medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Jon
I asked Alison McHardy, who edited Royal Writs Addressed to John Buckingham, bishop of Lincoln 1363-98 for the Canterbury and York Society (1997) if there was anything there (I can't find my copy).
She said she did not think so but that Bishop Fleming's register (Lincs AO Reg 16 Fleming, fo 211 r-v) records that on 12 October 1420 prayers and processions, including the ringing of bells, were asked for on behalf of the king (Henry V) and army about to go overseas.
I'm pretty sure I've seen similar requests in other episcopal registers (but can't lay my hands on them).
Abbot Whethamstede claimed that Bishop Alnwick of Norwich appointed the ('poor little') prior of Binham to collect taxes in 1432 as punishment for the fact that when the bishop approached Binham on his visitation, the prior and convent shut themselves away and refused all signs of courtesy 'such as the ringing of bells' [Amundesham, vol I, pp300-2]. This would seem to imply that bells were expected to be rung as a sign of welcome to great personages - and may apply to visiting royalty as much as bishops?? Or am I reading too much into it?
Best wishes,
Rosemary
----- Original Message -----
From: Jon Cannon
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2015 10:50 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] occasions for bell ringing
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
It's pre-Edward VI, James, and that's good enough for me. How silly of me -- should have thought of looking there.
Jon
http://joncannon.wordpress.com/
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Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 21:54:46 +0000
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] occasions for bell ringing
To: [log in to unmask]
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
This isn't much earlier than your St Mary Redcliffe reference, Jon, but the Rites of Durham explain quite fully the varied use of bells in the central and west towers there in the early 16th century.
Cheers,
Jim
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From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Anne Willis [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: February 2, 2015 3:39 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] occasions for bell ringing
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Churches don’t have the same number of bells even now. In my area there are rings of five, six, eight, ten and twelve. There are Rules now though governing the number of changes that constitute a ‘full peal’
For ‘full peal’ read ‘full peal on our bells’.
I think ringing for secular occasions grew during the later years of Elizabeth Tudor, perhaps with the same motive as the singing of psalms. You could join in. The call change sequence ‘Queens’ is said to be so-called because Elizabeth Tudor liked it. Accession Day; ‘Crownation’ Day; monarch and family’s birthdays; for ‘deliverance from the powder plot’, victories, etc. were all celebrated.
The Edwardian surveys of church goods give the number of bells for each church. In Wiltshire three or four seem to have been usual but there were fives, and even a six at Westbury. If you map the fives they fall into three groups; round Marlborough, in Salisbury and in west Wiltshire; all industrial areas. It seems money, not piety was behind bells.
Anne
From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Katherine French
Sent: 02 February 2015 00:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] occasions for bell ringing
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Also churches didn't have the same number of bells, so a full peal could mean different things for different communities.
Katherine French
J. Frederick Hoffman Prof. of History
University of Michigan
On Feb 1, 2015, at 7:20 PM, Jon Cannon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Well, you can tell I am out of my period. 'Full peal' clearly means something specific that I'd overlooked. The records by the late C17 merely indicate that more is being paid to the bell ringers for some occasions than for others: I'd assumed that meant more bells were being rung (is that not a 'full peal'?), but I suppose it could mean they are being rung for longer, and I also suppose, now you mention the subject, that neither tells us whether or not change ringing is taking place?
All fascinating stuff, and thank you Anne and Jane for your contributions. But also very interested to read anything on the roots of this idea of ringing for secular events, which was the thrust of my enquiry. Were pre-reformation bells rung for such events? Do we know which such events?
Jon
http://joncannon.wordpress.com/
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Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2015 23:36:50 +0000
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] occasions for bell ringing
To: [log in to unmask]
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I very much doubt if the bells would have been rung for a ‘full peal’ in modern terms. To achieve this you would not only need the bells hung ‘full circle’ that is so that the bell could rotate through nearly 360 degrees and the ringer control precisely when to ring their bell; but you would also need a ‘method’ to ring, and these were not developed until after the Civil Wars. [For the record this year St Peter Mancroft celebrates the 300th anniversary of what is probably the first true peal of 5040 changes on May 15th ]
‘Full peal’ in those days would have meant something akin to the call change ‘peals’ that are so beautifully rung in Devon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czJZVuhFcio has the classic ‘sixty on 3rds’ on handbells plus the typical ‘rise and fall’ before and after the ‘peal’ that would be expected on tower bells. There are other call change sites with the clip.
Mid-16th bell hanging technology only used half or ¾ wheels which would not allow the bell to be swung through most of a circle or allow the degree of control desirable.
Hanging bells for ringing full circle was a very new technology at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and was probably evolving through trial and error, and the fear of a tower collapsing was very real. The ‘better sort’ of Lacock pointed out that an augmentation at Chippenham had meant that the churchwardens had to begirth their Steeple with a wooden frame about it. Presumably their complaint was written before the following disaster:
April 21st 1628 being the year in which Calne Tower and steeple fell being a Tuesday about 5 o’clock in the afternoon
No wonder the ‘better sort’ of Lacock, not six miles from Calne, and only three from Chippenham were worried. In 1639 Calne tower collapsed again, shoddy building work being blamed. The tower and spire at Chippenham were rebuilt in 1635 for a total of £475
In 1638 the churchwardens at Warminster recorded:
Memorandum that in the yeare 1638 the tower of the church . . . was slat [ie cracked] and when the bells were ringed the slatts did open and shut which was very dangerous and in tyme might ruin the tower if it had not been
prevented & the materials and doing thereof cost about ffourteen pounds
[Devizes St John cracked some years ago and I can tell you that there is nothing so alarming as watching a crack in the tower open and close as you ring.]
A central tower [as at Warminster and Calne] is much more vulnerable to the forces of ringing, and a young child recently exclaimed that Bishops Cannings was like a ‘ship at sea’ when the bells were ringing.
The website http://www.bellringing.org/history/ is probably a good place to start
One of the most curious entries I found for celebratory ringing was a regular one for All Hallows day at Broughton Gifford in the 18th century. Old custom retained, or a new one? I have not seen it in other Wiltshire accounts of the period
Anne
PS Out of period, but if anyone is really interested I can let them have a chapter on Wiltshire Bells 1559-1642
From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon Cannon
Sent: 01 February 2015 21:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] occasions for bell ringing
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I'm working on some English post-Reformation churchwarden's accounts, for St Mary Redcliffe, in Bristol. I note that in the mid-C16 bells are rung at full peal for major events such as a royal coronation.
Does anyone here know whether such practises, ie the ringing of the bells to mark 'secular' events, has medieval roots, and any good literature on which kinds of events where rung for before the Edwardian reformation?
For information, at St Mary Redfciffe by the C18 the bells are rung for a range of annual events, as well as commemoratively for major historic turning points: -- examples of the latter include the Gunpowder Plot, the restoration of Charles II, or the Coronation day of the reigning monarch; of the former, the annual arrival of the judge to the city on his circuit, etc. They are also rung for one-off events such as a major military victory or the birth of a royal child. Some trouble is taken to calibrate the scale of the peal to the significance of the event.
Jon
http://joncannon.wordpress.com/
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