plenum, nunc gravem, nunc acutum, nunc crebrum, nunc extensum," to educe some sort of musical sounds. The use of the trumpet, and of the hammer for knocking at the doors of the cells was confined to the monasteries, but the wooden boards were common to all the Eastern churches.* This custom, we believe, prevails in the Greek Church to the present day. It was not until the year 865, that bells found their way, for the first time, into the Christian East. In that year, Ursus Patricianus, Duke of Venice, presented some to the Emperor Michael, who built a tower for their reception in the Church of S. Sophia. But the use of bells never prevailed generally. The Turks themselves do not use them, and it is thought that they prevent the Greeks from doing so. The Turks, as is well known, are invited to prayer by the low plaintive chant of the muezzin, whose voice, wafted along by the gentle current of the evening air, would seem to be a mournful cry for mercy-a plaintive voice out of the deep of impurity and apostasy, witnessing to that "One GOD," Who yet is practically disowned. Tradition has ascribed the introduction of bells into the Latin Church, to S. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, in Campania, whence they are said to have derived the Latin names of Nola and Campanæ. If this be true, the period of their introduction would be the latter part of the fourth century; and this seems to be about the true date, although upon other grounds. For it is generally agreed at present, that the story about S. Paulinus rests upon no sufficient authority; on the contrary, there is a presumption that Paulinus was ignorant of the ecclesiastical use of bells, from this fact, that having founded a church at Nola, he describes it "very minutely in his twelfth epistle to Severus, but takes no notice of tower or bells, though he is exact in recounting all other lesser edifices belonging to his church; which, as Bona truly observes, is a shrewd argument, joined with the silence of all other ancient writers, to prove that he was not the inventor of them."† Others ascribe their introduction to Pope Sabinianus, A.D. 604, and Bingham so far supports this opinion as to conclude that they could not have come into use among Christians much before the seventh century. In this, however, he must be mistaken. It is certain that they were employed in the monasteries before that period. Bona is of opinion that they came into use about the time of the conversion of the empire to the Christian faith. He quotes the following story relative to S. Benedict. When S. Benedict, about A.D. 495, laid the foundation of the monastic profession in the cave of Sublacum, a Roman monk, from whom he had received the monastic habit, (sanctæ conversationis habitum,) was wont to bring him bread upon certain days, which he used to let down into the cave by a rope. But to the rope, says Gregory, lib. 2, dialog. cap. i., he fastened a small bell, (parvum * Bona, ut antea. † Bingham, Vol. II. P. 491. tintinnabulum,) that at the sound of it the man of GoD might know when the Roman brought him the bread." Bona likewise thinks that allusion is made to a bell, in the following Rule of S. Benedict, where he directs, "ad horam Divini Officii, mox ut auditum fuerit signum, relictis omnibus cum summa festinatione curratur." There are many notices of the signum or bell in the Lives of the Saints, some of which are quoted by Bona. But it appears to us that Mr. Petrie's researches into the history and origin of the Irish Round Towers, have placed the early introduction of bells into the Christian Church beyond all reasonable doubt. He is of opinion that "the Irish ecclesiastics had, from a very early period, in connection with their cathedral and abbey churches, campanilia or detached belfries." He also asserts that "it is perfectly certain that bells, much too large for altar bells, were abundantly distributed in Ireland by S. Patrick,"* who flourished towards the close of the fifth century. There was even in his time an ecclesiastical officer, called by the Irish aistire-ostiarius-whose peculiar duty it was to ring the bell in the steeple of the church, and some of these aistiri are mentioned by name in very ancient hagiographies.† Further, it can be proved by an abundance of historical evidence, that the Irish ecclesiastics, from the first introduction of Christianity into the country, possessed the art of manufacturing all the sacred utensils connected with Church, in an equal degree of excellence with the cotemporaneous ecclesiastics abroad. The three artificers of S. Patrick, Asicus, Biteus, and Tarrach, are noticed in most lives of that Bishop; and it is not improbable, Mr. Petrie adds, that specimens of their works may still remain. It is likewise mentioned in a life of an Irish Christian mechanic, S. Dageus, who flourished in the early part of the sixth century, that he used to make ingeniose ac mirabiliter, "bells, cymbals, croziers, crosses, shrines, chests, pixes, chalices, discs, little altars, chrismals, and book coverings, pro amore Dei, et sanctorum honore, sine ullo terreno pretio."‡ The use of bells and belfries became not uncommon in Ireland, during the sixth and seventh centuries, from which period allusions to them become frequent in the annals and the lives of the Saints. From all which we are justified in drawing the conclusion that the religious use of bells in the Latin Church existed and prevailed long before the time assigned to their introduction by Bingham, i.e., the sixth or seventh century. If S. Patrick distributed bells throughout Ireland so early as the fifth century, they must have been in use for some time previously in other parts of Petrie's Essay on the Origin, &c. of the Round Towers, p. 359. + Petrie, p. 380. ↑ Petrie, p. 201, from Colgan AA. SS. p. 374 and 733. Altariolum seems to be a rare word. It is explained in the Supplement to Du Cange's Gloss. to mean parvum altare, and only one reference is given to its use by a medieval writer. Chrismale est "vas ecclesiasticum, in quo Chrisma, seu sacrum oleum asservatur, præsertim sumitur pro vase in quo Christi corpus asservatur." the Church. He must have become acquainted with them in Britain, or in Gaul, or at Rome; and hence that opinion appears to be the best founded, which ascribes their introduction to the period at which the Roman empire became Christian. We proceed now to consider the different kinds of bells, and the uses to which they were applied during the medieval and later ages of the Church. We may learn the great variety of the purposes for which they were employed from the following monkish rhymes: "En ego campana, nunquam denuntio vana, Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum, From these lines we perceive that besides summoning the people to the public prayers, assembling the Clergy, and bewailing the dead, bells were further used to dissipate the winds, and to ward off severe thunder-storms. It was a pious belief during the middle ages, that these convulsions of the elements were brought about by the malicious wickedness of evil spirits; and that these evil spirits greatly dreaded the sound of consecrated bells. They were therefore employed upon all occasions in which it was thought probable that the interference of evil spirits might be expected: and especially in times of general sickness, and as we have said, to dispel impending storms. This custom of ringing bells in order to drive away threatening thunder-storms continued to prevail in continental countries until a very recent period. Mr. Gatty refers to the following event, related to have occurred in France, in the year 1718:- On Good Friday, there arose a most violent tempest, on a part of the coast of Brittany. Twenty-four churches were struck by lightning. And what is very remarkable, is, that the lightning fell only on the churches in which the bells were ringing, without touching many others in the neighbourhood, in which the custom of not ringing on Good Friday was observed. The writer," continues our author, "imagines that the storm-cloud was opened by the various sounds which ascended vertically and through the apertures thus made, the destructive element descended in an equally straight direction. But his faith in the physical virtue of bells was only confirmed by this untoward accident; for he concludes, that if rung before the clouds had united and condensed, the bells would have had the good effect of dissipating them, and thereby preventing any discharge of electricity." Brand quotes the following from Aubrey's Miscellanies:-"At Paris, when it begins to thunder and lighten, they do presently ring out the great bell at the Abbey of S. Germain, which they do believe makes it cease. The like was wont to be done heretofore in Wiltshire. When it thundered and lightened, they did ring S. Adelm's bell at Malmes bury Abbey. The curious do say that the ringing of bells exceedingly disturbs spirits."* He adds also on the authority of a Berlin newspaper, dated Nov. 3, 1783, that this custom was, with difficulty, abolished by the civil authorities. "His majesty, by a late ordinance, directs that the prohibition against ringing bells, &c. on such occasions, be read publicly in all the churches throughout his dominions." The rhymes quoted above do not notice one most awful use to which bells were applied in the medieval Church. They were always rung at the tremendous ceremony of the Excommunicatio Major-" the excommunication by bell, book, and candle." The Prelate standing in a pulpit, the cross being lifted up before him, and the candles lighted on both sides of it, denounced against the offender the terrible sentence of abscission from the Church of CHRIST. The sentence concluded in these words-" Fiat, Fiat. Do to the book: quench the candles: ring the bell: Amen, Amen." And then the book is clapped together, the candles blown out, and the bells rung, with a most dreadful noise made by the congregation present, bewailing the accursed persons concerned in that black doom denounced against them. It may be here observed that from an early period bells were used in the ceremonies which accompanied solemn anathemas and denunciations. A learned antiquarian mentions, that "the ancient Irish saints were accustomed to curse the offending chieftains while sounding their bells with the tops of their croziers."+ These bells were of a small size, and were carried in the hand. It would appear that the sole weapon which the Irish ascetics could employ against the lawless tyranny of the chieftains was the terror of their curse. When the Church of England publicly observed all the seven hours of prayer, her people were called together at the different times of devotion by the ringing of the bell. There was the Matin, the Vesper, the Compline, the Angelus, and other bells. In addition to these was the Sanctus bell-many of which are still to be found in our old churches, and which was rung at that part of the Mass where the Priest said, Sancte, Sancte, Sancte, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. These different bells are still in use among continental Churches. The Angelus is rung at three o'clock in the day: and devout persons, whose business prevents them from going to the church, generally pause for a few moments, and offer up a short prayer in union with their brethren in the House of GOD. Protestants travelling in Catholic countries have been greatly struck with this pious custom; and some have even recommended the introduction of a similar bell amongst ourselves, as a daily call to private prayer.‡ * Brand. Vol. II. p. 134 note. † O'Donovan. Battle of Magh-Rath. p. 138 note. See Mr. Hobart Seymour's "Pilgrimage to Rome," reviewed in our November Number. Besides the bells which summon her faithful children to the House of GOD, to join in prayer and praise, and the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the Church has long sanctioned the tolling of bells at different stages in man's journey towards eternity. In particular, we would direct attention to one, the use of which was suggested by a just sense of the exceeding awfulness of death, and by an anxious concern for the well-being of each Christian soul. The Passing Bell is so called, because it is directed to be rung while a soul is passing from the body that all who hear its solemn sound may offer up a prayer to GOD for the soul then going forth upon its lonely journey that it may escape the gates of hell, and be carried by the angels into the rest of Paradise. At what period this bell came into recognized use cannot be determined; but its great antiquity is generally admitted. All parts of the Latin Church enjoined the tolling of the Passing Bell; and our own Church amongst them. Its tolling, as our readers are aware, is specially directed in the 67th Canon and there is abundant evidence to prove, that the custom was not uncommonly observed, even so late as the early part of the eighteenth century. The English Reformers, although disposed to check, by every means, what they called "the superstitious ringing of bells," yet evidently laid stress upon the continuance of the Passing Bell. In "the advertisements for due order in the public administration of Common Prayer and Holy Sacraments," issued in the seventh year of Queen Elizabeth, we find the following injunction:-"Item: That when any Christian bodye is in passing that the bell be tolled, and that the curate be specially called for to comforte the sicke person, and after the tyme of his passinge to ringe no more but one shorte peale, and one before the buriall, and another shorte peale afther the buriall."* This injunction was afterwards embodied in our 67th Canon. It was customary for Archdeacons at their visitations to make inquiry upon this point. Brand gives us a few of their queries, which we have transcribed for the satisfaction of our readers:-Whether doth the clerk or sexton, when any one is passing out of this life neglect to toll a bell, having notice thereof: or the party being dead, doth he suffer any more ringing than one short peale, and before his burial one, and after the same another? Item. Whether there be any superstitious ringing? (Articles Visitat. Archdeac. Yorke, an. inc. not later than 1640.)-Doth the parish clerk or sexton take care to admonish the living by tolling a passing bell of any that are dying, thereby to meditate of their own deaths, and to commend the other's weak condition to the mercy of GOD? (Art. Vis. Dioc. Worcester, 1662.) Doth the parish clerk or sexton, when any person is passing out of this life, upon notice being given him thereof, toll a bell, as hath been accustomed, that the neighbours See Cardwell, Doc. Annals, vol. i. p. 292. |