoria Falls and told Livingstone about them. His farm was Vergenoeg in the Zeerust district, still owned by the Viljoen family. “The Snymans made their original (and lost) fortune) with their wagon-trains taking produce and goods between East London and the interior. “In these arms the yoke also refers to the yoke of Christ which I bear as a priest in Christ’s Church. Surmounting the yoke is a a dove (gules) reminding all that this priesthood is under, inspired and strengthened by God the Holy Spirit. The symbol of the Holy Spirit is always a dove. The Holy Spirit was ‘poured out’ at Pentecost in tongues of flame, so this dove is red. “The shield displays the arms of the Snyman family as an inescutcheon upon the arms of the Viljoen family. “These two families were bound up together through the common female progenitor, Marguerite Thérèse de Savoye, widow Snyman. She is the first African female forebear of all the Snymans. Then, in her widowhood, she and her eldest daughter, Catharina, became progenitors of all the Viljoens – by marrying the two brothers Henning and Johannes Viljoen of Great Ida’s Valley near Stellenbosch. “Note that the Snyman arms contain an arm holding a sickle. This is again a symbol of farming stock. The Snymans were farmers who cut the corn and harvested the crops on their farms. They were the men who cut or reaped their crops, and were
indeed ‘cut-men’ or ‘sny-mans’. “The term ‘issuing from a cloud’ may mean: ‘Their ancestry is shrouded in mystery,’ or ‘The family were blessed in their coming to Southern Africa,’ or ‘They were very devout and religious family,’ or even that ‘their farming was prosperous’ or heavenly blessed.” Regarding the motto, he writes: “The source is unsure, but comes from the Vulgate Latin version of St Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 13:5, which states that (Christian) love ‘is not arrogant’. “The Latin ‘Non Agit Perperam’ can be strictly translated as ‘He does not carry arrogance’. The motto is both a statement and challenge to the bearer of these arms: ‘He is not arrogant.’” In arriving at this coat of arms, Fr Snyman went through a design process that began with the arms attributed to the Snyman family in an article published in the magazine Die Brandwag in 1945. These are: Quarterly: 1. Or, an eagle displayed sable issuant from the line of partition; 2. and 3. Gules, a dexter cubit arm vested and holding in its hand a sickle, all or; 4. Sable, two bars or. Dropping from this arrangement one of the two Snyman quarters and the two bars on black in the fourth quarter, he substituted, in the second quarter, the saltire of Viljoen, and in the fourth a cyborium[2] and eucharistic wafer, symbolising the office of priest. A further sketch placed the eucharistic symbols on the wing of the eagle, added three fleurs de lis to the saltire, placed the cross-and-dove symbol of the Huguenots in the fourth quarter and added an ox-yoke above the Snyman cubit arm. All his sketches also included, for the crest, a cubit arm holding a sickle between the
wings of a flight.[3] All this proved too complicated, and Maj Brownell did an excellent job of reducing it all to
simplicity. Incidentally, it should be noted that the ox-yoke in the chief is a traditional South African ox-yoke, incorporating jukskeie,[4]
which is quite different in style from the yoke traditional in Europe. The Earl of Erroll, chief of Clan Hay, uses a yoke as one of his badges, and one of his kinsmen, Hay of Park, includes such a yoke in the chief of his arms (see this article and this one). Heritability: He is one of a family of six, and has brothers and nephews. Major Brownell states that any of these nephews may register the same combination of a blue Snyman inescutcheon on the Viljoen saltire, with a change of symbols in the chief, as well as a fresh crest. For any other Snyman, the precedent has been established that the symbol of the Snymans is an arm holding a sickle. Major Brownell was in fact very glad that Fr Snyman had registered his arms, since it would now enable any other Snyman to do the same. They may change the colours, place the arm on a field of more than one colour, display the arm as bare rather than clothed, and use other combinations of charges. The choice is theirs. De Savoye: It can safely be inferred that he was in fact descended from the family of the dukes. What is known about Jacques is that he lived a the French town called Aeth, and that in 1687 he was living in Ghent, in Flanders. He was a Huguenot merchant known for his zealous defence of his beliefs and for inviting itinerant Protestant pastors to conduct services in his house. For this he earned the hostility of his Catholic neighbours and was pursued by the Jesuits. (The Edict of Nantes was repealed in 1685, and it is likely that he fled France at this time.) At least one attempt was made on his life. His first wife, Christine du Pont, bore him nine children, of whom six survived to adulthood. Following her death in 1686, Jacques went to live in Sas van Ghent, just across the Dutch border in Zeeland. While in Sas van Ghent in 1686-87 he married Marie-Madeleine le Clerq from Tournai, in Hainault. They moved from Sas van Gent to Middelburg, where he immediately made plans to join a party of settlers heading for the Cape of Good Hope. The House of Savoy can be traced back to Humbert I the Whitehanded, probably of Burgundian origin, who in the mid-11th century AD was effectively lord of the area incorporated into France in 1860 as the départements of Savoie and Haute-Savoie, as well as other districts along the Rhône south of Lake Geneva. This feudal lordship became a county, and afterwards (as the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor diminished)
was elevated to a duchy. The Encyclopædia Britannica notes: “Among the most notable counts of Savoy were Amadeus VII (ruled 1383-91), under whom the port of Nice was acquired, and Amadeus VII (ruled 1391-40), under whom Piedmont (capital Turin), on the Italian side of the Alps, was definitely incorporated (after having belonged for nearly two centuries to a branch of the house) and to whom the title of duke was granted in 1416.” The Kings of France coveted the district because it controlled strategic routes into Italy, but although it was captured several times by French forces, the ducal house managed to recover it each time. For a time the family claimed royal status through inheriting the title King of Cyprus (a Crusader title which became practically ineffective when Turkey seized the island). Victor Amadeus II (ruled 1675-1730) attained actual royal status as ruler of Sicily, which he exchanged in 1720 for Sardinia. King Victor Emmanuel I (ruled 1802-21) added the province of Liguria, including the port city of Genoa, to the family’s holdings in 1815, and so held a solid bloc of territory from the Ligurian Sea to Switzerland (in addition to Sardinia). This was the platform from which the dynasty launched its ambition to unite Italy under a Savoyard crown, which eventually succeeded in 1861. The arms of the Dukes of Savoy were a silver (or white) cross on red. When the family ruled Italy, the royal arms showed the cross within a blue border – these arms appeared on the white panel of the green-white-red flag of Italy from 1848 to 1946.
Since Roy Snyman is a celibate priest, this particular assemblage of symbols dies with him; he has no direct heir. This does not mean, however, that it cannot continue to the next generation.
Concerning the de Savoye family, it can be noted that while the connection between Jacques de Savoye and his daughter, Marguerite (Margarethe or Margo), and the Dukes of Savoy has not been traced, Jacques was originally a subject of the King of France, and as such would only have used a surname incorporating the aristocratic prefix de if he actually belonged to an aristocratic family.
