[348b] For this was no mere
superficial view. It was really part of a deep theological
current steadily developed through the Middle Ages, the
fundamental idea of the whole being the direct influence of the
bells upon the "Power of the Air"; and it is perhaps worth our
while to go back a little and glance over the coming of this
current into the modern world. Having grown steadily through the
Middle Ages, it appeared in full strength at the Reformation
period; and in the sixteenth century Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of
Upsala and Primate of Sweden, in his great work on the northern
nations, declares it a well-established fact that cities and
harvests may be saved from lightning by the ringing of bells and
the burning of consecrated incense, accompanied by prayers; and
he cautions his readers that the workings of the thunderbolt are
rather to be marvelled at than inquired into. Even as late as
1673 the Franciscan professor Lealus, in Italy, in a schoolbook
which was received with great applause in his region, taught
unhesitatingly the agency of demons in storms, and the power of
bells over them, as well as the portentousness of comets and the
movement of the heavens by angels.
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