The Plague, the Rosary and the Reformation

I've started watching a DVD on the rosary which I picked up at our local Catholic bookstore. I'm not a practitioner but I strongly suspect I should be.

It's filmed inside a church with the priest speaking from the pulpit to a visible congregation. So far I'm only about third of the way through it with another hour to go.

I got a bit sceptical when the priest made the comment the devil used the plague to almost obliterate the use of the rosary. When monasteries and churches were infected with the plague they were often burnt as a form of quarantine and the religious artifacts and documents went up in flames.

However he made the point the second part of the Rosary "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death" was a consequence of the Black Death. There was a very real chance of dying right "now". Prior to the plague the Rosary was composed of Gabriel's greeting to Mary and Elizabeth's response when she visited.

How the Black Plague changed the “Hail Mary” prayer

At first the prayer was known as the “Salutation of the Blessed Virgin,” and only consisted of the two initial verses joined together. However, during the Black Plague (also known as the "Black Death") the prayer was further developed and a second part was added to it.

aleteia.org

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen explains this origin in his book The World’s First Love.

Since it seizes upon the two decisive moments of life: “now” and “at the hour of our death,” it suggests the spontaneous outcry of people in a great calamity. The Black Death, which ravaged all Europe and wiped out one-third of its population, prompted the faithful to cry out to the Mother of Our Lord to protect them at a time when the present moment and death were almost one.

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But it also seemed the Black Death had a role in building the modern West. The labour force was so greatly reduced that workers could ask for higher wages. The feudal system was shaken to the core, and the church lost a higher percentage of it's religious than the general population as the priests, monks and nuns were often caring for the sick and dying themselves. The ones who survived tended to be those who hadn't taken their duties so seriously which meant there was a decline in religous standards amongst other things, which was one of the factors leading to the Reformation.

It also drove the Italian Renaissance which was a factor in papal corruption, although that was nothing new. The artwork in the Vatican was not always due to papal piety.


But my other argument with the priest saying the devil used the Black Death to try to destroy the Rosary is "what was God during this appalling period?"