Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/548

Rh ANGELUS 4SS ANGELUS of the clok at aflornoonc" (North, Church Bells of Lhicoliishire, 10'.)). ."Vt the same time it seems clear that in the fa.se of cathedral churches, etc., where the Ollicp a.s .said iu choir, the interval between Complin and the (anticipated) Matins of the next day was not very great; at any rate, at some seasons of the year. Under these circumstances the three interrupted peals of the Ave bell probably served as a sort of introduction to the continuous tolling of the curfew which preceded Matins. This would be sufficient to account for certain clear traces of a connection in some localities between the curfew and the recital of the three evening Aves. For instance, the poet Villon (fifteenth century) must clearly be thinking of the curfew, when he writes: J'oy la cloche de la Sarbonne Qui toujours li neuf heures sonne Le salut que I'ange pr^dit. Again, if there were no such connection, it would be difficult to explain why some of the Reformation bishops like Hooper did their best to suppress the tolling of the curfew as a superstitious practice. Still the attempt was not successful. Long before this, in 1.538, a Protestant Grand Jury in Canterbury had presented the parson of St. Peter's church for superstitious practices, complaining of the "tolling of the Ave bell after evening song done" (Stahl- schmidt. Church Bells of Kent, 358), but this could hardly have been the curfew. In.scription.s on Angblus Bells. — Many circum- stances point to the conclusion that the ringing of the Angelus in the fourteenth and even in the tliirteenth century must have been very general (see The Month, Jan., 1902, 09-70, and Jan., 1904, 60-63). The num- ber of bells belonging to those two centuries which still survive is relatively small, but a considerable proportion bear inscriptions which suggest that they were originally intended to serve as Ave bells. In the first place, many bear the words Ave Maria; or, as in the ca.se of a bell at Helfta, near Eisleben, in Germany, dated 1234, the whole sentence: Ave Maria, gratia -plena, Dominus tecum. Bells with thi.s Ave Maria inscription are also numerous in England, though in ICngland the Angelus bells seem in a very large mmiber of in.stances to have been dedi- cated to St. Gabriel. These Gabriel inscriptions take various forms. For example: Dulcis inslar mellis campana vocor Gabrielis (I am sweet as honey, and am called Gabriel's bell). In which very com- mon inscription the second word is often si.sto, or cisto; the true reading is perhaps dulcissimi mellis. Or again: Ecce Gabrielis sonat hcec campana fidelis (Behold this bell of faithful Gabriel sounds); or Minsi de calls nomen habeo Gabrielis (I bear the name of Gabriel sent from heaven), or Missus vera pie Gabriel fert Iceta Marice (Gabriel the mes- senger bears joyous tidings to holy Mary). We can liartUy be wrong in regarding these bells as Angelus lulls, for in the Diocese of Lincoln alone we find nineteen of the surviving medieval bells bearing the name of Gabriel, while only six bear the name of Michael, a much more popular patron in other re- spects. In France, the Ave Maria seems to have been the ordinary label for Angelus bells; but in Germany we find as the most common inscription of all, even in the case of many bells of the thirteenth century, the words O Rex Gloriw f'eni Cum Pace (O King of Glory, Come with Peace); as for instance, one of the bells of Freiburg in the Breisgau, dated 12.58. To explain the popularity of this inscription we have to remember that according to medieval tradition the Annunciation took place at evening. It was then that the Prince of Peace t'^ok flesh and ihvelt among us. Moreover in Germany, the Nether- l:uuls and in some parts of France the Angelus bell wa.s regularly known as the "Peace bell", and pro /iiirc schlagen (to toll for peace) was a phrase popu- larly used for ringing the Angelus. M.VNNER OF RiNGixG. — With regard to the manner of ringing the Angelus it seems sufficient to note that the triple stroke repeated three times with a pause between seems to have been adopted from the very beginning. In the fifteenth-century constitu- tions of Syon monastery it is directed that the lay brother "shall toll the Ave bell nine strokes at three times, keeping the space of one Pater and Ave be- tween each three toUings ". Again a fifteenth-cen- tury bell at Erfert bears the words: Cum icr reboo, pie Christiferam ter avelo fWhen I ring thrice, thrice devoutly greet the Mother of Christ). Still earlier, the statutes of Wells Cathedral, in 1331, direct that "three strokes should be struck at three several times upon the great bell in quick succes- sion", and this shortly before curfew. Similarly, at Lerida in Spain, in 130S, the bishop directs that "after Complin and as the shades of night are falling" the bell is to be pealed three times with in- tervals between (Villanueva, Viage, XVI, 323), while the faithful are directed on hearing the bell to fall on their knees and recite the Ave Maria. Otto, Glockenkunde, (2d ed. Leipzig, 1884); Wordswohth, Noleson Medieval Servu-es {hondon, 1898); BERTHELfc. Ennuittti campanairea (Montpellier, 1903); Raven, Church Bells of Suffolk (London, 1890); Stahlschmid, The Church Bells of Kent (London, 1887); Downman, Ancient Church Bells in Enn- land (London, 189); North, Church Bells of Lincolnshire (Lincoln, 1882); Bergsek, Zur Glockenkunde ThUringens (Jena, 1896); Id., Die Glocken des Herzogtum Sachs.-Meiningen, (Jena. 1899); Effman, Die Glocken der Sladt Freiburg in der Schwciz (Strasburg, 1899); Liebeskind, Die Glocken des Neust&dtcr Kreises (Jena, 1005); The Month, Jan., 1902, Jan., 1904; Raven, The Bells of England, Lord, 1907. Hebbeut Thurston. Angelus Silesius (Johannes Scheffler), convert, poet, controversialist, the son of a Lutheran Polish nobleman, b. in Breslau in 1624; d. 9 July, 1677. He took the degree of doctor of philosophy and medicine, in Padua, in 1648, became court physician to the prince of Oels, in Silesia, was received into the Catholic Church in 1653, taking at confirmation the name of Angelus, to which he added the sur- name Silesius (Silcsian), by which name he is known in the history of literature. In 1601 he was ordained priest and retired to the monastery of the Knights of the Cross in Breslau, where ho died. His fortune he gave to pious and charitable institutions. With the .Icsuits Spec and Balde, he was one of the few distinguished poets that Germany produced in an age of poetical barrenness and debased taste. lie pub-