Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/89

 RINGS

59

RINGS

cathedral in 1854. Before the creation of the see, Rimouski was successively visited by Bishops Hubert (1791), Denaut (1798), Plessis (1806-14-22), Panet (1810-26), Signay (1833-38-43), Turgeon (1849), and Baillargeon (1855-60-65). The see was created and its first titular nominated on 15 January, 1867, and acquired civil incorporation ipso facto the same day, according to the law of the country.

The first bishop, Jean-Pierre-Fran9ois Laforce- Langevin, was b. at Quebec, 22 Sept., 1821, and or- dained on 12 Sept., 1844. As director of the Quebec seminary he was one of the joint founders of Laval University (1852). He successively filled the offices of pastor to the parishes of Ste Claire and Beauport, and of principal of Laval Normal School. He was con- secrated 1 May, 1867, resigned 1891, and died 1892. He completed the organization of a classical college previously founded by the Abbes C. Tanguay and G. Potvin and adopted it as the seminary of the diocese. He introduced the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame (Montreal) and sanctioned the founda- tion (1879) of the Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary, a flourishing institute largely due to the zeal of Vicar- General Langevin, his brother. Bishop Langevin established the cathedral chapter in 1878.

The second bishop, still in office, Andre-Albert Blais, b. at St-Vallier, P. Q., 1842, studied at the college of Ste Anne de la Pocatiere, graduated in Rome Doctor of Canon Law, and taught the same branch at Laval University. He was consecrated bishop 18 May, 1890, and took possession of the see in 1891. Bishop Blais created many new parishes in the dio- cese, and founded a normal school under the manage- ment of the LTrsulines. The clergy, exclusivcl}^ French-Canadian, study classics and philosophy at the diocesan seminary, and theology princii)ally at Laval University, in some cases at the Proi)ag:uul:i, Rome. (For parochial system, incorporation of religious in- stitutions, etc., see Canada, and Quebec, Province OF.) There are no cities besides Rimouski, but all the larger rural parishes have fine churches and con- vent-schools; the only domestic mission is that of the Micmacs at Ristigouche, under the care of the Capu- chins. Besides a Priests' Aid Society, there are several benevolent and mutual aid societies for the laity. The religious orders of men are the Capuchins, Eudists, and Brothers of the Cross of Jesus; those of women are the Ursulines, Sisters of Charity, of the Good Shepherd (t(!aching), of the Holy Rosary, of the Holy Family, and the Daughters of Jesus. Re- treats for the clergy are given each year; conferences to discuss theological cases take place every three months. Nearly all the secular clergy (110 out of 137) belong to the iMicharistic League. Out of a total Catholic population of 118,740, only 3695 are not French Canadians. The Indians number 610. The Protestant element amounts to 8798. There is no friction between these? difTercnt elements and no difficult racial ijroblem to solve, the parishes contain- ing an English-s])caking element as well as the Mic- macs being instructed in their native tongues.

GuAY, Chroniques de Rimouski (Quebec, 1873); Le Canada ecclesiastique (Montreal, 1911).

Lionel Lindsay.

Rings. — L In General. — Although the siu-viving ancient rings, proved by their devices, provenance, etc., to be of Christian origin, are fairly numerous (See Fortnum in "Arch. Journ.", XXVI, 141, and XXVIII, 275), we cannot in most cases identify them with any liturgical use. Christians no doubt, just like other people, wore rings in accordance with their station in life, for rings are mentioned without reprobation in the New Testament (Luke, xv, 22, and James, ii, 2). Moreover, St. Clement of Alexandria (Paed., Ill, c. xi) says that a man might lawfully wear a ring on his little finger, and that it should bear some religious emblem — a dove, or a fish, or an anchor —

Christian Symbols

though, on the other hand, TertuUian, St. Cyprian, and the Apostolic Constitutions (I, iii) protest against the ostentation of Christians in decking themselves with rings and gems. In any case the Acts of Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas (c. xxi), about the beginning of the thu-d century, inform us of how the martyr Saturus took a ring from the finger of Pudens, a soldier who was looking on, and gave it back to him as a keepsake, covered with his own blood.

Knowing, as we do, that in the pagan days of Rome every flamen Dialis (i. e., a priest specially consecrated to the worship of Jupiter) had, like the senators, the priv- ilege of wearing a gold ring, it would not be surprising to find evidence in the fourth century that rings were worn by Christian bishops. But the various pas- sages t hat have been appealed to, to prove this, are either not authentic or else are inconclusive. St. Augustine indeed speaks of his seal- ing a letter with a ring (Ep. ccxvii, in P. L., XXXIII, 227), but on the other hand his contemporary Possidius ex'pressly states that Augustine himself wore no ring (P. L., XXXII, 53), whence we are led to conclude that the possession of a signet does not prove the use of a ring as part of the episcopal insignia. However, in a Decree of Pope Boniface IV (a. d. 610) we hear of monks raised to the episcopal dignity as anulo pontificali subarrhalis, while at the Fourth Council of Toledo, in 633, we are told that if a bishop has been deposed from his office, and is afterwards reinstated, he is to receive back stole, ring, and crosier {orarium, anulum el baculum). St. Isidore of Seville at about the same period couples the ring with the crosier and declares that the former is conferred as "an emblem of the pontifical dignity or of the sealing of secrets" (P. L., LXXXIII, 783). From this time forth it may be assumed that the ring was strictly speaking an episcopal ornament conferred in the rite of consecration, and that it was commonly regarded as emblematic of the betrothal of the bishop to his Church. In the eighth and ninth centuries in MSS. of the Gregorian Sacramen- tary and in a few early Pon- tificals (e.g., that attributed to Archbishop Egbert of York) we meet with various formula? for the delivery of the ring. The Gregorian form, which survives in sub- stance to the jjresent day, runs in these terms: "Re- ceive the ring, that is to say the seal of faith, whereby thou, being thyself adorned with spotless faith, mayst keep unsullied the troth which thou hast pledged to the spouse of God, His holy Church."

These two ideas — namely of the seal, indicative of discretion, and of conjugal fidelity — dominate the symbolism attaching to the ring in nearly all its liturgical uses. The latter idea was pressed so far in the case of bishops that we find ecclesiastical decrees enacting that "a bishop deserting the Church to which he was consecrated and transferring himself to another is to be held guilty of adultery and is to be visited with the same penalties as a man who, forsaking his own wife, goes to live with another woman" (Du Saussay, "Panoplia episcopalis", 250). It was perhaps this idea of espousals which helped

Silver ring of Leubatius, Abbot op Senaparia, Gaul