So doth my love; yet herein they dissent:
That whereas gold, the more ’tis purified,
By growing less, doth show some part is spent;
My love doth grow more pure by your more trying,
And yet increaseth in the purifying.”
As far back as the fifteenth century a lover wore his ring on the last or little finger.[310]
§ 3. It is said that Pope Innocent the Third was the first who ordained the celebration of marriage in the church; before which, it was totally a civil contract; hence arose dispensations, licenses, faculties and other remnants of papal benefit.[311] Shelford[312] observes it came with the Council of Trent. The Council sat within the Bishopric of Trent, Germany, from the year 1545 to 1563.
But the ring was used in connection with marriage before Catholic times. The Greeks had it. We find from Juvenal[313] that the Romans employed the ring. There was commonly a feast on the signing of the marriage contract; and the man gave the woman a ring (annulus pronubus) by way of pledge, which she put upon her left hand, on the finger next the least: because of the suggested nerve running to the heart.[314] The ring was generally of iron, though sometimes of copper and brass, with little knobs in the form of a key, to represent that the wife had possession of the husband’s keys.[315] Roman keys attached to a ring for the finger are not uncommon.[316] The ring is at right angles to the axle and, therefore, it could only be used for a lock which required very little strength to turn it or as a latch-key. It may be a question, whether these were not rings used on marriages?
