Twelve Days reader challenge

The story that The Twelve Days of Christmas is a coded catechism lesson Jesuits taught to kids in Elizabethan times is a nice story, and one that would make me like the song more, but I can't help thinking that it just doesn't seem all that plausible.

To begin with, in terms of doctrinal detail, Anglicanism (back then) wasn't all that different from Catholicism.  The C of E ended up - arguably not on purpose - ended up being de facto a Protestant denomination, but they did not start out by trying to throw out huge swaths of Christian doctrine like the Lutherans and Puritans, just ("just") bucking the jurisdiction of the pope and later getting rid of the sacrifice-language from the priestly ordination rite.  To this day there are Anglicans who hold onto ritual confession to a priest, and their ministers consider themselves to be priests (although we do not recognize the validity of their orders).  Why would you need to camouflage teaching about the Crucifixion, the Five Wounds, the Gospels, the Apostles, the Beatitudes and so forth from Anglicans so as not to be persecuted?  Maybe from some of the current ones (ha ha), but not the old-school back-in-the-day ones.

So maybe if it wasn't that, maybe it is one of those things where ordinary objects are used to stand for Christian themes, like the old Deck of Cards thing.  Considering the Hebrew (and Greek) heritage, it is not surprising that every number from one to twelve has mystic significance, so this part is more likely than the underground Jesuit thing (although the underground Jesuits were awesome).  But are the items well suited to represent the things that their number corresponds to?  The Cross is sometimes called a tree, but why pear and why a partridge?  A pair of turtledoves is in Luke 2:24, but do they typically symbolize the Scriptures?  How are French hens like the theological virtues?  Five golden rings seems good for the Five Wounds, but others?  How are the Beatitudes like maids a-milking?

Here is the challenge: Level 1 - provide evidence for or against the underground catechism theory (other than snopes.com).  Level 2 - provide evidence for or against the fitness of the items for the things the numbers stand for.

Comments

[PeterTerp]

According to Joseph F. Kelly's book, The Origins of Christmas, the secret code of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is just a "cyber hoax."
I'd be happier if the book had more footnotes and citation, but it's a fairly interesting read on the evolution of modern Christmas starting with canonical and apocryphal infancy narratives.