A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

Canon 67. When any is passing 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 ministereth 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 ministereth, 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 essay 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 largeness 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 thickness 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 Russia 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 crosses; 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 surpassed by the empress Anne, (or, as Dr. Clarke and others say, Alexis, in 1653,) at whose expense a bell was cast, weighing no less 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 thickness 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 Russian Divine service the number of strokes on the bell announces what part of it is beginning. Several blows are struck before the mass; 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 cross 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 Lichfield cathedral, see Dugd. Monast. ed. 1830, vi. 1256.—Jebb.

BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE. Between the seventh and the tenth century, the sentence of excommunication was attended with great solemnities. The most important was the extinction of lamps or candles by throwing them on the ground, with an imprecation, that those against whom the curse was pronounced might be extinguished or destroyed by the vengeance of God. The people were summoned to attend this ceremony by the sound of a bell, and the curses accompanying the ceremony were pronounced out of a book by the minister, standing in a balcony. Hence originated the phrase of cursing by bell, book, and candle.

BEMA. The name of the bishop’s throne in the primitive church, or, as some understand it, the whole of the upper end of the church, containing the altar and the apsis. This seat or throne, together with those of the presbyters, was always fixed at the upper end of the chancel, in a semicircle beyond the altar. For anciently, the seats of the bishops and presbyters were joined together, and both were called thrones. The manner of their sitting is related by Gregory Nazianzen in his description of the church of Anastasia, where he speaks of himself as bishop, sitting upon the high throne, and the presbyters on lower benches on each side of him.—Bingham. (See Apsis and Cathedral.)

BENEDICITE. A canticle used at Morning Prayer, after the first lesson. This canticle is so called because, in the Latin version, it so begins. It is called “The Song of the Three Children,” because Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (whom the prince of the eunuchs named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Dan. i. 7) are reported to have sung it in the burning fiery furnace, into which they were cast by order of Nebuchadnezzar for adhering stedfastly to their God, (Dan. iii. 19,) &c., and in which God preserved them in a miraculous manner (ver. 27).—Dr. Bennet.