The blessing of the wedding-ring is of ancient origin. The form prescribed for the ‘halowing’ is given in ‘The Doctrine of the Masse Booke from Wottonberge, by Nicholas Dorcaster,’ 1554: ‘Thou Maker and Conserver of mankinde, Gever of Spiritual Grace, and Grauntor of Eternal Salvation, Lord, _send thy + blessing upon this ring_, that she which shall weare it maye be armed wyth the virtue of heavenly defence, and that it may profit her to eternal salvation, thorowe Christ,’ etc. A prayer followed this: ‘+ halow Thou, Lord, this ring which we blesse in Thy holye Name, that what woman soever shall weare it, may stand fast in Thy peace, and continue in Thy wyll, and live, and grow, and wax old in Thy love, and be multiplied into the length of daies, thorow our Lord,’ etc. Rings were formerly placed on the missal book, with money at marriages; thus in the ‘Wardrobe Book,’ roll 18, of Edward the First, there is an entry of ‘money given to place upon the missal book, along with the ring with which she was married, 40_s._’ A similar entry occurs on the marriage of Margaret, fourth daughter of the same monarch, when the King gave sixty shillings to be placed on the missal with the spousal ring. The ‘heathenish origin,’ as it was termed, of the wedding-ring, led during the Commonwealth to the abolition of its use during weddings, and is thus referred to in Butler’s ‘Hudibras:’-- Others were for abolishing That tool of matrimony, a ring, With which the unsanctified bridegroom Is marry’d only to a thumb[57] (As wise as ringing of a pig, That’s used to break up ground and dig), The bride to nothing but her will That nulls the after-marriage still. This ‘heathenish’ origin may have been derived from the supposition that the ring was regarded as a kind of phylactery, or charm, and to have been introduced in imitation of the ring worn by bishops. ‘Though the Puritans,’ remarks Mr. Jeaffreson, in his ‘Brides and Bridals,’ ‘prohibited and preached against the ring, to the injury of goldsmiths, and the wrath of ring-wearing matrons, they did not succeed in abolishing the tool, or even in putting it so much out of fashion as some people imagined. Even Stephen Marshall, the Presbyterian minister of Finchingfield, Essex, when his party was most prosperous, married one of his lightly-trained daughters with the Book of Common Prayer and a ring; and gave this for a reason, that the statute establishing the Liturgy was not repealed, and he was loth to have his daughter turned back upon him for want of a legal marriage.’ The Rev. George Bull, subsequently Bishop of St. David’s, also in these Presbyterian times, who married a Miss Gregory, in defiance of tyrannical enactments used a wedding-ring with the motto: ‘Bene parere, parêre, parare det mihi Deus.’ (See chapter on ‘Posy, Motto, and Inscription Rings.’) The Puritan scruples against the wedding-ring were much criticised at the time:--