Different laws as to the wearing of rings existed during the empire : Tiberius made a large property qualification necessary for the wearing of gold rings in the case of those who were not of free descent ; Severus conceded the right to all Roman soldiers; and later still all free citizens possessed the ius annuli aurei, silver rings being worn by freedmen and iron by slaves. Under Justinian even these restrictions passed away.
Most early Christian rings date from the 4th century onwards. Generally of bronze or gold they are often engraved with acclamations and invocations and occasion ally with the owner's bust or with Christian symbols.
Large numbers of gold rings have been found in many parts of Europe in the tombs of early Celtic races. They are usually of very pure gold, often penannular in form—with a slight break, that is, in the hoop so as to form a spring. They are often of gold wire formed into a sort of rope, or else a simple bar twisted in an ornamental way. Some of the quite plain penannular rings were used in the place of coined money.
Throughout the Middle Ages the signet ring was a thing of great importance in religious, legal, commercial and private matters.
The episcopal ring was solemnly conferred upon the newly made bishop together with his crozier, a special formula for this being inserted in the Pontifical. In the earliest references to rings worn by bishops, there is nothing to distinguish them from other signet rings. In A.D. 610 the first mention has been found of the episcopal ring as a well-understood symbol of dignity. It is clear that it was derived from the signet. It was only in the I2th century and onwards that it was brought into mystical connection with the marriage ring. In the time of Innocent III. ("94) the ring was ordered to be of pure gold mounted with a stone that was not engraved ; but this rule appears not to have been strictly kept. It was the custom upon the death of a bishop for his ring to be handed over to the royal treasurer but many rings with all the appearance of consecration rings have been dis covered in the coffins of bishops. Among the collection of rings formed by the naturalist Edmund Waterton, and now in the South Kensington museum, is a fine gold episcopal ring decorated with niello, and inscribed with the name of Alhstan, bishop of Sherborne from 824 to 867. In many cases an antique gem was mounted in the bishop's ring, and often an inscription was added in the gold setting of the gem to give a Christian name to the pagan figure.
The monks of Durham, for example, made an intaglio of Jupiter Serapis into a portrait of St. Oswald by adding the legend CAPVT S. OSWALDI. In other cases the engraved gem appears to have been merely regarded as an ornament without meaning—as, for exam ple, a magnificent gold ring found in the coffin of Seffrid, bishop of Chichester (1125-1151), in which is mounted a Gnostic intaglio.
The papal "Ring of the Fisherman" (annulus pisCatoris) bears the device of St. Peter in a boat, drawing a net from the water. The first mention of it, as the well-understood personal signet ring of the pope, that has been found, occurs in a letter of Clement IV. in 1265. After the middle of the i5th cen tury it was no longer used as the private seal of the popes, but was always attached to briefs. After the death of a pope the ring is broken. A new ring with the space for the name left blank is taken into the conclave, and placed on the finger of the newly elected pontiff, who thereupon declares what name he will assume, and gives back the ring to be engraved. (See Waterton, Archaeologia, 40, P. 138.) The so-called papal rings, of which many exist dating from the 15th to the 17th centuries, are very large thumb rings, usually of gilt bronze coarsely worked, and set with a foiled piece of glass or crystal. On the hoop is usually engraved the name and arms of the reigning pope, the bezel being without a device. They are sometimes described as rings of investiture and according to another hypothesis they were carried as credentials by envoys. Such cumbrous ornaments cannot have been worn by the popes and cardinals themselves.
The giving of a ring to mark a betrothal was an old Roman custom. The ring was probably a mere pledge, pignus, that the contract would be fulfilled. In Pliny's time con servative custom still required a plain ring of iron, but the gold ring was introduced in the course of the 2nd century. This use of the ring, which was thus of purely secular origin, received ec clesiastical sanction, and formulae of benediction of the ring exist from the 11th century. The exact stages by which the wedding ring developed from the betrothal ring can no longer be traced. Gold marriage rings enriched with niello date from the 5th cen tury though they may not have been used in the actual ceremony of marriage.