354 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUHEUM. vol. xxxvi. 



The number and arrangement of the beads were, however, not 

 always uniform. Representations on tombs from the fourteenth to 

 the sixteenth centuries exhibit rosaries divided into nines, sevens, 

 sixes, and fives. On some the chaplets count 80, 75, 40, or 33 beads, 

 often without divisions of any kind. . 



Besides the " Dominican " rosaiy, or the " Marian Psalter," de- 

 scribed above, which is used in common by all Catholics, there are 

 other varieties of chaplets used by particular religious bodies, or for 

 special devotions. So the chaplet of St. Bridget of Sweden, which 

 consists of 63 beads for the aves, to commemorate the 63 years which 

 Mary is supposed to have lived, divided by seven beads for the paters, 

 the crown of Our Lady, in use among the Franciscans, has 72 aves, 

 based on another tradition of Mary's age, and others more. 



During the middle ages the patenotriers, paternosterers, i. e., makers 

 of rosaries, represented an important branch of industry. In Lon- 

 don a street. Paternoster lane, was called after them. In Rome there 

 is still a street, near St. Peters, called Via Dei Coronari — corona 

 being a variety of pater noster, or rosar}'. The existence of the name 

 in various countries shows that the j^roduction of the rosary was a 

 matter of commercial importance. Considerable artistic skill and 

 costly material went into the manufacture of these instruments of 

 joiety, which were also worn as pei'sonal ornaments. In the inventory 

 of the plate and jewels of Charles V, King of France, in 1380, there 

 are enumerated 19 rosaries made of rose-tinted amber, jet, coral 

 with pearls for markers (seignauU), gold beads, rings of gold, blue 

 and white enamel, jet beads with eleven gold crosslets [croizettes) , 

 black amber and pearls, coral alternating with beads of silver, and 

 tw^o instances of gold beads of Damascus work which were filled with 

 musk. So, again, in the inventory of the Princess of Orleans, Valois, 

 in 1408, there are entered a rosary of amethysts and jasper with a stud 

 {houton) of pearls, another of jet with nine little bells {dandins) of 

 gold and a jewel with nine pearls as a pendant, and another again 

 of jet with nine gold markers and a gold figurine of St. Christopher 

 attached. Analogous to the attachment of keys, tweezers, etc., to the 

 Tibetan rosary, various objects, such as. signet rings, cameos, brooches 

 were often suspended from the Christian rosar}^ in the middle ages. 

 As a consequence a certain worldliness and extravagance entered into 

 the use of these objects of devotion, which the authorities tried to 

 check. Thus the municipal council of Regensburg, in 1485, decreed 

 that none should possess more than three or four rosaries, and that 

 these should not exceed the value of 10 gulden." And various monastic 



<» Compare Johannes Janssen. Geschiclite des dentschen Volkes seit dem Aus- 

 gang des Mittelalters, Freiburg i. B., I, Sth edition, 18S3, p. .377. Janssen adds : 

 "As three fat oxen could then be purchased for 12 gulden, this seems a pretty 

 generous allowance." 



