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is very apposite, as is that from Cassalion's occasional Comment. The latter however appears to no great Advantage as an Antiquary, when he tells us" he could meet with no other Account of this "Ceremony, than that it was a Custom of the old "Church of England." The Passage above cited from Durand would have informed him from whence it must have been imported into this Kingdom.

It may gratify the Curiosity of some to peruse the following general Observations on Bells*.-L have not been able to ascertain precisely the Date of this useful Invention. The Antients had some Sort of Bells. I find the Word Tintinnabula, (which we usually render Bells) in Martial, Juvenal, and Suetonius. The Romans were summoned by these (of whatever Size or Form they were) to their hot Baths, and to the Business of public Places...

une Cloche. There were no Clocks in England in Alfred's Time. He is said to have measured his Time by Wax Candles, marked with circular Lines to distinguish the Hours.-L would infer from this, that our Clocks have certainly been so called from the Bells in them.-Mr. Strutt confesses he has not been able to trace the Date of the Invention of Clocks in England.—Stow tells us they were commanded to be set up in Churches in the Year 612. A gross Mistake! and into which our honest Historian must have been led by his misunderstanding the Word Cloca, a Latin Termacoined from the old German Name for a Bell. For Clocks therefore read Bells.

*Spelman in his very learned Glossary, verb. Campana, has preserved two Monkish Lines, in which all the antient Offices of Bells seem to be included..

Laudo Deum verum, Plebem voco, congrego Clerum,
Defunctos ploro, pestem fugo, Festa decoro.

We praise the true God, call the People, convene the Clergy,
Lament the Dead, dispel Pestilence, and grace Festivals.

The

The large kind of Bells now in Use are said to have been invented by Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, in Campania, (whence the Latin Name Campana) about the year 400*, and to have been generally used in Churches about the 600th Year of the Christian Era. Mr. Bingham † however thinks this a vulgar Error. In short, we are left much in the Dark concerning the Antiquities of the earlier Ages of the Church.-Ecclesiastical Writers frequently clash in their Accounts. The Jews used Trumpets for Bells: The Turks permit not the Use of Bells: The Greek Church under them still follow their old Custom of using wooden Boards, or Iron Plates full of holes, which they hold in their Hands, and knock with a Hammer, or Mallet, to call the People together to Church||: China has been remarkably famous for its Bells. Father le Compte tells us, that at Pekin there are

* Spelman's Gloss. verb Campana. Trusler's Chronology. + Antiquities of Christ. Church, Vol. I. p. 316.

Josephus.

See Dr. Smith's Account of the Greek Church. He was an Eye-Witness of this remarkable Custom, which Durand tells us is retained in the Romish Church on the three last Days of the Week preceding Easter. Durandi Rational. p. 331. 3.

Bingham informs us of an Invention before Bells for convening religious Assemblies in Monasteries: It was going by Turns to every one's Cell, and with the Knock of a Hanmer calling the Monks to Church. The Instrument was called the Night Signal and the wakening Mallet.-In many of the Colleges at Oxford the Bible Clerk knocks at every Room Door with a Key, to waken the Students in the Morning, before he begins to ring the Chapel Bell.A Vestige it should seem of the ancient monastic Custom.

seven

seven Bells, each of which weighs one hundred and twenty thousand Pounds.

Baronius* informs us, that Pope John XIII. A D. 968, consecrated a very large new-cast Bell in the Lateran Church, and gave it the Name of John. This is the first Instance I met with of what has been since called "the Baptizing of Bells," a Superstition which the Reader may find ridiculed in the Romish ↑ Beehive.-The Vestiges of this Custom may be yet traced in England in Tom of Lincoln, and great Tom ("the mighty Tom") at Christ Church, Oxford.

Egelrick, Abbot of Croyland, about the Time of King Edgar, cast a Ring of six Bells, to all which he gave Names, as Bartholomew, Bethhelm, Turketul, &c. The Historian tells us," his Pre"decessor Turketul had led the way in this Fancy."

The Custom of rejoicing with Bells on high Festivals, Christmas-Day, &c. is derived to us from the Times of Popery§. The ringing of Bells on the Arrival of Emperors, Bishops, Abbots, &c. at Places under their own Jurisdiction, was also an old

* Cum vero post hæc Johannes Papa in urbem rediisset, contigit primariam Lateranensis Ecclesiæ Campanam miræ magnitu dinis recens ære fusam, super Campanile elevari, quam prius idem Pontifex sacris ritibus Deo consecravit atque Johannis nomine nuncupavit. Baronii Annal. a Spondano. A.D. 968, p. 871.

† Romish Beehive, p. 17.

Collier's Ecclesiastical History, Vol. I. p. 198.

§ Durand tells us, "In festis, quæ ad gratiam pertinent, Cam"6 panæ tumultuosius tinniunt et prolixius concrepant." Rational p. 21. 12.

Custom*:

Custom Whence we seem to have derived the modern Compliment of welcoming Persons of Consequence by a cheerful Peal.

Durandt, whose Superstition often makes one smile, is of Opinion that Devils are much afraid of Bells, and fly away at the Sound of them. That Ritualist would have thought it a Prostitution of the sacred Utensils, had he heard them rung, as they are here with the greatest Impropriety, on winning a long Main at Cock-fighting. He would perhaps have talked in another Strain, and have represented these aerial Enemies as lending their Assistance to ring them.

-

In the populous, commercial Town, from whence I date these observations, Church Bells have not been confined to ecclesiastical Uses; they have also with great Propriety been adapted to civil Purpoposes-The tolling of the great Bell of St. Nicholas'

* Campanarum pulsatio in adventu Episcoporum et Abbatum in Ecclesias, quæ iis subditæ sunt, antiquus mos.

Vide Du Cange. Gloss. verb. Campana. Tradit Continuator Nangii, An. 1378. Carolum quartum Imperatorem cùm in Galliam venit, nullo Campanarum sonitu exceptum in Urbibus, quod id sit signum dominii: "Et est assavoir que en "la dite Ville, et semblablement partoutes les autres Villes, ou i "a esté, tant en venant à Paris, comme en son retour, il n'a esté "receu en quelque Eglise à Procession, ne Cloches sonnées a son venir, ne fait aucun signe de quelque domination, &c." Ibid.

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+ Ut dæmones timentes fugiant-Timent enim auditis Tubis Ecclesiæ militantis, scilicit campanis; sicut aliquis Tyrannus timet, audiens in Terra sua tubas alicujus potentis regis inimici sui. Durand. Rational. Lib. 1. c. 4.

There is a curious Passage in Fuller's History of Waltham Abbey, A. D. 1542, the 34th of Henry VIII. relative to the Wages of Bell-ringers. It is preserved from the Church-wardens Account. "Item, paid for ringing at the Prince his coming a Penny.”

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Church

--

Church here, is an ancient Signal for our Burgesses to convene on Guild-Days, and on the Day of electing Magistrates :-Our little Carnival* on Pancake Tuesday commences by the same Signal:A Bell, usually called the Thief and † Reever Bell, proclaims our two annual Fairs :-A peculiar Kind of Alarm is given by a Bell on Accidents of Fire: -A Bell is rung at six every Morning (except Sundays and Holidays) with a view it should seem of calling up the Artisans to their daily Employment; and we retain also a Vestige of the old Norman Curfew at eight in the Evening.-Our Bells are muffled on the 30th of January; for which I find no precedent of Antiquity; their sound on that occasion is peculiarly plaintive.

Distinction of Rank is preserved here in the tolling of the Soul-Bell; an high Fee excludes the common People, and appropriates to the Death of Persons of Consequence the tolling the great Bell of each Church on this Occasion.-With us too (as Durand orders above) a Bell is tolled, and sometimes Chimes are rung, a little before the Burial, and while they are conducting the Corpse to Church:

* Vide Pancake-Tuesday in the Appendix.

† Reever, a Robber. To reece, to spoil or rob.

Speght's Glossary to Chaucer.

William the Conqueror, in the first Year of his Reign, commanded that in every Town and Village, a Bell should be rung every Night at eight o'clock, and that all people should then put out their Fire and Candle and go to Bed. The ringing of this Bell was called in French, Curfew; i. e. Cover-Fire. Ibid.

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