insignia of rank served to give public emphasis to the sentence passed upon the condemned.39
The
Cathedral of Chichester has yielded a number of fine specimens of
mediaeval episcopal rings. Notable among these as a curiosity is one
that belonged to Bishop Seffrid who died in 1151, for it is set with a
Gnostic gem showing the well-known cock-headed figure generally cut to
represent the divine principle the Gnostics called Abrasax (or
Abraxas). This is an intaglio on jasper, and the ring was found in the
bishop's tomb. The fact that he was willing to wear it shows either
that he was ignorant of its being a Gnostic, and hence an heretical
design, or else that he was more than usually tolerant. Another of the
Chichester rings came from the tomb of Bishop Hilary (1146-1169) ; it
is of massive gold and is set with a sapphire. When the tomb was
opened the ring was on the thumb of the skeleton. In a stone coffin on
which were cut the letters Episcopus, with no personal name, there was
found a ring adorned with an octagonal sapphire, on four sides of which
was set a small emerald. As the sarcophagus contained a pastoral staff
and remains of a vestment, this was undoubtedly an episcopal ring. It
will have been remarked that of these rings two were set with
sapphires, but the ring of Archbishop Sewall (d. 1258), found in his
tomb in the Cathedral of York, and that from the tomb of Archbishop
Greenfield (d. 1315), were each set with a ruby.40
39 Ph. Labbei et Cossarti, " Sacrosancta Concilia," vol. ix, col. 395, of the Council of Nimes.
40 Edmund Waterton, " Episcopal Rings," in The Archœ-ological Journal, vol. xx, p. 235, figs. 6, 7 and 8 on plate opposite that page.
