By Birmingham University PhD student Peter Hewitt.
‘When holy and devout religious men
Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence,
So sweet is zealous contemplation.’
Richard III, Act 3 Scene 7
The object I would like to introduce this week is a rosary, dating from about 1540. In the collection of the Trust, it is made up of 57 wooden beads, arranged in ‘decades’ (rows of ten small beads followed by a single larger bead). Each bead carries a pattern that has been carved or scraped into it using a gouging tool. They are strung together with a (modern) woven cord.
Rosary beads are essentially a kind of ‘prayer counter’ which could be used to tally the number of prayers said. This was particularly important for those who felt their prayers and good works directly effected how long their stay in Purgatory would be. The rosary had multiple uses and applications. It could simply be held in the hands or close to the face during prayer, or touched as it hung from a belt, or worn as a necklace. Prayer beads were used by both men and women and were extremely common in England until the mid sixteenth century, when such objects were rejected as a superstitious part of the ‘Popish’ religion.
They were many different kinds of rosary. This particular rosary consists of 50 Aves (or Hail Mary) and 6 paternosters (Lord’s Prayer). The user would recite the Lord’s Prayer when their fingers touched the first large bead; the fingers would then progress to the next smaller bead, lingering over each one whilst saying an Ave. This rosary would take around 15 minutes to recite and was understood as an effective penance (or act of remorse for sin) by the Roman Catholic Church.
These beads offer vivid material evidence of the ‘moments’ of personal devotion. Each has a large deep diagonal cut (see drawing, large grey area in centre of bead); the thumb can be pushed into this cut, and between thumb and forefinger rotated around the cord. This adds texture and detail to the experience of prayer: the finger may have traced these crudely cut lines in the pattern we see on each of the beads. It was not uncommon for one rosary bead to be hollow and contain fragrant herbs or spices; this was a variation of the pomander or ornate vessel for aromatic substances used to keep away disease after the Black Death. This rosary does not have a hollow bead, but it may have had a pomander attached to it together with a cross next to the larger bead near the knot.
This rosary illustrates the sensuality of personal devotion, and suggests why being ‘at their beads’ in ‘zealous contemplation’ was so sweet and absorbing for the faithful. If this rosary defies purely religious categorization—it could equally be seen as an object of adornment, for averting evil, as well as a medicinal remedy and perfumed ornament—it represents a category of object that we have lost touch with as a result of the religious changes of Shakespeare’s time.
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