The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-05-02

I1O1y M0t1A0 Va OhO 4AOAJ
Cross, and, lastly, Mathis of our
Lady" True, this was the practice
of one whom the Church has placed
upon her affairs; but it is none the
less fact that many, many men and
women thought it no hard thing to
take daily part in the Divine Of
fees of the Church; and this, too
when the hearing of Mass, or even
of several Masses, every morning was
the general rule.
Later on, when cruel laws had
made invocation to our Lady a penal
offence in England, once her favoured
Dover, there were not wanting cour-
ageous Catholics who met together in
secret to recite her Office. That such
was indeed the case is proved beyond
doubt by the register of criminal
proceedings" taken after the second
unsuccessful rising in the Northern
countries, A. D. 1869, against all who
were suspected of any prediction
for the old Faith.
Devotional JeweIry.
During the Ages of Faith, inscrip-
tions on ringsvsuch, for instance, as
Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judeorum, or
Ave Maria, gratia plena-were be-
lieved to possess a special virtue.
There was, moreover, one class of
rings having figures of our Lady and
the saints engraved upon them, which
would seem to have been quite pecu-
liar to England for authorities on
the subject tell us that no examples
of the same kind have been seen
elsewhere. These rings, however,
must have been extremely common,
judging by the frequent references to
them in the old wills still preserved.
One may still meet with rings in
scribed, o Mater Del, memento mel; or
with the Holy Names in Old English
characters, Jhseus, Maria; or with
Ave Maria, gratia plena. The last
inscription is often found on brooches,
as we'll as on bag-purses attached to
the belt, which were worn in those
days as they are now; though, unlike
our modern belt bags, the clasps often
bore the sacred monograms of our
Lord and His Blessed Mother.
In 1903 we find John Petty, Lord
Mayor of York, leaving to his daugh-
ter, Anne, "a pare corall beides"
(beads); cit was her mothers, with
rings and jewels" And, much earlier
1850, Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of
Warwick, bequeaths "a set of beads
of gold and a ring" Brooches, or
"nouches," are also frequently men
toned as being attached to pairs of
beads. Thus, in 1861, Humphrey de
Bohun, Earl of Hereford, leaves to
his nephew "a nouche of gold sur
rounded with large pearls, a ruby be-
tween four pearls, three diamonds,
and a pair of gold Pater Nosters of
fifty pieces with ornaments, together
with cross of gold, in which is a
piece of the True Cross of Our Lore"
Again, the Earl of Warwick, above
mentioned, speaks in his will of an
other "set of gold beads with buckles,
which the Queen gave me-" And OF
Dame Eglentine, the accomplished
prioress, Chaucer tells us that
About her arm she bare
A paire of bedes, gauded all with
creme;
And thereon hung a brooch of gold
full shene,
On which there was first writ a
crowned A,
And after, Amor vincit omnia.
History of the Name "Rosary."
With regard to the name Rosary
"a charming one, by the way, and
equally so in it's German equivalent
of RosenkranZ,-it is scarcely neces-
sary to state that, before the six
teenth century, this word was seldom
if ever used to designate the beads
themselves. Nor was it even restrict
ed to the form of prayer said upon
the beads; for, in 1543, a small vol
ume, written in English but printed
in Antwerp, was called, "The mystic
sweet Rosary of the Faithful Soul,
garnished round about, as it were,
with fresh, fragrant flowers, accord
ing to the Truth of the Gospel, with
fifty pagans (pictures) of the Holy
Life and Passion of our Lord Jesu
Christ, with certain places of Holy
Scripture corresponding every pagen,
etc.
1t is worthy of note, in connection
with this subject, that the celebrated
Lansperg composed Rosary Of the
Fifty Joys of Our Lady,-or perhaps
it would be more correct to say he
recommended meditation on different
mysteries commemorating Our Lady's
Fifty Joys; and, though his name does
not appear, it is quite possible that
the small volume above mentioned
was the English version of his Ros
airy.
History tells us that Louis Blosius
composed a similar form of medita
ton, which went by the name of
Rosary. We know, moreover, that
during the Middle Agaes the term
"Rosarium" was very common title
for books, and "as SUCH" says a reli
able authority, "dates certainly from
the thirteenth century" Chaucer, il
his Canterbury Tales" alludes to the
famous Rosarium composed by Arnold
de Villanova, in Catalonia. This Ar
mold was a renowned physician, ant
doctor to Pope Boniface VIII, A. d
1294-1303. The poet thus refers tt