Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/547

Rh ANQELUS 487 ANGELUS the case of the Rosary, ono hundred and fifty Hail Marys were substituted for the one hundred and fifty psahiis of the Psalter. Moreover, in the Fran- ciscan decree of St. Honaventure's time, referred to above, this is precisely what we find, viz., that the laity in general were to be induced to say Hail Marys when the hell rang at Complin, during, or more probably after, the otiice of the friars. A special appropriateness for the.se greetings of Our Lady wius found in the belief that at this very hour she wa,s saluted by the angel. Again, it is noteworthy that some monastic customals in si)eaking of the (res- oraliones expres.sly prescribe the observance of the rubric about standing or kneeling according to the season, which rubric is insisted upon in the recitation of the. gehis to this day. From this we may con- clude that the .^ngelus in its origin was an imitation of the monks' niglit i)rayers and that it had probably nothinjj directly t<i do with the curfew bell, rung as a signal for the extinction of fires and lights. The curfew, however, first meets us in Normandy in 1061 and is then spoken of as a bell which svnn- moned the people to say their prayers, after which summons they should not again go abroad. H any- thing, therefore, it seems more probable that the curfew was grafted upon this prmiitive prayer-bell rather than vice versa. If the curfew and the An- eelus coincided at a later period, as apparently they aid in some cases, this was probably accidental. The Mohnmno Ancelus. — This last suggestion about the tres oraliones also offers some explana- tion of the fact that shortly after the recital of the three Hail .Marys at evening had become familiar, a custom established itself of ringing a bell in the morning and of saying the Ave thrice. The earliest mention .seems to be in the chronicle of the city of Parma, 13IS, though it w!s the town-bell which w!is rung in this case. Still the bishop exhorted all who heard it to say three Our Fathers and three Hail .Marj's for the prescrxation of peace, whence it was called "the peace bell ". The same designa- tion was also applieil elsewhere to the evening bell. In spite of some ditiiculties it seems probable enough that this morning bell was also an imitation of the monastic triple i)eal for the trcs oraliones or morning prayers; for this, as noted above, wjis rang at the morning office of Prime as well as at Complin. The morning .■Vve Maria .soon became a familiar custom in all the countries of Europe, not excepting Englanil, and was almost as generally ol)- served as that of the evening. Bvit while in I'ngland the evening Ave Maria is enjoined by liisluip .lolm Stratford of Winchester as early as 1321. no formal direction as to the morning ringing is found l)efore the instniction of Archbishop .-Vrundel in 1399. The Midday Anoehs. — This stiggests a much more complicated problem which cannot be ade- quately discussed here. The one clear fact which seems to result alike from the statutes of several German Synods in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- turies, as also from books of devotion of a somewhat later date, is that the midday ringing, while often spoken of as a peace bell and formally commended by Louis XI of Franco in 1475 for that sjwcial ol)- ject, was closely associatetl with the veneration of the Passion of Christ. At first it appears that this midday bell, e. g. at Prague in 13,S, and at Mainz in 1423, wius only rung on Fridays, but the custom by degrees exten7.5), in sundry books of devotion (e. g. Coster's Thesaunis), while our modern .^ngelus versiclcs are printed, much as we say them now, though niimis the final prayer, an alternative form commemorating our Lord's death upon the cross is suggested for the noontide ringing. These instruct ioiLs. which may already be found translated in an English MS. written in 1.570 (MSS. Harleian 2327), suggest that the Resurrection should be honoured in the morning, the Pitision at noon, and the Incarnation in the evening, since the times correspond to the hours at whidi these great Mysteries actually occurred. In some prayer-books of this epoch difTerent devotions are suggested for each of the three ringings, e. g. the Regina Cieli for the morning (see Esser, 784), Pas- sion prayers for noon and our present versides for sundown. To some such practice we no doubt owe the substitution of Ucgiiia Co-li for the Angelus dur- ing paschal time. This substitution wxs recommended by .Vngelo Rocca and Quarti at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Our present three versicles seem first to have made their appearance in an Italian catechism printed at Venice in 1,500 (Es.ser, 789); but the fuller form now universally adopted cannot be traced back earlier than 1612. He it noted that somewhat earlier than this a practice grew up in Italy of saying a " He profundis" for the holy souls inunediately after the evening Angelus. Another custom, also of Italian origin, is that of adding three Cilorias to the Angelus in thank.sgiving to the Blessed Trinity for the privileges bestowed upon our Lady. (See also H.il JI.vhy.) KssKK, Daa Ave Maria l.iiHten, in the Hwiorisches Jahr- buch, X.XIll, 22-51, 247-29, 775-82.') (1902); Thiiiston, Our Popular Devotions, in The Month, November and Decem- ber, 1901, 4S3-499. 597-G16; January and May, 1902, (il and 518; January, 1904, 57-07; Hocdiniion, L'Anuelua, in the Rfvue ilu clerai- franfais (1902), X.XXI. 24-29; Fai.k, Zur Getchichte dea Ave Maria, etc., in Dcr KathoHk, April, 190.3. 333; Stimmm aua Maria-Loach, September, 1003, 3Wi; Hknkv, in Diet, d'arch., I, 2008-78; BKinii:KK, in Diet, de thiol, calh., I. 1278-81. Of older accounts may be mentioned lloccA, De Campania Commentariua (Rome, 1012); Gerberon. Dia- aertaliun aur I'angelua (Pari.i, 107,')); TBOMnKLLl. Maria- .Sanr- tiaaima Vita, etc.. Uian. IX (BoloKim. 1701); Acta SS.. Octo- ber, VII. 1109-13; BRlncETT. Our l^di/'a Dowru (3d ed. Lonilon. 1890), 210-218, and 482; Waterton, Pietaa Mariana BriUmnica, 144; UocK, Church of our Fathera (2d ed. Lon<ion. 1904), III. 245-250. For the .■^ngelu.i induJKences see Moc^ cllEolANl, CoUcctio Indulti*mtiarum ((iuaraccni, 1897), 107- 172; Behingek, Lea indulgences. Part II. 183 sqq.; The American Kcclesiaatical Review, Nov. 1902, 542-545. Hekbeut Thuuston. Angelus Bell. — The triple Hail Mary recited in the evening, which is the origin of our modern Angelus, was closely as.sociated with the ringing of a bell. This bell seemingly belonged to Complin, which was theoretically said at sundown, thotigh in practice it followed closely upon the afternoon oflice of Vespei^. There can be little doubt that in all save a few exceptional cases, the tolling of the Ave bell was distinct from the ringing of curfew (igni- tegiuni); the former taking place at the end of Com- plin and iicrhare coinciding with the prayers for peace, said in choir; the latter being the signal for the close of day and for the general bed-time. In many places, lioth in ICngland and France, the cur- few bell is still nmg, and we note that not only is it rang at a relatively late hour, varj-ing from S to 10, but that the actual peal liusts in most cases for a notable ]>criod of time, being prolonged for a hun- dred strokes or more. Where the town-U'U and the bells of the principal church or monasterj' were dis- tinct, the curfew wius generally nmg upon the town- bell. Where the church-bell served for both pur- po.ses, the .ve and the curfew were probably rung upon the same bell at difTerent hours. There is a great lack of records containing any definite note of time regarding the ringing of the .ve bell, but there is at least one clear example in the ca.se of Cropreily, Oxfordshire, where in 1.512 a betiuest was m;ide to the churchwardens on condition that they should "toll dayly the .vees bell at six of the dok in the mornyng, at xii of the clok at noone and at fouro