BELLS

Bells of a small size are very ancient, but larger ones are of a much later date. The lower part of the blue robe worn by the Jewish high priest was adorned with pomegranates and gold bells. The kings of Persia are said to have had the hem of their robes adorned in like manner. The high priest probably gave notice to the people, and also desired permi ion to enter the sanctuary, by the sound of these bells, and by so doing escaped the punishment of death annexed to an indecent intrusion. On the origin of church bells, Mr. Whitaker, in his “History of Manchester,” observes, that bells being used, among other purposes, by the Romans, to signify the times of bathing, were naturally applied by the Christians of Italy to denote the hours of devotion, and summon the people to church. “Bells,” says Nicholls, “were not in use in the first ages of Christianity. For, before the Christians received countenance from the civil power, they were called together by a me enger, who went about from house to house, some time before the hour the congregation met. After this they made use of a sounding plank hanging by a chain, and struck with a hammer. The precise time when bells first came in use is not known. Paul in us, bishop of Nola, in Camp an i a, in order to give notice to the most remote inhabitants when prayers began, hung up a large bra ve el, which, when struck upon by a hammer, gave such a sound as he desired for his purpose. This was about the year 420. Hence the two Latin names for a great bell— Nola , from the town; and Campana , from the country where they were first used.” But, whatever may be the connexion of bells with the city of Nola, there is no ground for referring the first use of them to Paul in us; Bingham pronounces the opinion to be “certainly a vulgar error.” Others say they took the latter of these names, not from their being invented in Camp an i a, but because it was there the manner of hanging and balancing them, now in use, was first practised; at least that they were hung on the model of a sort of balance invented or used in Camp an i a. The Greek Christians are usually said to have been unacquainted with bells till the ninth century, when their construction was first taught them by a Venetian. But it is not true that the use of bells was entirely unknown in the ancient Eastern churches, and that they called the people to church, as at present, with wooden mallets, like the clappers or cre elles , used instead of bells in many churches of the Romish communion, during the holy week. (See Cre elle .) Leo All at i us, in his Di ertation on the Greek Temples, proves the contrary from several ancient writers. He says bells first began to be disused among them after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks; who, it seems, prohibited them, lest their sound should disturb the repose of the souls which, according to them, wander in the air. In Britain, bells were used in churches before the conclusion of the seventh century, in the monastic societies of Nor thumb ria, and as early as the sixth, even in those of Caledonia. And they were therefore used from the first erection of parish churches among us. Those of France and England appear to have been furnished with several bells. In the time of Clothaire II., king of France, A. D. 610, the army of that king was frightened from the siege of Sens, by ringing the bells of St. Stephen’s Church. The second excerption of Egbert, about A. D. 750, which is adopted in a French capitulary of 801, commands every priest, at the proper hours, to sound the bells of his church, and then to go through the sacred offices to God . And the Council of Eanham, in 1009, requires all the mulcts for sins to be expended in the reparation of the church, clothing and feeding the ministers of God , and the purchase of church vestments, church books, and church bells . These were sometimes composed of iron in France; and in England, as formerly at Rome, were frequently made of bra ; and, as early as the ninth century, there were many cast of a large size and deep note. Ingulph us mentions, that Turketulus, abbot of Croyland, who died about A. D. 870, gave a great bell to the church of that abbey, which he named Guthlac ; and afterwards six others, viz. two which he called Bartholomew and Be tel in , two called Turkettul and Tatwin , and two named Pega and Bega , all which rang together; the same author says, “Non erat tunc tanta consonant i a campana rum in totâ Angliâ.” Not long after, Kinsius, archbishop of York, (1051–1061,) gave two great bells to the church of St. John, at Beverley, and at the same time provided that other churches in his diocese should be furnished with bells. Mention is made by St. Aldhelm, and William of Malmesbury, of bells given by St. Dunstan to churches in the West. The number of bells in every church gave occasion to a curious and singular piece of architecture in the campanile or bell tower: an addition which is more susceptible of the grander beauties of architecture than any other part of the edifice. It was the constant appendage to every parish church of the Saxons, and is actually mentioned as such in the laws of Athelstan. The uses of church bells are summed up in the following monkish distichs:— “ Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum, Defunctos ploro, pestem fugo, festa decoro. ” “ Funero plan go, fulgura frango, sabbat a pan go, Excito lentos, di ipo ventos, paco cruentos. ” Before bells were hung, they were formerly, and in the Romish communion they still are, washed, cro ed, ble ed, anointed with chrism, and named by the bishop. This ceremony was commonly styled baptizing them. (See Martène de Antiq. Eccl. Ritibus , ii. 296.) Some say that it was introduced by Pope John XIII., who occupied the pontifical chair from 965 to 972, and who first consecrated a bell in the Later an church, and gave it the name of John the Baptist. But it is evidently of an older standing, there being an expre prohibition of the practice in a capitular of Charlemagne in 789— ut clocæ non baptizentur . The following are the regulations of the Church of England on the subject of bells. By a constitution of Archbishop Win chelsea, the parishioners shall find, at their own expense, bells with ropes. Canon 81. The churchwardens or quest men, and their a istants, shall not suffer the bells to be rung superstitiously, upon holy days or eves abrogated by the Book of Common Prayer, nor at any other times, without good cause to be allowed by the minister of the place, and by themselves. Canon 111. The churchwardens shall present all persons, who by untimely ringing of bells do hinder the minister or preacher. Canon 15. Upon Wednesdays and Fridays weekly, the minister at the accustomed hour of service shall resort to the church or chapel, and warning being given to the people by tolling of a bell, shall say the litany. Canon 67. When any is pa ing out of this life, a bell shall be tolled, and the minister shall not then slack to do his last duty. And after the party’s death, (if it so fall out,) there shall be rung no more but one short peal, and one other before the burial, and one other after the burial. Rubric concerning the service of the church. “And the curate that minister eth in every parish church or chapel, being at home, and not being otherwise reasonably hindered, shall say the same in the parish church or chapel when he minister eth, and shall cause a bell to be tolled thereunto a convenient time before he begin, that the people may come to hear God’s word, and to pray with him.” Although the churchwardens may concur in directing the ringing or tolling of the bells on certain public and private occasions, the incumbent may prevent the churchwardens from ringing or tolling them at undue hours, or without just cause. Proceedings may be instituted in the ecclesiastical court against churchwardens who have violently and illegally persisted in ringing the bells without consent of the incumbents. Bells were used in Ireland at a very early period. Harris, in his edition of Ware, (vol. ii. p. 129,) quotes Bede as an authority for the use of bells in the sixth century, and observes on Molyneux’s opinion that the popular name of the round tower in Ireland was derived from a Germanico-Saxon word, signifying a bell. Mr. Petrie, in his recent laborious e ay on the Irish Round Towers, has shown that these towers, as their name denotes, their form and locality suggest, and tradition teaches, were intended for ecclesiastical belfries. And in the same work, as well as in the documents collected by Irish antiquarians, it is shown that bells were known in Ireland as far back as the age of St. Patrick. Some of these ancient bells are still in existence. Nankin, in China, was anciently famous for the largene of its bells; but their enormous weight having brought down the tower in which they were hung, the whole building fell to ruin, and the bells have ever since been disregarded. One of these bells is near 12 English feet high, the diameter 7½ feet, its circumference 23 feet, and the thickne of the metal about the edges 7 inches; its figure almost cylindrical, except for a swelling in the middle. From these dimensions its weight is computed at 50,000 lbs. In the churches of Ru ia the bells are numerous, and distinguished by their immense size; they are hung, particularly at Moscow, in belfries or steeples detached from the churches, with gilt or silvered cupolas, or cro es; and they do not swing, but are fixed immoveably to the beams, and rung by a rope tied to the clapper, and pulled sideways. One of these bells, in the belfry of St. Ivan’s church at Moscow, weighed 127,836 English lbs. It has always been esteemed a meritorious act of religion to present a church with bells, and the piety of the donor has been estimated by their magnitude. The emperor Bodis Godunof gave a bell of 288,000 lbs. to the cathedral of Moscow, but he was surpa ed by the empre Anne, (or, as Dr. Clarke and others say, Alexis, in 1653,) at whose expense a bell was cast, weighing no le than 443,772 lbs., which exceeds in size every bell in the known world. Its height is 21 feet, the circumference at the bottom 67 feet 4 inches, and its greatest thickne 23 inches. The beam to which this vast machine was fastened being accidentally burnt by a fire in 1737, the bell fell down, and a fragment was broken off towards the bottom, which left an aperture large enough to admit two persons abreast without stooping. In the Ru ian Divine service the number of strokes on the bell announces what part of it is beginning. Several blows are struck before the ma ; three before the commencement of the liturgy; and, in the middle of it, a few strokes apprize the people without, that the hymn to the holy Virgin is about to be sung, when all work is immediately suspended, they bow and cro themselves, repeating silently the verse then singing in the church.— Overall. For some curious directions as to the chiming of the bells in ancient times in Lich field cathedral, see Dugd. Monast. ed. 1830, vi. 1256.— Jebb.