Among the ancient Jews, the ring was the symbol of authority. Pharaoh put his ring upon Joseph's hand when he made him governor of Egypt; Ahasuerus, with official orders, gave his ring to Haman upon one occasion, and to Mordecai upon another; the ring of the High Priest possessed celestial virtues. The wedding ring of Joseph and the Virgin Mary (now shown in the cathedral of Perugia as its greatest treasure) is said to have performed so many miracles, that a book was published upon the subject at the beginning of the Seventeenth Century. The power of invisibility was ascribed to a ring worn by Gyges, King of Lydia; also to one described in the old Welsh romance of "Morte d'Arthur"; another ring, worn by Otnet, King of Lombardy, always directed him in the right road when traveling.
In Sweden, young girls place under three separate cups a ring, a coin, and a piece of black ribbon. If the ring is first accidentally exposed -she will be married within the year; if the money, she will get a rich husband; if the ribbon, she will die an old maid. It is a favorite amusement among the young girls in Russia to conceal their finger-rings in small heaps of corn on the floor. A hen is brought in, which at once begins to peck at the tiny heaps of grain. The owner of the first ring exposed to view will, according to popular belief, be married before her companions in the experiment. It used to be a popular belief that a stye upon the eyelid could be cured by rubbing it with a gold wedding ring. Reference is made to this in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Mad Lovers." In France it was the practice to place a gold ring under the feet of the couple during the marriage ceremony.
Medicated rings were in great request, even as far back as the time of Marcus Aurelius. Trallian, a physician, who lived in the Fourth Century, recommended for the colic, a ring with Hercules strangling the Nemean lion engraved upon it. In olden times, much faith was placed in the virtues of rings upon which the names of the three Kings of Cologne were inscribed. Sometimes the words "in—God—is—a—r." were added, "a—r" no doubt standing for "a remedy."
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The fourth finger of the left hand has been, from long usage, consecrated to the wedding ring, from an ancient belief that a nerve went directly from the heart to that finger. The physicians called it the medical or healing finger, and stirred their mixtures with it. The popular belief in the great power of intercession and protection possessed by the Magi, as departed saints, was widely spread in the Middle Ages. Not only any article that had touched their skulls was given miraculous power, but the virtue was even vested in rings when their names were engraved upon them. The names given to the Three Wise Men were Melchior, Balthazar and Jasper, and Bishop Patrick (in 1674) questioned the value of their names upon medicated rings, from the fact that one tradition gave their names as Apellius, Amerus and Damascus, and another as Ator, Sator and Peratoras. Rings also owed their virtue to the stones with which they were set. The diamond was believed to be an antidote against poison; the ruby and opal changed their colors if evil were to befall the wearer; the sapphire and bloodstone checked bleeding at the nose; the amethyst was an antidote against drunkenness.
Cramp-rings originated in the Middle Century from a ring presented to Edward the Confessor. It cured epilepsy, and was preserved as a relic in Westminster Abbey. It gave rise to the belief that rings blessed by English sovereigns were efficacious in such diseases, and the custom of blessing for distribution, large numbers of cramprings on Good Friday, was continued down to the time of Queen Mary. During the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, a curious superstition prevailed in England, in connection with what was known as the toad-stone ring. The setting was of silver, and the stone or jewel in it was popularly believed to have formed in the heads of very old toads. It was said to possess the power of indicating to the person who wore it the proximity of poison, by perspiring and changing color. Albertus Magnus and Lupton certified to its virtues in that respect, and allusion to the virtues, or the stone at least, is made in the well known lines in Shakespeare:
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like a toad, ugly and venomous.
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
A belief that charmed rings will cure epilepsy, etc., exists in many parts of England at the present day. Not many years ago, a young woman, subject to falling fits, wore a broad silver ring upon her wedding finger. She begged thirty pence from thirty young men of her own age; she exchanged the thirty pence for a half-crown, which she had fashioned into a ring. A ring was sometimes medicated by plunging it three times into water, each time solemnly repeating the words "in nomine Patris."
At one time the ladies were in the habit of wearing "In Memoriam" rings; the principal representation upon them being a skull and cross-bones, which explains a sentence in an old sermon by the Bishop of Bangor: "Many carry Death on their fingers, when he is never nigh their hearts." A writer in the Connoisseur, published in those days, says: "I knew a young lady who wore on the same finger, a ring set round with death's heads and cross marrow bones for the loss of her father, and another prettily embellished with burning hearts pierced through with darts, in respect for her lover."
Not a few prophecies were made in connection with rings, the most remarkable of which is found in Aubrey's "Miscellanies." It is connected with the ring of James VI. of Scotland:
"Oh, thou Sixth King to God due honors pay,
Remember, Prince, soon after thoul't expire
When thou beholdcst thy carbuncle display,
Blaze against blaze in the red'ning fire."
The prediction was made by George Buchanan. "The King was taken with an ague at Trinity College, in Cambridge. He removed to Theobald's, where he died sitting by the fire. The carbuncle fell out of his ring into the fire, according to the prediction.
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