catch
men." In Mark i, 17, a similiar announcement is made to both Simon
(Peter) and his brother Andrew: " Come ye after me, and I will make you
to become fishers of men."
The
ring is broken to prevent the sealing of any . pontifical document
during the vacancy of the papal see. When the army of the French
Republic occupied Rome in 1798, the Republican emissary Haller, after
informing Pius |VI that he would be taken from Rome, demanded all his
papal rings. After surrendering the others, the pope pleaded that he
might be allowed to keep the Fisherman's Ring, but as the Frenchman
sternly insisted that this also must be given up, the pope reluctantly
yielded. However, when on examination, the ring was found to be of
small value, it was restored to the pontiff.
The
earliest existing mention of the Fisherman's Ring seems to be in a
letter addressed by Pope Clement IV, in 1265, to his nephew Pietro
Grossi of St. Gilles, in which he states that in addressing members of
his family he used the Sigillum Piscatoris, the private seal of the popes.22
It was not until the fifteenth century that this originally private
seal came to be generally used for the papal Briefs. An impression of
the Fisherman's Ring of Clement VIII made in 1598, in the sixth year of
the pope's reign, is surrounded with a bit of twisted vellum. A
comparison of this seal with the one used by Pius IX, shows the
modifications of the established design due to the preferences of the
engravers of successive rings. The ring of Pius IX was of plain gold,
weighing about an ounce and a half, the design was engraved on an oval
plate. It is said to
22 Platina " De vitis Pontificorum "; " Vita dementis IV."
