Praying by Number: The Confraternity of the Rosary and the English Catholic Community, c.1580–1700

Abstract

AbstractThe image of the rosary recurs as a constant and familiar sign throughout the sources of Reformation English Catholicism. It rarely elicits comment other than to mark it as an example of a remnant of late medieval devotion, which survived and continued to be practised by the recusant community. This article argues that such impressions of quiescence and continuity are deceptive. The devotion was revised and amended by the Jesuits in the light of Counter‐Reformation initiatives and teaching and specifically adapted to meet the particular conditions they encountered on the English mission. Newly refigured, the rosary was encoded and promoted among English Catholics within the context of the Confraternity of the Rosary. In this way, the Jesuits redeveloped the rosary both as a simple and effective didactic instrument which they used to bring Counter‐Reformation doctrine and practice into the heart of the English Catholic community, and as a symbol of Catholic loyalty to encourage Catholic separation and recusancy.