wedding ring -- a new aspect

• Messages sorted by:[ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]

> Bro. Gibney sates, "Pope Innocent the III was the
> bloodiest Pontiff. (I 188-1216).

This is questionable.  Innocent III did call for the Manicheans to be
*ahem* "converted" in the Papal States, but did not use the death
sentence.  He also preached for a Crusade against the French
Albingenses (sp?), but apparently he (ignorantly) didn't expect it to
be so bloody as it was.  The Crusaders sacked quite a few Catholic
towns on the way to killing off the Albigenses.

> The historic record for his
> invention of the wedding ring to represent the Trinity in Catholic
> marriages was not his only claim to lame".

Selected excerpts from:

http://www.gse.rutgers.edu/imdg/members/muller/traditions.html

My comments are in brackets.  Standard disclaimers about "I read it on
the net so it must be true" apply.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

A finger ring was first used in the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of
Egypt, around 2800 BC. To the Egyptians, a circle, having no beginning
or end, signified eternity - for which marriage was binding.

Tertullian...  observed that "most women know nothing of gold except
the single marriage ring placed on one finger."

    [I haven't found any reference to "marriage rings" in any of
    the few writings of Tertullian I happen to have access to.
    In the quoted statement, Tertullian does seem to imply that
    wedding bands are an exception as he preaches rather strongly
    that women should not adorn themselves with jewelry.]

For Roman Catholics, the engagement ring's official introduction is
unequivocal. In AD 860, Pope Nicholas I decreed that an engagement ring
become a required statement of nuptial intent.

The Western custom of placing a wedding ring on the "third" finger (not
counting the thumb) began with the Greeks....

The Christians continued this ring-finger practice, but worked their
way across the hand to the vein of love. A groom first placed the ring
on the top of the bride's index finger, with the words "In the name of
the Father. " Then praying, "In the name of the Son," he moved the ring
to her middle finger, and finally, with the concluding words, "and of
the Holy Spirit, Amen," to the third finger. This was known as the
Trinitarian formula.

    [Here we go!]

Richard Masoner