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BEADS.

BEGUINES.

bays, the description of one bay comprises | figures are purposely composed of discordmost of the terms used in architectural ant parts, to comprise the greater number nomenclature. The accompanying block of terms.

tion. In the former the pope does not act as a judge in determining the state of the beatified, but only grants a privilege to certain persons to honour him by a particular religious worship, without incurring the penalty of superstitious worshippers. In canonization, the pope blasphemously speaks as a judge, and determines, ex cathedra, on the state of the canonized. It is remarkable, that particular orders of monks assume to themselves the power of beatification.

BEADS, or BEDES. A word of Saxon | death. Beatification differs from canonizaorigin, which properly signifies prayers; hence Bidding the Bedes meant desiring the prayers of the congregation, and from the forms used for this purpose before the Reformation is derived the Bidding of prayer, prescribed by the English canons of 1603. (See Bidding Prayer.) From denoting the prayers themselves, the word came to mean the little balls used by the Romanists in rehearsing and numbering their Ave-marias and Pater-nosters. (See Rosary.) A similar practice prevails among the dervises and other religious persons throughout the East, as well Mahometans as Buddhists and other heathens. The ancient form of the Bedes, or Bidding Prayer, is given in the Appendix to Collier's Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. No. 54, which shows that our present Bidding Prayer I was founded on that model.

BEATIFICATION. (See Canonization.) In the Romish Church, the act by which the pope declares a person happy after

BEDDERN, BEDERNA. The name still retained of the vicar's college at York, and of the old collegiate building at Beverley. Query, whether it may be somewhat the same as Bedehouse, i. e. an hospital?-Tebb.

BEGUINES. A congregation of nuns, founded either by St. Begghe, duchess of Brabant, in the seventh century, or by Lambert le Begue, a priest and native of Liege, who lived in the twelfth century.

BELL AND THE DRAGON.

They were established first at Liege, and afterwards at Nivelle, in 1207, or, as some say, in 1226. From this last settlement sprang the great number of Beguinages, which are spread over all Flanders, and which have passed from Flanders into Germany. In the latter country, some of them fell into extravagant errors, and persuaded themselves that it was possible in the present life to attain to the highest perfection, even to impeccability, and a clear view of GOD, and in short, to so eminent a degree of contemplation, that, after this, there was no necessity of submitting to the laws of mortal men, civil or ecclesiastical. The Council of Vienne, in 1311, condemned these errors, but permitted those who continued in the true faith to live in chastity and penitence, either with or without vows. There still subsist many communities of Beguines in Flanders. Hist. des Ord. Relig. viii. c. i.

in England, as at Chichester, and at Salisbury (the belfry in the latter place was destroyed some years ago). The great central towers of our cathedrals and abbeys were not originally constructed for bells, but for lanterns, to give light to the central portion of the church. The bells were contained in the towers, or turrets, at the west end, or at the angles of the church. Many churches had more than one bell tower. In Canterbury cathedral the ring of bells is contained in the southwestern tower; the small bell, or BellHurry, which is rung just before the service, is placed in the great central tower.

BELIEVERS (Toroi, or Faithful). A name given to the baptized in the early Church, as distinguished from the Catechumens. The believer was admitted to all the rites of Divine worship, and instructed in all the mysteries of the Christian religion.-Bingham.

BEL AND THE DRAGON (THE HISTORY OF). An apocryphal and unBELLS. Bells of a small size are very canonical book of Scripture. It was al- ancient, but larger ones are of a much later ways rejected by the Jewish Church, and date. The lower part of the blue robe is extant neither in the Hebrew nor the worn by the Jewish high priest was adornChaldee language, nor is there any proofed with pomegranates and gold bells. The that it ever was so. St. Jerome gives it no better title than "the fable of Bel and the Dragon." It is, however, permitted to be read, as well as the other apocryphal writings, for the instruction and improvement of manners.

Selden (De Duis Syris, Syntagma ii. cap. 17) thinks, this little history ought rather to be considered as a sacred poem or fiction, than a true account. As to the Dragon, he observes, that serpents (dracones) made a part of the hidden mysteries of the Pagan religion; as appears from Clemens Alexandrinus, Julius Firmicus, Justin Martyr, and others. And Aristotle relates, that, in Mesopotamia, there were serpents which would not hurt the natives of the country, and infested only strangers. Whence it is not improbable that both the Mesopotamians themselves and the neighbouring people might worship a serpent, the former to avert the evil arising from those reptiles, the latter out of a principle of gratitude. But of this there is no clear proof, nor is it certain that the Babylonians worshipped a dragon or serpent.-Aristot. περὶ θαύμας, ἀκουσματ.

BELFRY. The place where the bells are hung; sometimes being a small arch placed on the gable of the church, sometimes a tower or turret. The belfries were originally detached from the church, as may be still seen in many places in Italy. Instances of this have been known

kings of Persia are said to have had the hem of their robes adorned in like manner. The high priest probably gave notice to the people, and also desired permission to enter the sanctuary, by the sound of these bells, and by so doing escaped the punishment of death annexed to an indecent intrusion.

On the origin of church bells, Mr. Whitaker, in his "History of Manchester,” observes, that bells being used, among other purposes, by the Romans, to signify the times of bathing, were naturally applied by the Christians of Italy to denote the hours of devotion, and summon the people to church.

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Bells," says Nicholls, "were not in use in the first ages of Christianity. For, before the Christians received countenance from the civil power, they were called together by a messenger, who went about from house to house, some time before the hour the congregation met. After this they made use of a sounding plank hanging by a chain, and struck with a hammer. The precise time when bells first came in use is not known. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, in Campania, in order to give notice to the most remote inhabitants when prayers began, hung up a large brass vessel, which, when struck upon by a hammer, gave such a sound as he desired for his purpose. This was about the year 420. Hence the two Latin names for a great bell-Nola,

from the town; and Campana, from the country where they were first used."

But, whatever may be the connexion of bells with the city of Nola, there is no ground for referring the first use of them to Paulinus; Bingham pronounces the opinion to be "certainly a vulgar error." Others say they took the latter of these names, not from their being invented in Campania, but because it was there the manner of hanging and balancing them, now in use, was first practised; at least that they were hung on the model of a sort of balance invented or used in Campania.

The Greek Christians are usually said to have been unacquainted with bells till the ninth century, when their construction was first taught them by a Venetian. But it is not true that the use of bells was entirely unknown in the ancient Eastern churches, and that they called the people to church, as at present, with wooden mallets, like the clappers or cresselles, used instead of bells in many churches of the Romish communion, during the holy week. (See Cresselle.) Leo Allatius, in his Dissertation on the Greek Temples, proves the contrary from several ancient writers. He says bells first began to be disused among them after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks; who, it seems, prohibited them, lest their sound should disturb the repose of the souls which, according to them, wander in the air.

were many cast of a large size and deep note. Ingulphus mentions, that Turketulus, abbot of Croyland, who died about A. D. 870, gave a great bell to the church of that abbey, which he named Guthlac : and afterwards six others, viz. two which he called Bartholomew and Betelin, two called Turkettul and Tatwin, and two named Pega and Bega, all which rang together; the same author says, "Non erat tunc tanta consonantia campanarum in totà Anglia." Not long after, Kinsius, archbishop of York, (1051-1061,) gave two great bells to the church of St. John, at Beverley, and at the same time provided that other churches in his diocese should be furnished with bells. Mention is made by St. Aldhelm, and William of Malmesbury, of bells given by St. Dunstan to churches in the West. The number of bells in every church gave occasion to a curious and singular piece of architecture in the campanile or bell tower: an addition which is more susceptible of the grander beauties of architecture than any other part of the edifice. It was the constant appendage to every parish church of the Saxons, and is actually mentioned as such in the laws of Athelstan.

The uses of church bells are summed up in the following monkish distichs :— "Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum,

Defunctos ploro, pestem fugo, festa decoro." "Funero plango, fulgura frango, sabbata pango, Excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos."

Before bells were hung, they were formerly, and in the Romish communion they still are, washed, crossed, blessed, anoint

This ceremony was commonly styled baptizing them. (See Martène de Antiq. Eccl. Ritibus, ii. 296.) Some say that it was introduced by Pope John XIII., who oc cupied the pontifical chair from 965 to 972, and who first consecrated a bell in the Lateran church, and gave it the name of John the Baptist. But it is evidently of an older standing, there being an express prohibition of the practice in a capitular of Charlemagne in 789—ut clocæ non baptizentur.

In Britain, bells were used in churches before the conclusion of the seventh century, in the monastic societies of Northumbria, and as early as the sixth, even in those of Caledonia. And they were therefore used from the first erection of parished with chrism, and named by the bishop. churches among us. Those of France and England appear to have been furnished with several bells. In the time of Clothaire II., king of France, A. D. 610, the army of that king was frightened from the siege of Sens, by ringing the bells of St. Stephen's Church. The second excerption of Egbert, about A. D. 750, which is adopted in a French capitulary of 801, commands every priest, at the proper hours, to sound the bells of his church, and then to go through the sacred offices to GOD. And the Council of Eanham, in 1009, requires all the mulcts for sins to be expended in the reparation of the church, clothing and feeding the ministers of GOD, and the purchase of church ⚫vestments, church books, and church bells. These were sometimes composed of iron in France; and in England, as formerly at Rome, were frequently made of brass; and, as early as the ninth century, there

The following are the regulations of the Church of England on the subject of bells. By a constitution of Archbishop Winchelsea, the parishioners shall find, at their own expense, bells with ropes.

Canon 81. The churchwardens or questmen, and their assistants, shall not suffer the bells to be rung superstitiously, upon holy days or eves abrogated by the Book of Common Prayer, nor at any other times,