(Vol. vi., p. 603.)
SIR W. C. T. has opened a very interesting field for inquiry regarding
these blest rings.
St. Edward, in his last illness (obiit January 5, 1066), gave a ring which
he wore to the Abbot of Westminster. The origin of this ring is surrounded
by much mystery. A pilgrim is said to have brought it to the king, and to
have informed him that St. John the Evangelist had made known to the donor
that the king's decease was at hand. "St. Edward's ring" was kept for some
time at Westminster Abbey, as a relic of the saint, and was applied for the
cure of the falling sickness or epilepsy, and for cramp. From this arose
the custom of our English kings, who were believed to have inherited St.
Edward's powers of cure, solemnly blessing every year rings for
distribution.
It is said, we know not on what authority, that the ring did not always
remain at Westminster, but that in the chapel of Havering (so called from
_having the ring_), in the parish of Hornchurch, near Rumford in Essex
(once a hunting-seat of the kings), was kept, till the dissolution of
religious houses, the identical ring given by the pilgrim to St. Edward.
Weaver says he saw it represented in a window of Rumford Church.
These rings seem to have been blessed for two different species of cure:
first, against the falling sickness (comitialis morbus); and, secondly,
against the cramp (contracta membra). For the cure of the king's evil the
sovereign did not bless rings, but continued to _touch_ the patient. {89}
Good Friday was the day appointed for the blessing of the rings. They were
often called "medijcinable rings," and were made both of gold and silver;
and as we learn from the household books of Henry IV. and Edward IV., the
metal they were composed of was what formed the king's offering to the
cross on Good Friday. The following entry occurs in the accounts of the 7th
and 8th years of Henry IV. (1406): "In oblacionibus Domini Regis factis
adorando Crucem in capella infra manerium suum de Eltham, die Parascevis,
in precio trium nobilium auri et v solidorum sterlyng, xxv s.
"In denariis solutis pro eisdem oblacionibus reassumptis, pro annulis
medicinalibus inde faciendis, xxv s."
The prayers used at the ceremony of blessing the rings on Good Friday are
published in Waldron's _Literary Museum_. Cardinal Wiseman has in his
possession a MS. containing both the ceremony for the blessing the cramp
rings, and the ceremony for the touching for the king's evil. At the
commencement of the MS. are emblazoned the arms of Philip and Mary: the
first ceremony is headed, "Certain prayers to be used by the quenes heignes
in the consecration of the crampe rynges." Accompanying it is an
illumination representing the queen kneeling, with a dish, containing the
rings to be blessed, on each side of her. The second ceremony is entitled,
"The ceremonye for y^e heling of them that be diseased with the kynges
evill;" and has its illumination of Mary kneeling and placing her hands
upon the neck of the diseased person, who is presented to her by the clerk;
while the chaplain, in alb and stole, kneels on the other side. The MS. was
exhibited at a meeting of the Archæological Institute on 6th June, 1851.
Hearne, in one of his manuscript diaries in the Bodleian, lv. 190.,
mentions having seen certain prayers to be used by Queen Mary at the
blessing of cramp rings. May not this be the identical MS. alluded to?
But, to come to W. C. T.'s immediate question, "When did the use of these
blest rings by our sovereigns cease?" The use never ceased till the change
of religion. In addition to the evidence already given of the custom in the
fifteenth century, may be added several testimonies of its continuance all
through the sixteenth century. Lord Berners, when ambassador to the Emperor
Charles V., writing "to my Lord Cardinal's grace" from Saragossa, June 31,
1518, says, "If your grace remember me with some crampe ryngs, ye shall doo
a thing muche looked for; and I trust to bestowe thaym well with goddes
grace." (_Harl. MS._ 295. f. 119. See also Polydore Virgil, _Hist._ i. 8.;
and Harpsfield.) Andrew Boorde, in his _Introduction to Knowledge_,
mentions the blessing of these rings: "The kynges of England doth halow
every yere crampe rynges, y^e which rynges worne on one's finger doth helpe
them whych hath the crampe:" and again, in his _Breviary of Health_, 1557,
f. 166., mentions as a remedy against the cramp, "The kynge's majestie hath
a great helpe in this matter, in halowing crampe ringes, and so given
without money or petition."
A curious remnant or corruption of the use of cramp rings is given by Mr.
G. Rokewode, who says that in Suffolk "the use of cramp rings, as a
preservative against fits, is not entirely abandoned. Instances occur where
nine young men of a parish each subscribe a crooked sixpence, to be moulded
into a ring, for a young woman afflicted with this malady." (_History,
&c._, 1838, Introd. p. xxvi.)