Considerable road-works in the vicinity of Llantarnam abbey north of Newport a few years ago turned up two papal seals: one of Celestine III (1191–98); the other of Alexander IV (1254–61; Fig. 14.7)¹³ Pope Alexander changed his seal early in his pontificate, and it has been suggested that the principal difference between them was in the number of the stops forming the circumference.¹⁴ Only 2 years ago, the broken half of another papal seal, that of Nicholas V (1447–1455; Fig. 14.8), was found close to Llantarnam¹⁵).Were such half-bullae found in fields bisected by later ploughing activity, or were they in their lifetime deliberately cut?¹⁶

Why this concentration of papal bullae at Cistercian sites (Fig. 14.9)? Perhaps because the inheritors of those sites threw out documents of no use to them, or quite possibly because the monks hoped their monastery might be refounded and buried their deeds against such a day; either way, the documents perished, the lead seals survived. One of the factors which led to the downfall and execution of the last abbot of Woburn in Bedfordshire, was that he had not surrendered his papal letters and was busy making copies of them.¹⁷

Not only papal seals, but also several small personal seals have been found in the vicinity of Llantarnam abbey, probably of travellers who had been staying in the monastery guest-house and mislaid their seals, or might there have been an affray at the monastery gate and their seals stolen? Another possibility is that they are burial finds.¹⁸