Bishop Hooper declared reliance upon bells
to drive away tempests, futile. Bishop Pilkington, while arguing
that tempests are direct instruments of God's wrath, is very
severe against using "unlawful means," and among these he names
"the hallowed bell"; and these opinions were very generally
shared by the leading English clergy.[348]
Toward the end of the sixteenth century the Elector of Saxony
strictly forbade the ringing of bells against storms, urging
penance and prayer instead; but the custom was not so easily
driven out of the Protestant Church, and in some quarters was
developed a Protestant theory of a rationalistic sort, ascribing
the good effects of bell-ringing in storms to the calling
together of the devout for prayer or to the suggestion of
prayers during storms at night. As late as the end of the
seventeenth century we find the bells of Protestant churches in
northern Germany rung for the dispelling of tempests. In
Catholic Austria this bell-ringing seems to have become a
nuisance in the last century, for the Emperor Joseph II found it
necessary to issue an edict against it; but this doctrine had
gained too large headway to be arrested by argument or edict,
and the bells may be heard ringing during storms to this day in
various remote districts in Europe.
Pages:
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633