Any standardization of arms across national and especially, linguistic barriers before modern communication would have been the far distant exception, rather than the rule.

In the case of international orders of chivalry such as the Order Of St John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitalers, there was a central organization which dealt with incoming knights-to-be from (Roman Catholic) France, Italy, Germany and Britain. Their literate and knowledgeable "bureaucracy" was the exception, however.