Symbols of ring, staff, mitre and gloves are not used at the present day in the consecration of archbishops and bishops of the Church of England. The delivery of the _pastoral staff_ in the Roman pontificate was preceded by its consecration, and followed by the consecration and putting on of a _ring_ in token of his marriage to the church; and of a _mitre_, as an helmet of strength and salvation, that his face being adorned, and his head (as it were) armed with the _horns_ of both Testaments, may appear terrible to the adversaries of the truth, as also in imitation of the ornaments of Moses and Aaron; and of _gloves_, in token of clean hands and breast to be preserved by him.[138] The episcopal ring, and which is thus esteemed a pledge of the spiritual marriage between the bishop and his church, was used at a remote period. The fourth Council of Toledo, held in 633, appoints that a bishop condemned by one council and found afterwards innocent by a second should be restored by giving him the ring, staff, etc.[139] From bishops, the custom of the ring has passed to cardinals, who are to pay a large sum for the right to use a ring as such. Perhaps this arises from the fact that cardinals and prelates do not, strictly, belong to the hierarchy. A bishop, like a pope, receives a gold ring, set with a green gem. Sometimes an abbot of a convent is invested with a ring, but this is said only to occur when he possesses a bishop’s powers. Solid gold rings are frequently found in tombs of abbots and bishops.[140] In a description of the finger-ring found in the grave of the venerable Bede, it is said, that no priest, during the reign of Catholicity in England, was buried or enshrined without his ring. This, however, has been questioned.[141] High dignitaries of the Church do not appear to have restricted themselves to a single ring. On the hands of the effigy of Cardinal Beaufort in Winchester Cathedral, there are gloves fringed with gold and having an oval-shaped jewel on the back; while on the middle and third fingers of each hand are rings worn over the gloves. [Illustration: (Bishop Bitton Ring)] In new paving and beautifying of Exeter Cathedral in England, a leaden coffin was found of a Bishop Bitton, who died in 1307.[142] Near the bones of the finger was discovered a sapphire ring set in gold, in the centre of which was engraved a hand with the two forefingers extended in the attitude of benediction. This extension of the two forefingers, in company with the thumb, must have been often observed in Catholic pictures. We see it in the painting of the Virgin and Child in the Düsseldorf collection now in New-York. The thumb and the first two fingers have always been reserved as symbols of the three persons of the Trinity.[143] When a bishop gives his blessing, he blesses with the thumb and first two fingers. Sepulchral monuments bear witness of this fact.