medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Elina Gertsman wrote:
>
> Off the top of my head: certainly, Hail Mary was prayed by lay people
> in Latin in the fourteenth century; in fact, wasn't there an
> indulgence instituted for saying the prayer multiple times at the
> ringing of the bells? You see "Ave Maria gratia plena" inscribed in
> numerous fourteenth-century images of the Annunciation; the
> speculation here is that laymen praying before these images would
> repeat the salutation/prayer outloud, together with Gabriel, as it
> were.
I'd be incline to disagree - although I suppose the point about the Hail
Mary depends on when the Ave Maria got attached to the Rosary (when a
Paternoster became a Rosary, I suppose - a subject about which I am totally
ignorant...)
We had a discussion about the Apostles' Creed a few years back, and someone
came up with an early injunction for parish clergy to instruct the laity in
memorising the Lord's Prayer and Apostles' Creed in the vernacular. By the
14th century you have MS Primers in English, although the purpose of them is
a trifle obscure. But the illiterate (by which I think we mean those who
didn't know Latin) were expected to recite the Lord's Prayer etc, if they
couldn't follow the Latin of services, and if they did it in Latin it would
kinda defeat the object of the exercise...
John Briggs
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