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 BELLUNO-FELTRE

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BELLUNO-FELTRE

Japan, and Burma seem only to be struck with a hammer and never properly "rung". The largest bell in England is that of St. Paul's Cathedral, Lon- don, which weighs seventeen and one-half tons.

V. Points of Law. — In medieval England it was distinctly laid down that the church bells and ropes had to be provided at the cost of the parishioners. The canon law assumed that a cathedral had five or more bells, a parish church two or three, while the churches of the mendicant orders, like pubhc oratories, were originally hmited to one. The solemn ceremony of benediction provided in the Pontifical can only be carried out by a bishop or by a priest specially empowered, and it is only to be employed in the case of bells intended for church use. For other bells a simpler blessing is provided in the "Rituale". Numerous prohibitions exist against the church bells being used for "profane" purposes, e. g. for summoning meetings or for merely secular festivities and in particular for executions. In Catho- lic ecclesiastical legislation the principle is main- tained that the control of the bells rests absolutely with the clergj'. In cathedral churches according to the "Ceremoniale Episcoporuni " this jurisdiction is vested in the SacriMa. Theoretically, the actual ringing of the bells should be performed by the ostiarius and in the conferring of this minor order the cleric is given a bell to ring, but for centuries past his functions have everjTvhere become obsolete, and lay bell-ringers have been almost exclusively employed. Finally, we may note a decision of the secular courts given in an action brought against the Redemptorists of Clapham. England, in 1851, whereby an injunction was granted to restrain these Fathers from ringing their bells at certain hours, at which, as it was complained, such ringing caused unreasonable annoyance to residents in the neigh- bourhood.

Streber in Kirchenlei.. V. 697: Th.\lhofer. Ltturgik. (Freiburg. 1883), I. 830-839: Ell.\combe, The Church Bells of Devon and Suppl. (Exeter, 1872): R.ivEX, The Church Belts of England (London. 1906); Otte. Glockenkunde (Leipz.g. 1SS4); Ide.m, Zur Glockenkunde (1891); Barbier de Moxt.^clt. Traili Pratique de I'Ameublement des Eglises (Paris. 1878). I, 345-358; Berthele. Enqueles campanaires (Montpellier. 1903'*; \acandard in Rer. du Clerge Francais (Paris. 1902), XXIX, 337; Bergner. Handbuch de^ kirchlichen KunstalterOiumer (Leipzig. 1905); C.atalaxi. Commentarii in Ponlificale Ro- manum (Rome. 1738). H. 335; Bo-na. De Campanis in Rerum Lilurgicarum Libri Duo (Rome. 1671); Kr-vus. Real-Encyk., I. 622; Stokes. Early Christian Art in Ireland (London, 18S7), 59 sqq.; Reeves in Transactions of Royal Irish Academy (Dub- lin. 1877), XXVII. 1-30; Milliqan, Ancient Ecclesiastical Bells in Ulster in Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ire- land (Dublin. 1903). XXXIII, 46-58; Morillot. Les clochettes dans I'antiquile {Dijon, 1887): CA'SCEl.l.lE.ltl, Le due nuove Cam- pane in campidoglio (Ronae. 1806); Germain, Lea Cloches de Sangues (Nancy, 1890); Stahlschmidt, Surrey Bells (London, 1884); Idem, Church Bells of Kent (London. 1887); North. Church Bells of Bedfordshire (London, 1883); Raven, Church Beth of Suffolk (London, 1889); Ellacombe, Church Belts of Somerset (London. 1875); Bergner, Zur Glockenkunde Thurin- ffiens (Leipzig. 1896): Liebeskind, Die Gtocken des Xeustadter Kreises (Leipzig, 1905): Effman, Die Glocken der Stadt Frei- burg in der Schweiz (1899); Samson. Zur Geschichte und Sym- botik der Glocken (Leipzig. 1897); Sacveterre. Essai sur le syynbolisme de la cloche (Paris, 1883); Steffens, Kirchweihe und Glocken^egnung (Freiburg, 1893); Schn.abel, Weihe der Glocken (Mainz. 1905): Wernz, Jus Decretalium (Rome. 1904), III, 509. For further references cf. Chevalier, Topobibl., s. v. Cloches.

Herbert Thurstox. Belluno-Feltre, Diocese of. — Belluno, which was anciently called Bellunum. the metropolis of the province of that name in Venetia, Italy, is situated on a hill between the torrent of Ardo and the River Piave, and has a population of 10,000. At the end of the tenth centurj- Belluno was affected by the political disturbances then agitating the Venetian provinces. Bishop Joannes H (9.59) obtained from Emperor Otto I for himself and his successors the title of count and temporal sovereignty over this city and the .surrounding territon,'. He also fortified the city. In the course of time there were many disputes over the civil mastery of Bellimo, but in

1420 the inhabitants of their owti accord acknowl- edged the authority of Venice. Belluno is the seat of a bishopric suffragan to the Patriarchate of Venice, and is united with the See of Feltre. Christianity is said to have been first preached there by St. Hermagoras, a disciple of St. ilark and first Bishop of Aquileia, and next by Prosdocimus, first Bishop of Padua. Ughelli places the first bishop, Theodorus, in the reign of Emperor Commodus and the second, St. Salvator, as succeeding imder Pertinax. About 300 another Theodorus is thought to have brought from Egypt the remains of St. Giovata, patron of the city. The first bishop known to historj' is a cer- tain Laurentius, who, in 587, attended the schismatic assembly convened by Severus, Patriarch of Aqui- leia, in connexion with the dispute of the Three Chap- ters. The twelfth centurj- was a stormy period for Belluno, in both ci%'il and ecclesiastical respects. In 1197 Bishop Gerardo de Taccoli was murdered by the inhabitants of Treviso. after which Innocent III united the Diocese of Belluno with that of Feltre.

Feltre, the ancient Feltria, is situated in the province of Belluno in Venetia, on the River Colmeda, and contains 13,000 inhabitants. From the year 80 B. c. it enjoyed the rights of Roman citizenship. It was besieged during the invasion of Attila. Em- peror Henrj' III created the Bishops of Feltre counts of the city and vicinity, but their authority was almost constantlv assailed by the Counts of Camino, by Ezzelino da 'Romano, the Scaligeri, the Carrara, and finally by the Visconti themselves. At last, in 1404. the city fell into the power of the Vene- tians. Feltre also claims to have received the Gos- pel from St. Prosdocimus. St. Victor, a martjT, is said to have lived there about a. d. 170. The first Bishop of Feltre whose date can be fixed is Fonteius, who in 579 took part in a council in Aquileia and in .591 dedicated a book to Emperor Mauritius. Drudo of Camino (1174) was the first bishop of the imited sees of Belluno and Feltre, the latter being the residence of the bishop. The twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries were filled with civil strife.

In 1462, at the request of the Venetian Republic, the two dioceses were separated. The first Bishop of Belluno was Ludovico Donato. Bishops Pietro Barozzi, Mose Buffarello, and Bernardo Rossi (1499) rebuilt the cathedral. One of the most illustrious bishops was Luigi Lollin (1595) who did much to promote the love of learning among the clergj- and left large bequests to perpetually provide for a number of priests at the University of Padua. Giulio Berlendis (1655) completed the work of en- forcing the Tridentine reforms, and Gianfrancesco Bembo, a member of the Somaschi (1695), was very zealous in the cause of popular education. In ISIS the diocese was reunited with that of Feltre. Among the Bishops of Feltre after the separation mention should be made of Angelo Faseolo (1464;, who was appointed on many legations in connexion with the Crusade against the Turks; Lorenzo Campeggio (1512). famous as the nuncio to England during the time of Henrj' ^TII, later made cardinal and trans- ferred (1520) to Bologna. He was succeeded by his nephew Tommaso Campeggio, who was nuncio sev- eral times. Agostino Gradenigo (1610) restored the cathedral; Zerbino Lugo (1640) built the seminarj-; Giovanni Bortoli (1748) was a distinguished pro- fessor of canon law at Padua.

The most remarkable sacred edifices in Belluno are. in addition to the cathedral, the church of San Pietro, and that of San Stephano, the latter in Gothic style; all three contain paintings by the most dis- tinguished Venetian artists. In Feltre there are the cathedral, dedicated to St. Laurence, the oratory of San Giacomo, the churches of San Giorgio in Villa- bruna. and San Rocco; in the last named the painting over the high altar is the work of Palma il Vecchia