ano, declares "The sound of this bell
vanquishes tempests, repels demons, and summons men." Another, at
the Cathedral of Erfurt, declares that it can "ward off lightning and
malignant demons." A peal in the Jesuit church at the university town
of Pont-a-Mousson bore the words, "They praise God, put to flight the
clouds, affright the demons, and call the people." This is dated 1634.
Another bell in that part of France declares, "It is I who dissipate the
thunders"(Ego sum qui dissipo tonitrua).(237)

(237) For these illustrations, with others equally striking, see Meyer,
Der Aberglaube des Mittelalters, pp. 185, 186. For the later examples,
see Germain, Anciennes cloches lorraines (Nancy, 1885), pp. 23, 27.

Another, in one of the forest cantons of Switzerland, bears a doggerel
couplet, which may be thus translated:

"On the devil my spite I'll vent, And, God helping, bad weather
prevent."(238)

(238) "An dem Tufel will cih mich rachen, Mit der hilf gotz alle bosen
wetter erbrechen." (See Meyer, as above.)

Very common were inscriptions embodying this doctrine in sonorous Latin.

Naturally, then, there grew up a ritual for the consecration of bells.
Knollys, in his quaint translation of the old chronicler Sleidan,
gives us the usage in the simple English of the middle of the sixteenth
century:

"In lyke sorte (as churches) are the belles used. And first, forsouth,
they must hange so, as the Byshop may goe round about them. Whiche
after he hath sayde certen Psalmes, he consecrateth water and salte, and
mingleth them together, wherwith he washeth the belle diligently both
within and without, after wypeth it drie, and with holy oyle draweth in
it the signe of the crosse, and prayeth God, that whan they shall rynge
or sounde that bell, all the disceiptes of the devyll may vanyshe away,
hayle, thondryng, lightening, wyndes, and tempestes, and all untemperate
weathers may be aswaged. Whan he hath wipte out the crosse of oyle wyth
a linen cloth, he maketh seven other crosses in the same, and within
one only. After saying certen Psalmes, he taketh a payre of sensours and
senseth the bel within, and prayeth God to sende it good lucke. In many
places they make a great dyner, and kepe a feast as it were at a solemne
wedding."(239)

(239) Sleiden's Commentaries, English translation, as above, fol. 334
(lib. xxi, sub anno 1549).

These bell baptisms became matters of great importance. Popes, kings