Horace Walpole refers to his friend Mr. Chute’s playfully using an expression which couples itself with the fisherman’s ring: “Mr. Chute has received a present of a diamond mourning ring from a cousin; he calls it l’annello del Piscatore. Mr. Chute, who was unmarried, meant that his cousin was fishing for his estate.”
§7. There is a massive ring extant, chased with the arms of Pope Pius the Second.[133] It is of brass, and has been thickly gilt. It is set with a topaz, the surface of which has lost its polish. On the hoop of the ring are chased the arms of Pope Pius the Second, of the family of Picolomini, the papal tiara, and this inscription, Papa Pio. The stone is set in a massive square facet, carried up to a considerable height above the finger; and on each of the four sides is placed, in relief, one of the four beasts of the Revelation, which were used to typify the Evangelists. Pope Pius the Second is better known by his literary name of Æneas Sylvius. His works, which include a History of Europe, a History of Bohemia and a long series of letters, have passed through several editions. He was elected Pope in 1418, and died in 1464. This ring is considerably larger in size than the rings usually found buried with bishops, and which were probably what they received on their consecration. It must have been intended to have been worn over a glove. It seems to have been a state ring worn on one of those occasions when all Christendom came to receive his benediction.
The estates and honors which composed the ecclesiastical temporalities were considered to partake of the nature of fiefs; and, therefore, to require similar investiture from the chief lord. Charlemagne is said to have introduced this practice and to have invested a newly consecrated bishop by placing a ring and crosier in his hands.
By a Concordat at Worms, Henry V. resigned for ever all pretence to invest bishops by the ring and crosier.
§ 8. During the times of the early British kings, it was a rule for the monarch to invest archbishops and bishops, by delivery of a ring and the pastoral staff. Anselm was hurried into the presence of William Rufus, in order to be made Archbishop of Canterbury.[134] He hesitated, because he was subject to Normandy, and the way in which the holy men around him acted, savors very much of a portion of the hurly-burly of a popular democratic election. When no argument could prevail, the bishops and others who were present clapped the pastoral staff into his hands, forced the ring upon his finger, shouted for his election and bore him by force into the church, where Te Deum was sung. This right of investiture became a serious matter of dispute in the time of Anselm.
Miracles have been attributed to Anselm. A Flemish nobleman was cured of a leprosy by drinking the water in which Anselm had washed his hands; and a ship, wherein he sailed, having a large hole in one of her planks, nevertheless took in no water so long as the holy man was on board.[135]
From the reign of Charlemagne, sovereign princes took upon them to give the investiture of the greater benefices by the ring and pastoral staff.[136] Gregory VII. was the first who endeavored to take from them this right, towards the end of the eleventh century.
Arnulph, immediately on his consecration as Bishop of Rochester, gave the attendant monks to understand how a dream about a ring had foretold this dignity.[137] “Arnulph being received by the monks with all marks of respect, said to us, on the very day of his election: ‘Brethren, I had assurance given me a few days ago that, unworthy as I am, I should soon be raised to the dignity now conferred upon me. For as I slept one night, Gundulphus’ (who had been Bishop of Rochester) ‘appeared to me, offering me a ring of great weight; which being too heavy for me, I refused to accept it; but he, chiding me for my stupidity in rejecting his present, obliged me to receive it, and then disappeared.’ This he related to us; and we were convinced it was no fantastical illusion which the holy man had seen in his sleep, since, being made Bishop of Rochester, he received that very ring, which Bishop Gundulphus, when alive, had given to Ralph, then an abbot, but afterwards bishop.”