A CHAPTER ON RINGS.
(Vol. vii. passim.)
The Scriptures prove the use of rings in remote antiquity. In Gen. xli., Joseph has conferred on him the king's ring, an instance more ancient than Prometheus, whom fables call the inventor of the ring. Therefore let those who will hold, with Pliny and his followers, that its use is more recent than Homer. The Greeks seem to have derived the custom of wearing it from the East, and Italy from the Greeks. Juvenal and Persius refer to rings which were worn only on birthdays. Clemens Alexandrinus recommends a limit within which the liberty of engraving upon them should be restrained. He thinks we should not allow an idol, a sword, a bow, or a cup, much less naked human figures; but a dove, a fish, or a ship in full sail, or a lyre, an anchor, or fishermen. By the dove he would denote the Holy Spirit; by the fish, the dinner which Christ prepared for his disciples (John xxi.), or the feeding of thousands (Luke ix.); by a ship, either the Church or human life; by a lyre, harmony; by an anchor, constancy; by fishermen, the apostles or the baptism of children. It is a wonder he did not mention the symbol of the name of Christ (Χρ), the cross which is found on ancient gems, and Noah's ark.
Rings were worn upon the joints and fingers, and hence Clement says a man should not wear a ring upon the joint (in articulo), for this is what women do, but upon the little finger, and at its lowest part. He failed to observe the Roman custom of wearing the ring upon the finger of the left hand, which is nearest the heart, and which we therefore term the ring-finger. And Macrobius says, that when a ring fell from the little finger of Avienus' right hand, those who were present asked why he placed it upon the wrong hand and finger, not on those which had been set apart for this use. The reasons which are given for this custom in Macrobius were often laughed at by H. Fabricius ab Aquapendente, viz. that it is stated in anatomical works, that "a certain nerve which rises at the heart proceeds directly to that finger of the left hand which is next the little finger," for nothing of the sort, he said, existed in the human body.
The ring distinguished the free-born from the servile, who, however, sometimes obtained the jus annuli, or privilege of the ring. It was used as a seal, a pledge, and a bond. Women, when betrothed, received rings; and the virgin and martyr Agnes, in Ambrose, says, "My Lord Jesus Christ hath espoused me with his ring." Theosebius also, in Photius, says to his wife, "I formerly gave to thee the ring of union, now of temperance, to aid thee in the seemly custody of my house." He advisedly speaks of that custody, for the lady of the house in Plautus says,
"Obsignate cellas, referte annulum ad me:
Ego huc transeo."
Wives generally used the same seals as their husbands: thus Cicero (Ad Attic. xi. 9) says, "Pomponia, I believe, has the seals of what is sealed." Sometimes, however, they used their own.
Touching the marriage ring, of what style and material it was, and whether formerly, as now, consecrated by prayers to God. Its pattern appears to have been one which has gone out of use, viz. right hands joined, such as is often observed on ancient coins. Tacitus (Hist. i. ll.) calls it absolutely dextras, right hands. Among us it was called a faith (una fede. Comp. Eng. "Plight my troth"), and not without precedent, for on the coins of Vitellius, &c. right hands thus joined bear the motto Fides. An esteemed writer (Nider), in his Formicarium, mentions a rustic virgin who desired to find a material ring as a token of her espousal "in signum Christiferæ desponsationis," and found a ring of a white colour, like pure silver, upon which two hands were engraved where it was united. It was formerly customary to bless a crown or a ring by prayers. The form of consecration used by the priest is thus given in ancient liturgies:
"Bene
die Domine, Annulum istum et coronam istam, ut sicut Annulus circundat digitum hominis, et corona caput, ita gratia Spiritus Sancti circundet sponsum et sponsam, ut videant filios et filias usque tertiam et quartam generationem: qui collaudent nomen viventis atque regnantis in secula seculorum. Amen."
For the crown, see Is. lxii. 1. (E. V. lxi. 10.). The words of Agnes above cited have reference to giving the right hand and a pledge.
These particulars are from the Symbol. Epist. Liber of Laurentius Pignorius, Patar. 1628; where, in Ep. I. and XIX., many other references are to be found.
B. H. C.