the fittest persons to be employed therein, as being least known or suspected by the Heathen: but for want of light, we can determine nothing about it. In the following ages we find several other inventions before bells to call religious assemblies together. In Egypt they seem to have used trumpets, after the manner of the Jews. Whence Pachomius 42, the father of the Egyptian monks, makes it one article of his rule, that every monk should leave his cell as soon as he heard the sound of the trumpet calling to church.' And the same custom is mentioned by Johannes Climacus 43, who was abbot of Mount Sinai in the sixth century; whence we may conjecture, that the old usage continued till that time in Palestine also. But in some monasteries they took the office by turns of going about to every one's cell, and with the knock of a hammer calling the monks to church; which custom is often mentioned by Cassian44, and Palladius 45, and Moschus 46, 42 Regul. c. 3. ap. Bibl. Patr. t. 15. p. 629. (ap. Galland. t. 4. p. 718 b.) Cum audierit vocem tubæ ad collectam vocantis, statim egrediatur. 43 Scala Paradisi, Gradu 19. ap. Bibl. Patr. t. 5. p. 244. (Oper. Paris. 1633. p. 264. ad calc. col. dextr.) 'Eπιτηρήσωμεν καὶ εὑρήσομεν, τῆς πνευματικῆς σάλπιγγος σημαινούσης, κ.τ.λ. 44 Instit. 1. 2. c. 17. (p. 28.) Is autem, cui religiosi conventus commonitio, vel synaxeos cura committitur, non passim, ut libitum est, nec prout nocte fuerit expergefactus, aut opportunitas eum somni proprii seu insomnii coarctaverit, fratres etiam ad quotidianas vigilias exsuscitare præsumit, &c.-Ibid. 1. 4. c. 12. (p. 55.) Itaque considentes inter cubilia sua, et operi ac meditationi studium pariter impendentes, cum sonitum pulsantis ostium ac diversorum cellulas percutientis audierint, ad orationem eos scilicet seu ad opus aliquod invitantis, certatim e cubilibus suis unusquisque prorumpit, &c. 45 Hist. Lausiac. c. 104. (ap. Bibl. Patr. Gr.-Lat. t. 2. p. 1023 d. 12.) Καὶ πληρώσας τὸν συνήθη τῶν εὐχῶν κανόνα, τὸ τηνικαῦτα τῷ ἐξυπνιαστικῷ σφυρίῳ τὰς πάντων ἔκρουεν κέλλας, συνάγων αὐτοὺς εἰς τοὺς εὐκτηρίους οἴκους πρὸς ὀρθρινὴν δοξο λoyiav. 46 Prat. Spirit. Nocturnum pulsare signum, &c.-[Ap. Bibl. Patr. Gr.-Lat. s. Auctar. Ducæan., (t. 2. p. 1076.) where the following passage occurs: Cum quadam nocte surrexissem ut pulsarem signum, ea quippe cura mihi,&c.-Ibid. c.104. (p.1099.) Ut pulsaret signum, &c.-See also c. 73. according to Cotelerii Eccles. Græc. Monument. (Paris. 1681. t. 2. p. 395 c.) Ainyýσaтo hμiv... 'O 'Aẞβᾶς Θεοδόσιος . . . . λέγων, ὅτι ἐν μιᾷ πρὸ τοῦ κροῦσαι τὸ ξύλον τὸ νυκτεριvov, K.T.X.,-antequam pulsaret nocturnum lignum.-Also c. 74. (ibid. p. 396 b.) "ETepos dé Tis .. διηγήσατο . . . λέγων, ὅτι ἐν μιᾷ πρὸ τοῦ κροῦσαι Tò έúλov, K.T.λ.,—antequam pulsaret signum, &c. It is remarkable that Cotelerius has rendered gúλov by lignum in the first place, and by signum immediately afterwards. Possibly the latter is a typographical error. The learned Author, who generally cites the Pratum Spirituale according to the edition of Ducæus in the second volume of the Bibliotheca Patrum, Paris. 1624, appears in this instance to have had in view the Latin rendering of the first passage from chapter 73, according to the edition of Cotelerius, which I have given above. ED.] as used chiefly for their night-assemblies, whence the instrument is termed by them the night-signal, and the wakening mallet. In the monastery of virgins, which Paula, the famous Roman lady, set up and governed at Jerusalem, the signal was used to be given by one going about and singing, Hallelujah! for that word was their call to church, as St. Jerom 47 informs us. In other parts of the East, they had their sounding instruments of wood, as Bona is shews at large out of the Acts of the second Council of Nice, and Theodorus Studita, and Nicephorus Blemides, and several other writers. And the use of bells was not known among them, as he observes 49 out of Baronius 50, till the year 865; when Ursus Patriciacus, Duke of Venice, made a present of some to Michael, the Greek Emperor, who first built a tower to the church of St. Sophia to hang them in. But whether it be that this custom never generally prevailed among the Greeks, or whether it be that the Turks will not permit them to use any bells, so it is at present that they have none, but follow their old custom of using wooden boards or iron plates full of holes, which they call σήμαντρα and χειροσήμαντρα, because they hold them in their 47 Ep. 27. [al. 108.] Epitaph. Paulæ. p. 178. (t. 1. p. 706 b.) Post Alleluia! cantatum, quo signo vocabantur ad collectam, nulli residere licitum erat. 48 Rer. Liturg. 1. 1. c. 22. n. 2. (p. 230.) Usi sunt etiam Græci lignorum percussione, quorum usum antiquissimum esse ex Actis Secundæ Synodi Nicænæ constat. Ibi enim Act. 4., ex Libro Miraculorum Sancti Anastasii Martyris, legimus, quod quum ejus reliquiæ Cæsarea appropinquarent, cives omnes, lætitia magna perfusi, ligna sacra pulsantes, obviam facti sunt. Eorundem frequens habetur mentio apud Græcos scriptores. Theodorus, Petreorum episcopus, in Vita Sancti Theodosii Archimandritæ: Monachi, ait, lignum pulsabant præter solitam propemodum horam. Nicephorus Blemides in Vita Sancti Pauli Latrensis: Imperat, ut ante tempus lignum congregans monachos pulsetur, et sacra mystagogia peragatur. Theodorus Studita in Carminibus: Veluti tuba percute lignum tempore suo, ut opus est. Auctor Vitæ Sancti Niconis cognomento Metanoitæ: Et ligni pulsatione omnes fratres convocat. Et tubæ quidem ac mallei usus ad sola monasteria pertinuisse videtur. Ligna autem ab omnibus ecclesiis Orientalibus usurpata fuerunt, longoque spatio permansit eorum consuetudo, quia.. campanas serius receperunt. 49 [Ibid. (p. 230.) Campanas vero usui Græcis esse coepisse anno 865, refert Baronius ex Historia Veneta scriptoribus asserentibus, Ursum Patriciacum, Venetiarum Ducem, primum omnium dono misisse duodecim mirificæ artis et valde sonoras Michaëli Imperatori, qui eas in turri ad Sanctam Sophiam exstructa collocavit. Grischov.] 50 An. 865. (t. To. p. 319.) Ad hunc quoque annum referunt scriptores prosequuti res Venetas, ærea instrumenta, quæ campanas dicimus, usui esse coepisse Græcis, missis ipsis a Duce Venetiarum, Urso Patriciaco, ad Michaelem Imperatorem. hands, and knock them with a hammer or mallet to call the people together to church, as we are informed by Allatius 50, and a late learned writer 51 of our own, who has been an eyewitness of their customs. Who first brought bells into use in the Latin Church, is a thing yet undetermined; some ascribing them to Pope Sabinianus, St. Gregory's successor, anno 604; and others to Paulinus, bishop of Nola, contemporary with St. Jerom. This last is certainly a vulgar error, and seems to owe its rise to no other foundation, but only that he was bishop of Nola in Campania (where bells perhaps were first invented, and thence called nola and campana,) and some bold modern writer thence concluded that he was therefore the author of them. And it might make the story look a little more plausible, because that he also founded a church in Nola. But then it happened unluckily for this fiction, that he himself describes his church, and that 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. Yet Bona after all would have it thought that they began to be used in the Latin Church immediately upon the conversion of Christian emperors, because the tintinnabula or lesser sort of bells had been used before by the Heathens to the like purpose. Which is an argument, I think, that has very little weight in it, since there is no ancient author that countenances his conjecture. For he produces none before Audonus Rothomagensis 52 that mentions the use of the tintin 50 [In Dissert. 1. de Recentiorum Græcorum Templis. (p. 102. lin. ult.) Sacerdotes Græci ligneo instrumento ad Græcos in ecclesiam convocandos utuntur. Id est, lignum binarum decempedarum longitudine, duorum digitorum crassitudine, latitudine quatuor, quam optime dedolatum, non fissum aut rimosum, quod manu sinistra medium tenens sacerdos vel alius, dextra malleo ex eodem ligno cursim hinc inde transcurrens, modo in unam partem, moBINGHAM, VOL. III. do in alteram, prope vel eminus ab ipsa sinistra, ita lignum diverberat, ut ictum nunc plenum, nunc gravem, nunc acutum, nunc crebrum, nunc extensum edens, perfecta musices scientia auribus suavissime moduletur. Grischov.] 51 Dr. Smith's Account of the Greek Church, (p. 70.)...... They make use of a wooden board, &c. 52 [Dado, Gallice Ouen, archbishop of Rouen, an. 640. Canonized by the Roman Church. ED.] L nabula, nor any before Bede, that uses the name campana; both which authors lived in the seventh century, and that is an argument that these things were not come into use among Christians long before, else we might have heard of them in writers before them, as we frequently do in those that follow after. I need not now tell any reader, that the Popish custom of consecrating, and anointing, and baptizing of bells, and giving them the name of some saint, is a very modern invention. Baronius 52 carries it no higher than the time of John XIII, anno 968, who consecrated the great bell of the Lateran church, and gave it the name of John, from whence he thinks the custom was authorized in the Church. Menardus 53 and Bona 54 would have it thought a little more ancient, but yet they do not pretend to carry it higher than one age more to the time of Charles the Great, in whose time some Rituals, Menardus says, had a form of blessing and anointing bells, under this title or rubric, Ad signum ecclesiæ benedicendum, A form for blessing of bells. And it is not improbable but that such a corruption might creep into the Rituals of those times, because we find among the Capitulars of Charles the 52 An. 968. n. 86. (t. 10. p. 797 c.) Sed ad Joannem Pontificem revertamur, qui, Capuæ his peractis, in urbem rediens, cum imperator ibi adhuc moraretur, contigit primariam Lateranensis ecclesiæ campanam miræ magnitudinis, recens ære fusam, super campanile elevari: quam prius idem Pontifex sacris ritibus Deo consecravit, atque Joannis nomine, puto Baptistæ, cujus ecclesiæ esset usui, nuncupavit. Qui sacer ritus in ecclesia perseveravit, ut eo modo, quo ipse usus, campanæ in ecclesiis collocandæ, Deo, primum imposito eis nomine, dicarentur. 53 Menard. Not. in Sacrament. Greg. p. 207. (t. 3. p. 438 c. 5.) Porro his de basilica dedicatione notatis, subjungendus est ordo in benedictione signi, hoc est nolæ seu campanæ, qui exstat in Codicibus Rhemensi et Ratoldi abbatis. In Codice igitur Rhemensi ita habetur: Ad signum ecclesiæ benedicendum. Benedic, Domine, hanc aquam bene dictione cælesti, &c. In Codice Ratoldi: Ad signum ecclesiæ benedicendum. In primis, intingue ter in aqua, et laves in ea, quæ benedicenda est his verbis: Benedic, Domine, &c. 54 Bona, Rer. Liturg. 1. 1. c. 22. n. 7. (p. 232.) Usum quidem benedicendi campanas scribit Baronius a Joanne XIII. traxisse originem, qui anno 968. campanam Lateranensem miræ magnitudinis, antequam super campanile elevaretur, sacris ritibus Deo consecravit, atque Joannis nomine nuncupavit, qui ritus, inquit, in ecclesia perseveravit. Sed multo antiquiorem esse ex Ritualibus Libris integro sæculo ante Joannem XIII. conscriptis palam fit, in quibus formula benedicendi et ungendi campanas reperitur, hoc præfixo titulo, Ad signum ecclesiæ benedicendum, ut eruditissimus Menardus testatur in notis ad Libr. Sacrament. p. 207. ex Codice Rhemensi, tempore Caroli Magni exa rato. Great 55 a censure and prohibition of that practice, Ut clocas non baptizent, that they should not baptize clocks, which is the old German name for a bell. But what was then prohibited has since been stiffly avowed and practised, and augmented also with some additional rites, to make bells a sort of charm against storms and thunder, and the assaults of Satan; as the reader that pleases may see the ceremony described by Sleidan 56 and Hospinian 57, out of the old Pontificals of the Romish Church. But I fear my readers will begin to accuse me now, instead of an omission, of making too long a digression upon this subject, and therefore I return to the business of Ancient Churches. CHAP. VIII. Of the anathemata, and other ornaments of the ancient churches. themata in churches. 1. AFTER having taken a distinct survey of the chief parts, What the and buildings, and common utensils of the ancient churches, it ancients meant by will not be amiss to cast our eyes upon the ornamental parts their anathereof, and consider a little after what manner the first Christians beautified their houses of prayer. The richness and splendour of some of their fabrics, and the value of their utensils belonging to the altar, many of which were of silver and gold, I have already taken notice of: what, therefore, I shall further add in this place concerns only the remaining ornaments of the church, some of which were a little uncommon, and but rarely mentioned by modern writers. The general name for all sorts of ornaments in churches, whether in 55 Cited by Durantus de Ritibus &c., l. 1. c. 22. n. 2. (p. 72.) Plura de tintinnabulis Rhodiginus. Appellantur item clocæ, vocabulo Germanico, ut in Capitularia Caroli Magni, Ut clocas non baptizent, &c. 56 Comment. 1. 21. p. 388. (p. 608. sub im.) Consimili ratione tractantur campanæ. Et primo quidem sic eas pendere oportet, ut circumire possit episcopus, qui, cum psalmos aliquot demurmuravit, aquam et salem consecrat, simulque miscet; eaque foris et intus campanam diligenter lavat, post extergit, et oleo sacro formam crucis in ea describit, Deumque precatur, ut, quum impel litur et insonat campana, fides et 57 De Templ. 1. 4. c. 9. p. 113. |