The same usages were practised at the installation of the archbishops of Milan, the Bishops of Bergamo, Modena, &c.
Aimon, in his ‘Tableau de la Cour de Rome,’ describing the ceremonies attending the consecration of cardinals, says: ‘Le Pape leur fait alors une exhortation, et leur assigne des titres; leur met au doigt annulaire de la main droite, un anneau d’or, dans lequel est enchassé un saphir, qui coûte à chaque Eminence cinq cents ducats. Cet anneau est donné au nouveau Cardinal pour lui apprendre qu’il a l’Èglise pour épouse, et qu’il ne le doit jamais abandonner.’
During the ceremony of consecrating the Bishop of Limoges at Nôtre Dame in Paris (1628), in presence of the Queen and the Duke of Orleans, the former sent the Bishop a rich diamond ring, which she took from her finger, in token of the spiritual marriage which he was contracting with the Church.
M. Thiers, in his ‘Traité des Superstitions,’ gives a curious instance of these espousals to Christ: a Carmelite, in his assumed quality of ‘Secretary of Jesus,’ had persuaded some of his devotees to sign contracts of marriage with the Saviour. A translation of one of these I now give: ‘I, Jesus, son of the living God, the husband of my faithful, take my daughter, Madelaine Gasselin, for my wife; and promise her fidelity, and not to abandon her, and to give her, for advantage and possession, my grace in this life, promising her my glory in the other, and a portion of the inheritance of my Father. In faith of which I have signed the irrevocable contract by the hand of my secretary. Done in the presence of the Father Eternal, of my love, of my very worthy mother Mary, of my father St. Joseph, and of all my celestial court, in the year of grace 1650, day of my father St. Joseph.
‘Jesus, the husband of faithful souls.
‘Mary, mother of God. Joseph, husband of Mary. The guardian angel Madelaine, the dear lover of Jesus.
‘This contract has been ratified by the Holy Trinity, the day of the glorious St. Joseph, in the same year.
‘Brother Arnoux, of St. John the Baptist, Carmelite. Déchaussé, unworthy secretary of Jesus.’
‘I, Madelaine Gasselin, unworthy servant of Jesus, take my amiable Jesus for my husband, and promise him fidelity, and that I never have any other but Him, and I give Him, as a proof of my truth, my heart, and all that I shall ever be, through life unto death doing all that is required of me, and to serve Him with all my heart throughout eternity. In faith of which I have signed with my own hand the irrevocable contract, in the presence of the ever-adorable Trinity, of the holy Virgin, Mary, mother of God, my glorious father St. Joseph, my guardian angel, and all the celestial court, the year of grace 1650, day of my glorious father St. Joseph.
‘Jesus, lover of hearts.