BETROTHAL AND WEDDING RINGS 203
signified the agreement and sealing of the marriage contract.18
According
to Buxtorf (De sponsal. et divort.), the Jews did not place the
betrothal ring upon the annular finger, but upon the index. As to this
there is a curious statement in the " Opus aureus contra Judaeos," 19
by Victor de Carben, a converted Jew. He states that, at the betrothal
ceremony, care should be taken that the fiancée extends her index
finger to receive the ring, lest it should be put, by mistake, upon the
middle finger, for it was on this finger that Joseph placed the ring
when he betrothed Mary. Buxtorf adds that he has never been able to
find this statement in Jewish writings.
One
of Ghirlandajo's frescoes in the church of Santa Croce, in Florence,
depicts the betrothal of the Virgin. Here the ring is placed by Joseph
on the fourth finger of the Virgin's right hand, and the famous
Sposalizio by Rafael in the Brera Gallery in Milan illustrates the same
usage. Possibly the ring was transferred to the left hand at the actual
marriage ceremony.
The
custom of the Greek church at the present day in relation to betrothal
or wedding rings differs in some respects from that observed in other
Christian churches, for the priest places a ring on the fourth finger
of each of the contracting parties, who then proceed to exchange them
with each other.
The
old custom of exchanging rings and betrothal vows obtains in the
Russian branch of the Eastern Church. For the succeeding marriage
ceremony, or " crowning," the same rings are again used. The rubric
18
Symeonis Thessalonicensis Archiepiscopi, " Opera Omnia," in Migne's
Patrologia Grœca, vol. civ, Paris, 1866, cols. 505, 508, " De honesto
et legitime conjugio."
19 Colonia, 1509, cap. 11.
