352 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxxvi. 



formed since the fifteenth century, is commonly explained as a meta- 

 phorical designation, meaning a wreath or chaplet of spiritual roses. 

 The corresponding words, corona, chaplet, Rosenkranz, capellina, 

 all convey the idea of a garland. Garlands of flowers were much 

 worn at that period, and it was also the custom to place such garlands 

 as a mark of respect or admiration upon the heads of persons or 

 statues." Rosarium was also not uncommonly used (like for'deyium) 

 in the sense of an anthology, or a collection of choice extracts. Others 

 trace the name to the title '' Mystical Rose," by which Mary is 

 addressed in the litany of Loretto, or to the beads being originally 

 made, commonly, of rosewood. In the middle ages many other names 

 were applied to prayer beads, as pater noster beads, jjatriloqiiium^ 

 devotiones, precaria, prectda (little prayers), sei'fa (chaplets), nii- 

 meralia, calcida, computuni (counters)., signacida (marks), etc. The 

 word "bead" (beade or bede) originally meant a prayer; to "bid 

 the beads " and to " pray " were synonymous. The expression " bedes 

 byddyng" is found in the Vision of Piers the Plowman. So, also, 

 Spenser in his Faerie Queene : 



All night she spent in bidding of her bedes 



And all the day in doing good and Godly deeds. 



In a bull of 1571 Pope Pius V (1566-1572) ascribes the inven- 

 tion of the " rosary, or Psalter of the Blessed Virgin," to St. Dominic 

 (1170-1231), the founder of the Dominican order. This has been 

 commonly understood of the string of beads, and the natural infer- 

 ence would be that the suggestion came to western Europe through 

 the crusaders, who observed the Mohammedans using their snhha. 

 Legend has it that the Virgin Mary handed St. Dominic a rosary 

 from heaven as a weapon against the Albigense heresy and the in- 



" A pretty story of a garland which is met with since the beginning of the 

 thirteenth century, and with which the Kev. Herbert Thurston, in the Scientific 

 American, already quoted, would connect the name " rosary," may find here a 

 place. The legend, as given by Father Thux'ston, is this: "A youth was ac- 

 customed to malve a wreath of roses or other flowers every day and to place it 

 upon the head of Our Lady's statue. He became a monk, and in the cloister 

 his occupations no longer permitted him to observe this pious practice. Being 

 much distressed, he asked counsel of an aged priest, who advised him to say 

 50 aves every evening (in some versions it is I.jO, in others 25), which would 

 be accepted by Our Lady in lieu of the garland. This the young mau faithfully 

 observed until one day, being upon a journey, he had to jiass through a lonely 

 wood where robbers were lying in wait. They were employed in watching him, 

 feeling sure of their prey, when he, unsuspicious of their presence, rememberetl 

 that his aves were not yet said and forthwith stopped to say them. Then to 

 their surprise the robbers saw a most glorious lady stand before him and take 

 one after another from the lips of the kneeling monk 50 beautiful roses, which 

 she wove into a garland and placed upon her head. The robbers, so the legend 

 tells, conscience stricken at the vision, were all converted to a better life, and 

 themselves soon after entered the monastery." 



