THE MARRIAGE RING.
(Vol. vii., p. 332.)
I cannot agree with the answer given, under the above reference, to the question of J. P.: "How did the use of the ring, in the marriage ceremony, originate?" The answer given is taken from Wheatly's Rational Illustration, &c., and is in substance this:—The ring anciently was a seal, and the delivery of this seal was a sign of confidence; and as a ceremony in marriage, its signification is, that the wife is admitted to the husband's counsels. From this argument, and the supposed proofs of it, I beg to dissent; and I conceive that Wheatly has not thrown any light upon the origin of this beautiful ceremony. To bear out his view, it would be necessary to prove that a signet ring had originally been used for the wedding ring—a matter of no slight difficulty, not to say impossibility.
What I take to be the real meaning of the ring as a part of the marriage ceremony, I will now give. It has a far higher meaning in the ceremony, and a more important duty to perform than merely to signify the admission of the wife into the counsels of the husband. Its office is to teach her the duty she owes to her husband, rather than the privilege of admission into his counsels. The ring is a preacher, to teach her lessons of holy wisdom referring to her state of life.
A ring, whenever used by the church, signifies, to use the words of liturgical writers, "integritatem fidei," the perfection of fidelity, and is "fidei sacramentum," the badge of fidelity. Its form, having no beginning and no end, is the emblem of eternity, constancy, integrity, fidelity, &c.; so that the wedding ring symbolises the eternal or entire fidelity the wife pledges to her husband, and she wears the ring as the badge of this fidelity. Its office, then, is to teach and perpetually remind her of the fidelity she owes to her husband, and swore to him at the marriage ceremony.
The wedding ring is to the wife precisely what the episcopal ring is to the bishop, and vice versâ. The language used during the ceremony to the one is very similar to that used to the other, as the object of the ceremony and use of the ring is the same. A bishop's ring, as we read, signifies "integritatem fidei," i. e. that he should love as himself the church of God committed to him as his bride. When he receives the ring at his consecration, the words used are, "Accipe annulum, fidei scilicet signaculum, quatenus sponsam Dei, sanctum videlicet ecclesiam, intemerata fide ornatus illibate custodias:" (Receive the ring, the badge of fidelity, to the end that, adorned with inviolable fidelity you may guard without reproach the spouse of God, that is, His Holy Church).
Hence the office of the episcopal ring throws light upon the office of the wedding ring; and there can be no doubt whatever that its real meaning is, in the latter as in the former case, to signify the eternal fidelity and constancy that should subsist between the married couple.
That this is the correct view of the meaning of the wedding ring is farther confirmed by the prayer used in blessing the ring: "Benedic, Domine, annulum hunc ... ut quæ eum gestaverit, fidelitatem integram suo sponso tenens, in pace et voluntate tua permaneat, acque in mutua charitate semper vivat."—Rituale, &c.
Cyrep.