RINGS CONNECTED WITH POWER.

§ 1. From the most ancient times, a ring has been an emblem of power.

Pharaoh put his ring upon Joseph’s hand, as a mark of the power he gave him; and the people cried, “Bow the knee.”[107]

Quintus Curtius tells us that Alexander the Great sealed the letters he wrote into Europe with his own ring seal, and those in Asia with Darius’s ring; and that when Alexander gave his ring to Perdiccas, it was understood as nominating him his successor.

When Antiochus Epiphanes was at the point of death, he committed to Philip, one of his friends, his diadems, royal cloak and ring, that he might give them to his successor, young Antiochus.[108]

Augustus, being very ill of a distemper which he thought mortal, gave his ring to Agrippa, as to a friend of the greatest integrity.

The ring given by Pharaoh to Joseph was, undoubtedly, a signet or seal-ring, and gave authority to the documents to which it was affixed; and by the delivery of it, therefore, Pharaoh delegated to Joseph the chief authority in the state.[109] The king of Persia, in the same way, gave his seal-ring to his successive ministers, Haman and Mordecai; and in the book of Esther,[110] the use of such a ring is expressly declared: “The writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s seal, may no man reverse.”

That ministers or lords under the king had their rings of office, is also apparent from what occurred with the closing of the den of lions: “And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.”[111]

In Egypt, under the Ptolemies, the king’s ring was the badge under which the country was governed. It seemed to answer to the great seal of England.[112] We read that Sosibius, minister under Ptolemy Philopater, was forced, by popular clamor, to give up the king’s signet ring to another. Here was a going out of a Lord John Russell, and a coming in of a Lord Palmerston.

At first, Roman Senators were not allowed to wear gold rings, unless they had been ambassadors; but, at length, the Senators and Knights were allowed the use of them; although Acron in Horace observes they could not do it unless it were given them by the PrÆtor.[113] The people wore silver rings.

Inhabitants of the eastern world do not sign their names. They have ring-seals, in which name and title are engraven, and they make an impression with thick ink where we make our signature. To give a person, then, your seal-ring, is to give him the use of an authority and power which your own signature possesses. This explains the extraordinary anxiety about seals, as exhibited in the laws and usages of the East, and to which we have referred in a former chapter. It also illustrates Judah’s anxiety about the signet which he had pledged to Tamar.

In ancient times, the forefinger was emblematical of power. Among the Hebrews, “the finger of God” denoted his power; and it was the forefinger among the gods of Greece and Italy which wore the ring, the emblem of supremacy.[114]

§ 2. Rings are used in coronations. The English public records, as now extant in the Tower of London, contain no mention of any coronation proceedings before the reign of Edward the Second. The accounts of the forms observed with reference to that king being crowned, as also of Richard the Second, are the two most ancient from which the minutes of those matters can be collected on official authority.[115] However, there is enough of Saxon times left to show that the Anglo-Saxon kings used a ring in their coronation ceremonies.[116]

In a curious old manuscript relating to the Ancient Form of the Coronation of the Kings and Queens of England, we have this: “After the king is thus arrayed, then let the crown be placed upon the king’s head by the Archbishop, and afterwards let a ring be put upon the king’s hand by the Bishop.”

In Leland’s Collectanea is a circumstantial account of the coronation of the mother of Henry the Eighth. In describing the ceremonies made use of by the Archbishop: “He next blest her ring and sprinkled on it holy water.”

In the ceremony of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, she was wedded to the kingdom with a ring, which she always wore, till the flesh growing over it, it was filed off a little before her decease.[117]

On the restoration of Charles the Second of England, measures were adopted to repair, as much as possible, the loss of the ancient regalia of the crown taken from their depository, the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster, and broken up and sold by the Parliamentarians.[118] The new regalia was constructed by Sir Robert Vyner, the king’s goldsmith. The cost of it was £21,978 9s. 11d.

In an account of the coronation of Charles II. of England,[119] we have the following, which comes after a description of the robing and crowning: “Then the master of the jewel house delivered to the Archbishop the ring, who consecrated it after this manner, saying: ‘Bless, O Lord, and sanctify this ring, that thy servant, wearing it, may be sealed with the ring of faith and, by the power of the Highest, be preserved from sin; and let all the blessings, which are found in Holy Scripture, plentifully descend upon him, that whatsoever he shall sanctify may be holy; and whomsoever he blesseth may be blessed. Amen.’ After which he put it upon the fourth finger of the king’s right hand, and said: ‘Receive this ring of kingly dignity, and by it the seal of Catholic Faith, that as this day thou art adorned the head and prince of this kingdom and people, so thou mayest persevere as the author and establisher of Christianity and the Christian faith; that being rich in faith and happy in works, thou mayest reign with Him that is King of kings; to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.’” Think of this imposing ceremony; and then remember the after life and the death of that royal libertine. Better for his country had he never known a British oak for safety. The living tree was dishonored when its foliage shaded him. What can be said in favor of one who squandered on his mistresses seventy thousand pounds sterling, which had been voted by Parliament for a monument to his father? And also to think of the joking excuse, that his father’s grave was unknown!

In an explanation of what are called the sacred and royal habits and other ornaments wherewith monarchs of England are invested on the day of coronation, we have a description of the king’s and queen’s coronation rings. The king’s is a plain gold ring, with a large table ruby violet, wherein a plain cross or cross of St. George is curiously enchased. The queen’s coronation ring is likewise gold, with a large table ruby set therein and sixteen other small rubies round about the ring, whereof those next to the collet are the largest, the rest diminishing proportionally.

In the account of Ancient Regalia which were destroyed and dissipated in the time of the Commonwealth in England, there is no mention of a ring.

In the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-six, some workmen discovered a monument while repairing Winchester Cathedral, in England.[120] It contained the body of King Canute, and was remarkably fresh. There was a wreath around the head, several ornaments of gold and also silver bands; upon a finger was a ring, in which was set a large and remarkably fine stone; while in one of the hands was a silver penny. This silver penny was not for “the ferryman that poets write of,” as was the piece of money in the mouths of the Roman knights whose passing-away bodies we have before referred to; but, although it may have been for Peter and not Charon, is it not probable that we find here a custom of Christian times springing out of heathen root? A statue of Jupiter has been turned into a Christ; and that which the Roman used for the boatman of Styx, is here meant for one who had the key of heaven.

While Henry the Second, of England, was rebuilding Westminster Abbey, the sepulchre of Sebert, king of the East Angles, was opened.[121] The body was dressed in royal robes, and there was a thumb-ring, in which was set a ruby of great value.

Horace Walpole, having reference to the opening of this monarch’s tomb, complains, like an antiquary, of the reburying the king’s regalia. “They might, at least, have cut out the portraits and removed the tomb [of King Sebert] to a conspicuous situation; but though this age is grown so antiquarian, it has not gained a grain more of sense in that walk—witness, as you instance, in Mr. Grose’s Legends, and in the dean and chapter reburying the crown, robes and sceptre of Edward I. There would surely have been as much piety in preserving them in their treasury, as in consigning them again to decay. I did not know that the salvation of robes and crowns depended on receiving Christian burial. At the same time, the chapter transgresses that prince’s will, like all their antecessors, for he ordered his tomb to be opened every year or two years, and receive a new cere-cloth or pall; but they boast now of having inclosed him so substantially that his ashes cannot be violated again.”[122]

When the tomb of Henry the Second, of England, was opened, it appeared that he was buried wearing a crown and royal robes, with other paraphernalia, while there was a great ring upon his finger.[123]

Richard the Second, of England, by his will directed that he should be buried in velvet or white satin, etc., and that, according to royal usage, a ring, with a precious stone in it, should be put upon his finger.

The body of Childeric, the first king of the Franks,[124] was discovered at Tours. It was found in royal robes, and, with other regalia, a coronation ring.

In the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-two, the Calvinists broke open the tomb of Matilda, wife to William the Conqueror, in the Abbey of Caen; and discovered her body dressed in robes of state and a gold ring, set with a sapphire, upon one of her fingers. The ring was given to the then abbess, who presented it to her father, the Baron de Conti, constable of France, when he attended Charles IX. to Caen in 1563.

§ 3. In the time of Henry VIII. of England, the king’s ring was used to withdraw from the Council the power to adjudge a matter and to place it entirely in the hands of the monarch. We refer to the complaints against Cranmer, which are made use of by Shakspeare,[125] who has very closely followed Fox, in his Book of Martyrs.[126] The king sends for Cranmer, and follows up his discourse thus: “Do you not consider what an easy thing it is to procure three or four false knaves to witness against you? Think you to have better luck that way than your master Christ had? I see by it you will run headlong to your undoing, if I would suffer you. Your enemies shall not so prevail against you, for I have otherwise devised with myself to keep you out of their hands. Yet, notwithstanding, to-morrow when the council shall sit and send for you, resort unto them, and if, in charging you with this matter, they do commit you to the Tower, require of them, because you are one of them, a counsellor, that you may have your accusers brought before them without any further indurance, and use for yourself as good persuasions that way as you may devise; and if no entreaty or reasonable request will serve, then deliver unto them this my ring, (which, then, the king delivered unto the Archbishop,) and say unto them, ‘If there be no remedy, my lords, but that I must needs go to the Tower, then I revoke my cause from you and appeal to the king’s own person by this token unto you all;’ for, (said the king then unto the Archbishop,) ‘so soon as they shall see this my ring, they know it so well that they shall understand that I have reserved the whole cause into mine own hands and determination, and that I have discharged them thereof.’ Anon the Archbishop was called into the council chamber, to whom was alleged as before is rehearsed. The Archbishop answered in like sort as the king had advised him; and in the end, when he perceived that no manner of persuasion or entreaty could serve, he delivered them the king’s ring, revoking his cause into the king’s hands. The whole council being thereat somewhat amazed, the Earl of Bedford, with a loud voice, confirming his words with a solemn oath, said, ‘When you first began the matter, my lords, I told you what would become of it. Do you think that the king would suffer this man’s finger to ache? Much more (I warrant you) will he defend his life against brabbling varlets. You do but cumber yourselves to hear tales and fables against him.’ And incontinently upon the receipt of the king’s token, they all rose and carried to the king his ring, surrendering that matter, as the order and use was, into his own hands.”

§ 4. The stranger in Venice is yet shown the richly gilt galley, called Bucentaur, in which the Doge, from the year 1311, was accustomed to go out into the sea annually on Ascension Day, to throw a ring into the water, and thus to marry, as it were, the Adriatic, as a sign of the power of Venice over that sea.[127] This ceremony does not go into remote antiquity, yet the origin of it is of considerable date. In the year 1177, when the Emperor Barbarossa went to humble himself before the Pope, who had taken refuge in Venice, the Pope, in testimony of the kindness he had there received, gave to the Doge a ring, and with it a right for the Venetians to call the Adriatic sea their own. He bade the Doge cast it into the sea, to wed it, as a man marries his wife; and he enjoined the citizens, by renewing this ceremony every year, to claim a dominion which they had won by their valor; for they had, with a small squadron, defeated a large fleet of the Emperor’s and taken his son prisoner; and it was to regain his son that the Emperor submitted himself to the Pope.

The ceremony took place on Ascension Day. The Doge, the senators, foreign ambassadors and great numbers of the nobility, in their black robes, walked to the sea-side, where the magnificent vessel, the Bucentoro, was waiting to receive them. They then proceeded about two miles up the Laguna, and when arrived at a certain place, they all stopped. The Doge then rose from his chair of state, went to the side of the vessel and threw a gold ring into the sea, repeating the following words: “We espouse thee, O sea! as a token of our perpetual dominion over thee.” At the close of this part of the ceremony, all the galleys fired their guns; and the music continued to play. On their voyage back, they stopped at a small island, where they went to church, and high mass was there celebrated. They then returned in the same order they at first set out.[128]

This cry of perpetual dominion over the sea, puts us in mind of the story of Canute; and knowing the present prostrate and decaying condition of Venice, truly may we say: “How are the mighty fallen.” One of our frigates would make the whole maritime power of Venice tremble like the ring as it went through the waters. This ceremony was intermitted in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven.[129]

§ 5. The Doge of Venice had a ring of office. We find it figuring in the acts through which the Doge Foscari had to move. A noble creature was this Foscari. No Brutus ever behaved with the awful dignity which was apparent in Foscari at the period of his son’s torture in his presence.[130]

When the Council of Ten demanded of him

he laid aside the Ducal bonnet and robes; surrendered his ring of office, and cried out:

The ring was broken in his presence, and as nobly as the old Doge had borne himself, whether when strangers were before him, or when his son was tortured in his presence, (as an awful punishment for the yearning of a young heart for childhood’s home,) so did this great Venetian still act. He refused to leave the Ducal palace by a private way. He would descend, he said, by no other than the same giant stairs which he had mounted thirty years before. Supported by his brother, he slowly traversed them. At their foot, leaning upon his staff, for years of age were upon him, he turned towards the palace, and accompanied a last look with these parting words: “My services established me within your walls; it is the malice of my enemies which tears me from them.” The bells of the Campanile told of his successor. He suppressed all outward emotion, but a blood-vessel was ruptured in the exertion and he died in a few hours.

§ 6. A Pope wears a ring of gold with a costly emerald or other precious gem set in it.

The decrees of the Romish Court consist of bulls and briefs. The latter are issued on less important occasions than the former. Briefs are written upon fine white parchment, with Latin letters; and the seal is what is called “The Fisherman’s Ring.” It is a steel seal, made in the fashion of a Roman signet, (signatorius annulus.) When a brief is written to any distinguished personage, or has relation to religious or general important matter, the impression from the Fisherman’s Ring is said to be made upon a gold surface; in some other cases it appears upon lead; and these seals are generally attached by strings of silk. Impressions of this seal are also made in ink, direct upon the substance on which the brief is written. The author has obtained a sight of an impression of the Fisherman’s Ring, attached to a bull or brief in the archives of the Catholic bishopric of New-York, and liberty to copy it for publication.[131] The impression is in ink upon vellum or fine parchment, at the left hand of the extreme lower corner, balancing the signature at the other (lower) corner. We are not aware that a sketch has ever before been made public.

A “Fisherman’s Ring” was used at a very early period; and no doubt the original device has been renewed. The reader will observe the antique form of the prow of the boat and oar, as well as the singular flying drapery attached to the head of the figure.

When a pope dies, the cardinal chamberlain or chancellor (camerlengo), accompanied by a large number of the high dignitaries of the Papal Court, comes into the room where the body lies; and the principal or great notary makes an attestation of the circumstance. Then the cardinal chamberlain calls out the name of the deceased pope three times, striking the body each time with a gold hammer; and as no response comes, the chief notary makes another attestation. After this, the cardinal chancellor demands the Fisherman’s Ring, and certain ceremonies are performed over it; and then he strikes the ring with the golden hammer, and an officer destroys the figure of Peter by the use of a file. From this moment all the authority and acts of the late pope pass to the College or Conclave of Cardinals.

When a new pope is consecrated, it is always the cardinal chancellor or chamberlain who presents the renewed Fisherman’s Ring; and this presentation is accompanied by imposing ceremonies.

Gavazzi, who tilts at every matter which may appear mystically Catholic, just as an excited bull runs at a red mantle, says: “The Fisherman’s Ring now in use is most valuable, and would hardly square with the simplicity of Peter;”[132] and he remarks, in reference to the present Pope: “This man has on one of his fingers a splendid ring, composed of diamonds and pearls of great price, and this ring of $8,000 is called the Fisherman’s Ring; it symbolizes the ring of poor St. Peter, which cost, perhaps, two cents.” Gavazzi must be in error. A ring like that of the “Fisherman’s,” subject to be destroyed on the death of a pope, would not be surrounded by brilliants; and the fact that this ring is used as a signet to impress a gold or leaden surface, or even vellum, carries with it the conviction that it would not be encircled with precious stones and pearls; for, independent of the chance of injury, they would impede an impression. It is very possible that the official ring, bearing an emerald, and which a pope wears as Bishop of Rome, might be further ornamented. We have been favored with a sight of a ring used by the present Archbishop of New-York, which is composed of an extra large oblong emerald of beautiful color, surrounded by brillants. This ring is worn on the fourth finger of the right hand.

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.”

Symbols of ring, staff, mitre and gloves are not used at the present day in the consecration of archbishops and bishops of the Church of England. The delivery of the pastoral staff in the Roman pontificate was preceded by its consecration, and followed by the consecration and putting on of a ring in token of his marriage to the church; and of a mitre, as an helmet of strength and salvation, that his face being adorned, and his head (as it were) armed with the horns of both Testaments, may appear terrible to the adversaries of the truth, as also in imitation of the ornaments of Moses and Aaron; and of gloves, in token of clean hands and breast to be preserved by him.[138]

The episcopal ring, and which is thus esteemed a pledge of the spiritual marriage between the bishop and his church, was used at a remote period. The fourth Council of Toledo, held in 633, appoints that a bishop condemned by one council and found afterwards innocent by a second should be restored by giving him the ring, staff, etc.[139]

From bishops, the custom of the ring has passed to cardinals, who are to pay a large sum for the right to use a ring as such. Perhaps this arises from the fact that cardinals and prelates do not, strictly, belong to the hierarchy.

A bishop, like a pope, receives a gold ring, set with a green gem. Sometimes an abbot of a convent is invested with a ring, but this is said only to occur when he possesses a bishop’s powers.

Solid gold rings are frequently found in tombs of abbots and bishops.[140]

In a description of the finger-ring found in the grave of the venerable Bede, it is said, that no priest, during the reign of Catholicity in England, was buried or enshrined without his ring. This, however, has been questioned.[141]

High dignitaries of the Church do not appear to have restricted themselves to a single ring. On the hands of the effigy of Cardinal Beaufort in Winchester Cathedral, there are gloves fringed with gold and having an oval-shaped jewel on the back; while on the middle and third fingers of each hand are rings worn over the gloves.

In new paving and beautifying of Exeter Cathedral in England, a leaden coffin was found of a Bishop Bitton, who died in 1307.[142] Near the bones of the finger was discovered a sapphire ring set in gold, in the centre of which was engraved a hand with the two forefingers extended in the attitude of benediction.

This extension of the two forefingers, in company with the thumb, must have been often observed in Catholic pictures. We see it in the painting of the Virgin and Child in the DÜsseldorf collection now in New-York.

The thumb and the first two fingers have always been reserved as symbols of the three persons of the Trinity.[143] When a bishop gives his blessing, he blesses with the thumb and first two fingers. Sepulchral monuments bear witness of this fact.

Both the Greek and Latin Churches agree that the thumb and first two fingers symbolize the Trinity.[144]

It is, however, insisted that the origin of thus using the thumb and two fingers is not of Christian, but of heathen derivation; for Apuleius mentions this practice as the usual one with orators soliciting the attention of an audience.[145] Here we see another pagan custom become a Christian one.

The hand, with the thumb and two fingers extended, is sometimes called the “hand of justice.”[146]

Miniature hands, taking in a part of the arm, are found in Rome, which have the thumb and two forefingers extended and the remaining fingers closed. Caylus gives a drawing of one (two inches and nine lines in length) which has a serpent stretched on the back of the hand, after having surrounded the wrist, and a lizard, likewise in relief, placed upon the arm.[147] The author we have referred to cannot account for this peculiar disposition of the thumb and fingers; but he considers that the thing itself was an offering, and refers to a hole in it by which it could be suspended. But we observe that Addison, in his Remarks on Italy,[148] says: “The custom of hanging up limbs of wax, as well as pictures, is certainly direct from the old heathens, who used, upon their recovery, to make an offering in wood, metal or clay of the part that had been afflicted with a distemper, to the deity that delivered them. I have seen, I believe, every limb of a human body figured in iron or clay which were formerly made on this occasion, among the several collections of antiquities that have been shown in Italy.” This, however, does not account for the snake and the lizard, or the peculiarity of closing two fingers and elevating the others with the thumb; and we are inclined to raise a question, whether the miniature hand and arm, figured by Caylus, was not an amulet and worn as such? The position of the fingers and thumb may here denote power, or authority and control over noxious creatures. A Roman soldier going into Egypt might carry such an one.[149] (This custom of offering a model of the restored part, was common with the ancient Egyptians.[150])

Catholics kiss the bishop’s hand, or, rather, the ring which he wears in virtue of his episcopal office.

In the earliest ages bishops sealed with rings; but from the ninth century they had distinct seals.[151]

It is said that formerly bishops wore their rings on the forefinger of the right hand.[152]

When a bishop receives the ring at his consecration, the words used are: “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, the Holy Church.”

§ 9. At the English Law Bar, there is a distinction among the barristers. Those called Serjeants are of the highest and most ancient degree, and judges of the Courts of Westminster are always admitted into this venerable order before they are advanced to the Bench.

The ceremony of making a serjeant is or rather was a very imposing and expensive one. Connected with this ceremony, the serjeant had to give a great dinner, “like to the feast of a king’s coronation,” and which continued seven days, and he had to present gold rings, bearing some loyal motto, to every prince, duke and archbishop present, and to every earl and bishop, lord privy seal, lords chief justices, lord chief baron, every lord baron of Parliament, abbot and notable prelate, worshipful knight, master of the rolls, every justice, baron of exchequer, chamberlain, officer and clerk of the courts, each receiving a ring, convenient for his degree. And a similar token was given to friends.

These rings were delivered by some friend of the new serjeant’s and who was of the standing of barrister. He was called his colt. Whitlock says, when the new Serjeants counted, their colts delivered the rings.[153] Why they are thus called is not very clear: “colt,” according to Shakspeare, is a young foolish fellow.

In 1 Modern Reports, case 30, we have a hint of “short weight.” “Seventeen serjeants being made the 14th day of November, a daye or two after Serjeant Powis, the junior of them all, coming to the King’s Bench bar, Lord Chief Justice Kelynge told him that he had something to say to him, viz.: that the rings which he and the rest of the serjeants had given weighed but eighteen shillings apiece; whereas Fortescue, in his book De Laudibus Legum AngliÆ, says, ‘The rings given to the chief justices and to the chief baron ought to weigh twenty shillings apiece;’ and that he spoke not this expecting a recompence, but that it might not be drawn into a precedent, and that the young gentlemen there might take notice of it.”

We consider the matter about serjeants’ rings sufficiently curious and interesting to allow of our adding extracts from Fortescue and Cooke:

“But this you must understand,[154] that when the day appointed is come, those elect persons, among other solemnities, must keep a great dinner, like to the feast of a king’s coronation, which shall continue and last for the space of seven days, and none of those elect persons shall defray the charges growing to him about the costs of this solemnity with less expense than the sum of four hundred marks; so that the expenses which eight men so elect shall then bestow, will surmount to the sum of three thousand and two hundred marks, of which expenses one parcel shall be this: Every of them shall give rings of gold to the value of forty pounds sterling at the least; and your chancellour well remembreth, that at what time he received this state and degree, the rings which he then gave stood him in fifty pounds. For every such serjeant, at the day of his creation, useth to give unto every prince, duke and archbishop being present at that solemnity and to the Lord Chancellour and Lord Treasurer of England a ring of the value of 26s. 8d.

“And to every earl and bishop, being likewise present, and also to the lord privy seal, to both the lords chief justices, and to the lord chief baron of the King’s Exchequer a ring of the value of 20s.

“And to every lord baron of the Parliament, and to every abbot and notable prelate and worshipful knight, being then present, and also to the master of the rolls and to every justice a ring of the value of a mark; and likewise to every baron of the exchequer, to the chamberlains and to all the officers and notable men serving in the king’s courts rings of a smaller price but agreeably to their estates to whom they are given.

“Insomuch that there shall not be a clerk, especially in the Court of the Common Bench, but he shall receive a ring convenient for his degree; and, besides these, they give divers rings to other of their friends.”

“And on Tuesday, May 10,[155] in the second week of the term, the said Sir John Walter being of the Inner Temple, Sir Henry Yelverton of Grayes Inne and Sir Thomas Trevor of the Inner Temple, with the benchers, readers and others of those Inns of Court whereof they respectively had been, being attended by the warden of the Fleet and marshall of the Exchequer, made their appearance at Serjeants Inne in Fleet street, before the two chief justices and all the justices of both benches. And Sir Randolph Crew, chief justice, made a short speech unto them, and (because it was intended they should not continue serjeants to practise) he acquainted them with the king’s purpose of advancing them to seats of judicature, and exhorted them to demeane themselves well in their several places. Then every one in his order made his count, (and defences were made by the ancient serjeants,) and their several writs being read, their coyfs and scarlet hoods were put on them, and being arrayed in their brown-blew gownes, went into their chambers, and all the judges to their several places at Westminster, and afterward the said three serjeants, attyred in their party-coloured robes, attended with the marshall and warden of the Fleete, the servants of the said serjeants going before them, and accompanied with the benchers and others of the several Inns of Court of whose society they had been, walked unto Westminster and there placed themselves in the hall over against the Common Pleas bar.

“And the hall being full, a lane was made for them to the barre; (the justices of the Common Bench being in court) they recited three several counts, (and several defences made to several counts,) and had their writs read. The first and third by Brownlow the chief prothonotary, and the second by Goulton the second prothonotary. And Sir John Walter and Thomas Trevor gave rings to the judges with this inscription, ‘Regi Legi servire libertas.’ And Sir Henry Yelverton gave rings whereof the inscription was, ‘Stat Lege Corona,’ and presently after (they all standing together) returned to Serjeants Inn, where was a great feast, at which Sir James Lee, Lord Treasurer and the Earl of Manchester, Lord President of the Council, were present.”

§ 10. Arabian princesses wear golden rings on their fingers, to which little bells are suspended, so that their superior rank may be known, and they, themselves, receive in passing, the homage due to them.[156]

§ 11. The insignia of honor peculiar to the Roman knights were a charger, furnished at the public expense, a golden ring and a certain place in the theatre.[157] The senators also wore golden rings.[158]

§ 12. We read of: