Finger prints widely used for documents in Europe

Is it possible that the idea of using finger prints as a part of document signatures could have been widely uses

I think I heard that there were parts of India where this happened

Might it have speeded up the used of finger prints in criminal investigations
 
Easy to accomplish, I'd say. Have Greek/Roman/Muslim thinkers/philosophers/early scientists/whatever discover that everyone has unique fingerprints. Not to unplausible. It catches on, like many other things from said cultures, and the Catholic church adopts it to sign official documents. Causes earlier use of fingerprints in criminal investigations, as you said, and makes it far harder to forge documents/letters/wills/etc.
 
They'd need a way to match fingerprints to the person in question-I doubt many people know what the King's fingerprint looks like.
 
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