w difficult even for
philosophical minds to oppose, is shown by the fact that both Descartes
and Francis Bacon speak of it with respect, admitting the fact, and
suggesting very mildly that the bells may accomplish this purpose by the
concussion of the air.(246)

(245) For Elector of Saxony, see Peuchen, Disp. circa tempestates,
Jena, 1697. For the Protestant theory of bells, see, e. g., the Ciciones
Selectae of Superintendent Conrad Dieterich (cited by Peuchen, Disp.
circa tempestates). For Protestant ringing of bells to dispel tempests,
see Schwimmer, Physicalische Luftfragen, 1692 (cited by Peuchen, as
above). He pictures the whole population of a Thuringinian district
flocking to the churches on the approach of a storm.

(246) For Olaus Magnus, see the De gentibus septentrionalibus (Rome,
1555), lib. i, c. 12, 13. For Descartes, see his De meteor., cent.
2, 127. In his Historia Ventorum he again alludes to the belief, and
without comment.

But no such moderate doctrine sufficed, and the renowned Bishop
Binsfeld, of Treves, in his noted treatise on the credibility of the
confessions of witches, gave an entire chapter to the effect of bells in
calming atmospheric disturbances. Basing his general doctrine upon the
first chapter of Job and the second chapter of Ephesians, he insisted
on the reality of diabolic agency in storms; and then, by theological
reasoning, corroborated by the statements extorted in the torture
chamber, he showed the efficacy of bells in putting the hellish legions
to flight.(247) This continued, therefore, an accepted tenet,
developed in every nation, and coming to its climax near the end of the
seventeenth century. At that period--the period of Isaac Newton--Father
Augustine de Angelis, rector of the Clementine College at Rome,
published under the highest Church authority his lectures upon
meteorology. Coming from the centre of Catholic Christendom, at so late
a period, they are very important as indicating what had been developed
under the influence of theology during nearly seventeen hundred years.
This learned head of a great college at the heart of Christendom taught
that "the surest remedy against thunder is that which our Holy Mother
the Church practises, namely, the ringing of bells when a thunderbolt
impends: thence follows a twofold effect, physical and moral--a
physical, because the sound variously disturbs and agitates the air, and
by agitation disperses the hot exha