Oath, conferment and power – Symbolism of the master’s ring

In the conferment of degrees, master’s graduands receive the right to wear the master’s ring as an insignia of their degree. The ring as a token of the status of master has a longer history than the laurel wreath. The master’s ring is a golden or gold-coloured ring, worn during the degree conferral ceremony on the forefinger of the left hand, over the glove.  Different jewellers sell rings adorned with a laurel garland and Apollo’s lyre (the emblem of the University of Helsinki), but this design established itself only in the 19th century. 

Until the 19th century, Finnish doctoral graduands received a ring after the model of Swedish universities. For example, a doctor’s ring from the conferment ceremony of the Faculty of Theology in 1818 has been preserved in the collections of Helsinki University Museum. Today jewellers have in their catalogues various master’s ring designs from different universities and their faculties, in the same way as hat makers have the cockades for the doctoral hats of different universities and faculties. Originally, master's rings were simple wide golden bands, such as the rings from the 18th century preserved in the University Museum collection. No specifications existed for the rings, which is why surviving sources also occasionally feature rings with gemstones. Such rings were condemned by chancellors and popes as ostentatious and extravagant.  Gold was chosen as the material for the rings because it is eternal; it does not oxidise or tarnish like silver or copper.  Also, the colour gold is symbolically associated with the sun and light, just like the laurel wreath of the sun god Apollo (see the article on the laurel wreath). 

At the conferment of degrees, the ring is worn over the glove, and the conferrer touches it with their left hand (also wearing their ring on the left hand) when conferring the graduand with their degree. With this act, the conferrer blesses the ring and incorporates it and its bearer into the lineage of master's degree holders that ideologically extends back to the early universities in 12th century Bologna. In Bologna, the conferment of degrees, the Inceptio, included the bestowal of a book, a hat (pileus, see the article on the doctoral hat), a ring and a pair of gloves upon master’s graduands. The gloves served as a sign of clerical status, and the ring was worn over the glove in the ceremony. The gloves distinguished those wearing them from the everyday world and indicated that they were not manual workers. 

The origins of master’s rings are the same as for the rings worn by various professionals and qualification holders, such as engineers. In mediaeval guilds, master craftsmen wore a ring to show that they were independent and fully qualified experts and practitioners of their trade, free from the authority and liability of their former master. Hence, the ring signified social and occupational status. It also denoted that its wearer had sworn the masters’ oath committing them to the rules and decisions of the community of masters. Breaching the oath meant losing the title of master, and the ring was destroyed in a ritual, revealing to the community that its bearer had breached their oath and was now an outcast.  Today, the tradition of the mediaeval guilds and their rings continues, for example, among the Freemasons who wear special rings to indicate their membership in a lodge and involvement in rituals and secrets.  

The master’s graduand’s name and the date of conferment are engraved inside the ring. The master’s ring is worn on the forefinger of the left hand, the left being the side of the heart, while the forefinger symbolises pointing, teaching and authority. In the Middle Ages and for a long time after, the forefinger was used as an aid in reading. This phenomenon can be seen in the French royal sceptre, which featured as its finial a pointing index finger. A modern equivalent is the yad pointer, or stylus, used in synagogues in the ceremonial reading of the Torah. By using a pointer the reader avoided touching the text and smearing the page with their finger. 

 A conferrer must be a person who has been conferred their master’s or doctor’s degree in a conferment ceremony (by a conferrer having gone through the same ceremony). Should a person to be appointed as the conferrer lack this background, an individual ceremony will be arranged to confer the required degrees and qualify them for their role as the conferrer in a conferment ceremony.  

The master’s ring worn at the conferment ceremony need not be golden nor purchased for the occasion; instead, any gold-coloured ring fits the purpose. Master's graduates who have received the right to bear the insignia of their degree by participating in a conferment ceremony may purchase the ring later at any point in their lives. However, the jeweller might verify from the university whether the person is question has participated in a conferment ceremony and is thus entitled to the ring. After the conferment of degrees is over, the graduand can wear the ring under the glove if they fear it might fall off and be lost, especially if they have borrowed a ring which may not fit them perfectly. 

Since ancient Sumer, rings have served as insignia, with signet rings used to impress clay seals on merchandise and letters.  With the spread of literacy, the name of the king, priest or merchant could be engraved on the ring to mark ownership or sovereign right. As it bears and indicates a name and insignia, the ring came to signify social position and agency. Besides their social and societal function, very early on, rings became instruments of magical, religious and other powers. For example, they were believed to prevent the soul from escaping the body or to work like magic knots in obstructing evil spirits from entering the body during the night.  In ancient Rome, a golden ring was the sign of the class of senators and elite cavalry (equites). In the Greek world too, rings had a significant symbolic function, in addition to which they were part of the magic tradition of dactylomancy, which involved using rings for divination from text or letters.  

Spells and quotations from scriptures were engraved on rings to protect their owners from evil forces or for other magical purposes. The use of rings as magical instruments to control spirits passed from the high cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia to the Jewish and Islamic tradition in the form of the ring of King Solomon. According to legend, the King of Israel used this ring to subjugate and control various demons and other spirits, including the jinn familiar from One Thousand and One Nights. The ring’s visible location on the hand served as an effective signal to other people in the same way as special clothes and headgear. The ring is a sphere with no beginning or end, making it a symbol of eternity.  This infinitude was believed to endlessly repeat the spell or prayer engraved in the ring. Speeches by academics at conferment ceremonies connect the sphere of the ring and the round shape of the modern doctoral hat with the circle of knowledge, the encyclopaedic and comprehensive coverage of knowledge and learning of all walks of life. Rings as magical objects have since transferred to modern popular imagery with, for example, the Ring of Polycrates in Herodotus's History, the Ring of Gyges in Plato’s Republic, the Ring of the Nibelung in Richard Wagner’s four-opera cycle, and most famously, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. 

The connection of rings with oaths, such as marital oaths, oaths sworn by Viking warriors (hird), or oaths taken by apprentices to the masters’ guild, derives from Germanic peoples in the period following the fall of Western Roman Empire. In the Germanic culture, divine temples housed special rings used for taking a sacred ring oath (baugeith) in front of the gods. Breaching the oath resulted in being judged by the gods who had confirmed the oath. The person who breached their oath and broke their word lost the trust of their community for good. Mentions of this Germanic custom have been preserved in the Old Norse Eddic poem Hávamál, with the god Odin swearing a ring oath. When the Christian faith spread to the Nordic countries, oath rings were transferred to churches. Some such samples have been preserved in Sweden and Norway.  

In the Catholic Church, the ring has been the episcopal emblem at least since the 7th century, when Pope Boniface IV decreed that the regalia of priests appointed as bishops be a stole, ring and crozier. The ring symbolised the apostolic power received from the pope, as well as initiation into sacred secrets and sealing such secrets. At the same time, the ring was a token of the bishop’s dedication to serve the Church. The most famous episcopal ring is the Ring of the Fisherman belonging to the pope’s regalia. The ring makes reference to Saint Peter being known as the “fisher of men” in the New Testament.  The ring is presented to the pope in his inauguration, and when he dies, the ring is destroyed in a ceremony. Later the custom of wearing a ring spread from bishops down to monasteries and religious orders. When monks and nuns took their vows, they received a ring as a sign of betrothal to Christ, or living in a symbolic marriage with the church.  It is possible that the model for papal rings came from the Early Christian habit of wearing rings claimed to be relics of the shackles of Apostle Peter. This formed the connection to the first apostle, who, according to the New Testament, received the keys of the kingdom of heaven from Jesus. The association between rings and universities traces back to the rings of Catherine of Alexandria, a patron saint of universities. The rings of this saint known for her learning are kept in Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai and continue to be considered powerful sacred objects. Hairs and other relics of saints and martyrs were also sealed into rings so they could be carried.  

Using a ring to denote a symbolic marriage with the church spread to wider use in Europe, one example being ritualistic marriages with the sea. The most famous of these was the annual Festa della Sensa celebrated in the Republic of Venice. In the celebration, the doge was taken in the bucentaur out of the city lagoon to the Adriatic Sea, where he ceremoniously threw a golden ring into the waves as a sign of Venice’s marriage to the sea.  One of the most cherished relics in the Republic of Venice was a ring, which according to legend was given to a fisherman by Saint Mark the Evangelist to testify to the truth of the story the fisherman was to tell to the doge and the senators. In the legend, the fisherman testified how the Evangelist, Saint George and other saints drove the tidal wave raised by the devil from the mouth of Lagoon. The tradition of the marriage of the sea broke with the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797 when Napoleon conquered Italy, but has been revived in the 20th century with the mayor of Venice ceremoniously throwing the ring. In the 1920s, a similar ritual took place in Gdańsk (previously German Danzig) after the city was annexed to Poland, re-establishing the country’s access to the Baltic Sea. In the harbour of this old Hanseatic town, the Polish president threw a ring into the waves of the Baltic Sea to mark the union between Poland and the sea. 

In the conferment of degrees, master’s graduands are betrothed to scholarship, wisdom and truth, committing themselves to serving these ideals and joining the community of master’s degree holders. Until the 1850s, Finnish conferment ceremonies also included an oath taken by master’s graduands, with their fingers placed on the beadles’ sceptres. This custom, along with delivering a large part of the ceremony in Latin, had to be relinquished with the growing number of graduands to expedite the conferment of degrees. In Finland, the ring remains a symbol reserved for master’s graduands, whereas in Sweden the conferment of master’s degrees in such ceremonies was discontinued in the 1870s and the ring was adopted as a symbol of doctoral graduates. In the 20th century, master’s rings have experienced a revival in some Swedish and Anglo-Saxon universities.