The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-08-01

f9l. lsluOIt. Il CdlitliSCu hdo IL
moved from the graveyard into the church.
In Italy bells exhibited the same propensity
for ringing at important moments, for IN
the church of Dominican convent they
sounded during plague, and IN Ireland
to-day a superstition prevails that when
bell rings voluntarily it prophesies death.
At Xaragoza, in Spain, ''the great bell OF
Vellilla' assumed the Importance of
phophet, proclaiming impending disasters,
at rare intervals, for hundreds of years
after the occupation by the Moors, its
fourth feat of this kind being in l495, on
the eve Of the assassination of the inquisi
tor, San Pedro Arbues. A legendary
jingle comes from France in the thirteenth
century, in an unbidden expression of joy
by the bells of Avignon, which rang for
twenty-four hours when an interdiet was
removed.
Germany's bells have not been lacking
in preternatural endowments either, as is
signalized by far musical tinkle floating
down the centuries from the silver bell be-
longing to the Countess of Cleve and pos
sessing the magic power to intensity its
sound in an especially desirable direction.
1t was due to its message that the wonder
full Swan Knight came to the assistance OF
the Countess Cleve The bells of the
poetic fatherland seem to have been gently
bene6cent, especially near Gernsbach,
where hermit, tempted to the most
fragrant sacrilege, was saved by warning
from bell that miraculously appeared on
a bush outside his cell, and which gives it
the name of Klingelkapelle unto this day.
Austria, too, is family heard from, in a
tradition waited from the tower of the
Church at st. Mary the Lake, at
Veldes, Carniola, in South Austria. Here
the peasants have ever held the comfortable
belief that any prayer made while the bel
is ringing will assuredly be satisfactorily
answered.
In France in 615 A. D., Clothaire H.
attempted to transport a desirable bell from
Sens to Paris, in spite of the objections Of
the Bishop of Sens, but the bell protested
eifectually, by becoming dumb en- route
and declining to ring until it was returned
A succession of similar instances is founC
in France, one in the eighth century, wheI
bells removed from Reims to Gascon,
(upon the unjust deposition of the Bishop
of Reims by Charles Martel refused tt
utter sound till touched by the hand o
their former honored Bishop. Again, il
the twelfth century, the example of thes'
aforementioned bells is followed by those 0
Fossombrone, which persistently would no
ring for the people of Fano, who had stolel
them
England furnishes her quota of kindred
clangs of remonstrance, notably in the reigl
of Henry VIE, when at the demolition
of the monasteries bells frequently sank tn
vessels endeavoring to transport them. A
Bangor bishop who sold the bells of hi
church was stricken with blindness at tn,
moment of their shipment
Scotch bells were not to be outdone il
retrihutive justice, as is shown from tn
proceedings of the famous Inchcape Roc
bell, which the pirate Ralph the Rove
wantonly cut from the treacherous ledg
where it had been hung by the Abbot o
| ADtIDIOluuCh. " WIFI uldIluClS VI lllGl
peril The outraged bell did not fail t
ring the knell of the guilty pirate, year
afterward, when he was wrecked on tn
fatal rock. Perhaps it is most surprising
to hear that the sturdy John Knox refer
to a bell, in his History of the Reforma
tion, which would rend itself asunder if
false oath were taken by any one restin
the hand upon it while swearing
According to the Koran, bells hang O
the trees in Paradise, and when shaken b
winds from the throne of God, make divin
music for the redeemed. The Koran doe
not state that any of these bells ever be
come loosened, but ireland claims to hav
received bell from heaven. The one il
question is said to have descended ringing
its clapper returning to heaven befor
touching the earth. 1t fell on the spo
where once stood the Abbey of Faha
! (near Iunishowen, County Donegal)
founded by St. Mura, in the seventh cen
tury. The clapper's absence was under
stood to signify that the bell should neye
ring, but it had miraculous healing proper
ties, and the presence of the bell at child
birth proved so valuable that it was greatl
sought after. This bell, known as st
Mara 5, like st. Patrick bell (now in tn
Royal Irish Academy, Dublin), receive
the most devout homage during hundred
of years, and was eventually purchased b
Lord Londonborough, in 1855, for eight
pounds In the seventh century bells ar
said to have been heard, ringing, from tn
bottom of the Gour de rYevre, nea
Vierzon, in France, and again in the har
Dor of st. Malo, where ship, carryin
fourteen Jersey bells, sank during the reig
of Henry VIII. The bells, it is said
may still be heard, when the wind blow
just right A like assertion is mad
about some bells lying at the bottom Of tn
water off the Cornish coast, near Boscastle
1t is related that the ship freighted witt
them was wrecked to punish the profan
captain, who rebuked the pilot for thank
ing God, instead of him, for the safe ter
mination of the voyage.
The inscriptions on bells furnish exten
siye material for research. The followin;
rhyme, inscribed ON a bell in Battle
Church, Yorkshire, supplies an appropriat
conclusion
..And now our changes all arc rune,
Here ends our dying song,
Our last, our final peal IS o'er,
Farewell farewell, ding dong"
Wedding Presents.