The oldest formula used at the conferring of the pontifical ring upon a bishop, is found in the Sacramental of St. Gregory, 590 A.D. and, translated into English, runs as follows: “Receive this ring of distinction and honor, a symbol of faith, that thou mayst seal what is to be sealed, and reveal what is to be revealed, and that to believers baptized into the faith, who have fallen but are penitent, thou mayst by the mystery of reconciliation open the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven.” A much shorter formula is that in the Pontifical of Ecgberht, Archbishop of York; it reads: “Receive the ring of the pontifical honor that thou mayst be endowed with sound faith.” At present the following simple formula is used: “Receive the ring of faith as a sign that thou wilt guard the Bride of God, Holy Church, with undaunted faith.” A very early mention of the true episcopal rings is to be found in the writings of Isidore, Archbishop of Seville from 601 to 636 A.D.[427] He definitely states that the ring was one of the canonical insignia of the episcopate and terms it “a sign of pontifical honor, or a seal of secrets,” adding that priests must keep many secrets confided to them hidden in their breasts as though beneath a seal.[428] At about the same time a decree of Pope Boniface IV, promulgated in the third council of Rome, in 610, mentions a pontifical ring, and in the fourth council of Toledo, in December, 633, a canon treating of the restitution to his office of an unjustly deposed bishop, directs that he be given anew his stole, his ring, and his pastoral staff.[429] The liturgical kissing of a bishop’s hand usually means a kiss impressed upon the ring he is wearing at the ceremony. That in the works of Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz (786–856), and in those of others of his time, no mention is made of episcopal rings of investiture, cannot be taken to prove that none were worn in this period, but only that they were not yet in general use.[430] The distinct evidence contained in the canon of the Council of Toledo, over which Isidore of Seville presided in 633, and the still earlier formula of investiture in the Sacramental of Gregory, 590 A.D., must be accepted as conclusive evidence that such rings were conferred.