The “Fisherman’s Ring,” or Annulus Piscatoris, is the gold seal ring of the pope, a new one being made for each successive pontiff. As testified to by early records, the custom of breaking the ring on the death of a pope has long obtained. After the attending physicians have pronounced him to be dead, the Cardinal Camerlengo, or Papal Chamberlain, approaches the body, and taps it thrice with a golden hammer, each time calling on the pope by name. The ring is then handed by him to the papal master of ceremonies, who breaks it; he is permitted, or perhaps required, to keep the fragments. The design on the seal depicts St. Peter seated in a bark and holding a net in each hand, the name of the reigning pope being inscribed above. The ring takes its name from the words of Christ to Peter, after the latter made the miraculous draught of fishes (Luke, v, 10): “From henceforth thou shalt catch men.” In Mark i, 17, a similar 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.” [Illustration: FIVE VIEWS OF THE RING OF POPE PIUS II (ÆNEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, 1457–1464) On the sides of the hoop are the coats-of-arms of the Piccolomini and Tiara families, and below the bezel are figures symbolical of the Four Evangelists Albert Figdor Collection, Vienna] [Illustration: “Ring of the fisherman” Fairholt’s “Rambles of an Artist”] [Illustration: Hand of “Judith” from picture by Lucas Cranach: Rings beneath glove-fingers slit to give them room] [Illustration: Impression of the Annulus Piscatoris (Ring of the Fisherman) of Pope Clement VIII (1592–1605) Archæologia, vol. xl, p. 140] 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.