BEADS

or BEDES. A word of Saxon origin, which properly signifies prayers ; hence Bidding the Bedes meant desiring the prayers of the congregation, and from the forms used for this purpose before the Reformation is derived the Bidding of prayer , prescribed by the English canons of 1603. (See Bidding Prayer .) From denoting the prayers themselves, the word came to mean the little balls used by the Romanists in rehearsing and numbering their Ave-marias and Paternosters. (See Rosary .) A similar practice prevails among the dervises and other religious persons throughout the East, as well Mahometans as Buddhists and other heathens. The ancient form of the Bedes, or Bidding Prayer, is given in the Appendix to Collier’s Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. No. 54, which shows that our present Bidding Prayer was founded on that model.