Bēad'-rōll, n.

(Rom. Cath. Church.) A catalogue of persons, for the rest of whose souls a certain number of prayers are to be said or counted off on the heads of a chaplet; hence, a catalogue in general. “Fame’s eternal bead-roll.” Spenser.

It is quite startling, on going over the bead-roll of English worthies, to find how few are directly represented in the male line. Quart. Rev.