RING. - It cannot be determined with certainty when the ring assumed in the Church the meaning of authority, dignity and pre-eminence that caused it to be reserved to prelates alone and forbidden to the simple clergy: all the more so since it is not easy, from the documents we have, always to distinguish the seal ring from the ring of dignity. It is certain that by the end of the 6th century there already existed, in the ceremony of the consecration of bishops, the formula for the blessing and handing over of the episcopal ring, as we read in the Pontifical of Salzburg, ca. the year 600. Canon 28 of the Fourth Council of Toledo (633) lists the ring among the insignia of the bishop; and the pontificals of the following centuries establish that the ring must be worn on the ring finger of the right hand, and that it must be given at the consecration before the pastoral staff. Once the ring was thus reserved to prelates alone, according to their various dignities, there came to be various rings, of which a brief enumeration is given.
1. THE RINGS OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
The Pope has three distinct rings: the Fisherman's ring (v. below) (piscatory), the pontifical ring, the ordinary ring.
A. pontifical. - It is similar to the ring that bishops take when they pontificate, but it is much richer. The Pontiff receives it from the assisting cardinal bishop according to the ceremonies proper to the papal Mass.
A. ordinary. - Like bishops, the Pope habitually wears the ring on his right hand. On Good Friday, for the Mass of the Presanctified, the Pope goes to the chapel without a ring on his finger and without giving the blessing: this must also be observed by all those who have the use of it, in sign of mourning for the death of the Lord.
2. CARDINALITIAL RING
It is the one that cardinals receive in the secret consistory, as a distinctive mark of their dignity, when the Pope assigns them the titles of churches. It consists of a gold band with a sapphire, under whose setting there is, in enamel, the coat of arms of the Pontiff. Its origin is not known, but it is already mentioned in the 12th century.
3. EPISCOPAL RING
Bishops have two rings: the pontifical one, for solemn functions; and the ordinary one, which consists of a gold band with a stone surrounded by brilliants.
50 days of indulgence are granted (S. Uff., 18 Apr. 1909) to those who kiss the ring of a cardinal or of a bishop.
4. RING OF ABBOTS and PRELATES «NULLIUS»
Canon 325 of the CIC grants to abbots nullius the privilege of wearing everywhere a ring with a single gem, which is given to them, as also to other regular abbots, in the solemn blessing they receive. It is believed that the first concession dates back to the end of the 10th century.
5. RING OF LOWER PRELATES
The motu proprio Inter multiplices of Pius X (21 Febr. 1905) definitively regulates the use of the ring for apostolic protonotaries. Only participating protonotaries may everywhere and always wear the ring with a single gem: supernumerary ones and those ad instar participantium may use the ring only at pontifical functions. Honorary protonotaries do not have the use of the ring.
The CIC (can. 136, § 2) forbids the use of the ring to all clerics who do not have the privilege of it by law or by apostolic indult. The apostolic indult is, in every case, necessary in order to wear the ring during the celebration of Mass, unless it is a question of a cardinal, a bishop or a blessed abbot (can. 811, § 2).
6. RING OF DOCTORS
Eugene III, who instituted academic degrees, granted to doctors ritually created the use of the ring with a single gem. An analogous provision is found in can. 1378 of the CIC.
7. NUPTIAL RING
It is given by the bridegroom to the bride in the act of the celebration of marriage, and it is blessed for the mystical signification it must have: sign of mutual love and pledge of indissoluble union.
Its use passed into the Christian liturgy from Roman antiquity.
Bibliography3 works
Enrico Dante
ANELLO OF THE FISHERMAN
It is used as a seal on papal briefs, of which it constitutes one of the principal characteristics, and on other acts drawn up by the apostolic secretaries, such as the cedulae and the consistorial sentences. The name derives from the figure of the impression, which represents St. Peter the fisherman.
Its origin is connected with the very origin of the briefs. The first mention is found in two letters of Clement IV of 1265 and 1266 (Potthast, 1905; and 1938) as a secret seal used on letters of a private character in place of the bulla plumbea, which was the official and solemn seal. The first surviving example consists of a seal of Nicholas III (1277-80) in red wax, oval in shape, about 2.5 cm. high, attached to a reliquary of the Sancta Sanctorum at the Lateran, now preserved in the Museo Sacro of the Vatican Library; in it can be seen a beardless young man standing, holding a fishing rod with a fish at the end of the line, and around it one reads: † SECRETUM NICOLAI PP. III.
However, until the pontificate of Nicholas V the secret seal did not always bear the figure of the fisherman: the golden a. of the antipope Clement VII (1378-94), also preserved at the Vatican, bears his coat of arms surmounted by the tiara and the keys; and the seal of Eugene IV (1431-47) used on certain briefs presents the heads of the Princes of the Apostles («anulus capitum Principum Apostolorum»). In the briefs of Boniface IX (1389-1404) the fisherman's a. is called «anulus fluctuantis naviculæ».
With Nicholas V (1447-55) the type became fixed: oval, impressed on red wax, about 2 cm. high, with the figure of St. Peter bending in the little boat in the act of pulling the net, and in the sky the name of the Pope followed by the ordinal number. Around the wax (except in the lower part) a braid of parchment was attached to protect the seal from rubbing.
In 1842 the adherent wax seal was replaced by a round red stamp, which preserves the representation of the fisherman's a.
Bibliography2 works
THE RING IN ART - With the advent of Christianity, the pagan symbols and figurations that adorned the seal give way to others of sacred subject that are closely related to the iconographic repertoire of the catacombs; in the great majority of examples - the collection of the British Museum in London is interesting for its variety of types - the execution is rather summary and rough. The bishop's ring originates from the necessity he had to affix his own seal to official acts; in the course of time it acquires the meaning of a seal of the true faith and becomes a symbol of union between the pastor and his diocese. Already in the 7th century it was in Spain a normal episcopal attribute, and such it became in France in the 9th and a little later in all the other regions of the West. In relation to the new meaning and to the different orientation of taste, the engraved seal was as a rule replaced by the bezel with a colored stone sometimes engraved; not infrequently cameos or stones worked in pagan antiquity were also used. During the Renaissance the ring reaches a high degree of art also through the union of various techniques such as niello and enamel; it appears more massive in the bezel during the Baroque age. Particular mention deserves the fisherman's ring, whose form is unchanged at least since the 15th century; it is a ring generally of gilded bronze with rock crystal engraved with the representation of the little ship and the name of the Pontiff who uses it to affix the seal to briefs; immediately after his death it is destroyed.