In pre-modern and early-modern Europe, bells were ubiquitous and the loudest, most pervasive sound in cities. After the human voice, bells were the most versatile of the instruments available and so were used extensively, both by churches for religious reasons, calling listeners to mass or marking a feast day, and by civic buildings (city halls) for secular reasons, such as timekeeping or alarm signaling.1
Bells are extremely versatile instruments that can convey many different meanings, to which early modern listeners were attuned. Bells not only are cast to sound different pitches, but also can be played in various styles. Today, most people think of ‘tolling’, ‘ringing’, and ‘striking’ as synonyms for sounding a bell, but in the early-modern period, these were recognized as distinct playing techniques that produced different qualities of sound.2 European bells also have an unusually complex overtone structure (with a characteristic minor third overtone), which is somewhat variant across bell foundries, permitting an expansive range of sounds. Individual bells can therefore be distinguished because each produces a distinct sound.
While bell ringing varied somewhat between Protestant and Catholic churches, both used the ‘passing bell,’ to which John Donne refers when he says “ask not for whom the bell tolls”; this is also the bell to which Hester Pulter refers in “The Welcome”.3 The passing bell was tolled just before a person’s death to ward off evil and to call for listeners to pray for the departing soul.4 The manner in which a bell was tolled could tell the listener about who was passing: “two pulls for a woman, three for a man was common in England and France.” Bells were a significant cost for churches and bell ringing was their greatest source of income; because bell tolling and ringing could be purchased, with smaller bells costing less money and bigger bells costing more, the audience could tell not only the gender of the person for whom the bell was tolling but also their class. In a small town, it would have been possible to deduce literally for whom the bell tolled from its distinct sound and pattern.
Listen to 100 Tolls for the Centenary of Armistice Day performed on the Soldiers’ Tower carillon at the University of Toronto on 11 November 2018. The bourdon bell was tolled 100 times by Mateusz Olechnowicz, Elisa Tersigni, and Naoko Tsujita. The recording was made by Roy Lee.
The following are excerpts from contemporary sources on bell tolling.
In the above woodcut image, personified Death sounds the sick man’s passing bell as he strikes his final blow.
William Perkin, Deaths Knell. Or, the sick mans Passing-bell. London, 1664. (Wing P1562) Image courtesy of the British Library, digitized by the Google Books project.
Across pre-modern and early-modern Europe, bells were used for many purposes, including superstition, such as driving away thunderstorms. During the Reformation, bells became associated with Catholicism and there were many calls to limit when and how bells were used, including for funeral rites. Despite pressure to eliminate funeral tolling altogether, bells remained integral parts of the services of the dead throughout the period. The following is excerpted from Elizabeth I’s instructions on the administration of the Sacraments, in which she authorizes and limits bell tolling in death ceremonies to the passing bell, the death bell, and the funeral bell.
Administration of Common Prayers
Item, that when any Christian bodye is in passing, that the bell be tolled, and that the Curate be specially called for to comforte the sicke person: and after the tyme of his passinge, to ringe no more but one shorte peale: and one before the buriall, and an other shorte peale after the buriall.
Aduertisments partly for due order in the publique administration of common prayers and vsing the holy Sacramentes, and partly for the apparrell of all persons ecclesiasticall, London, 1565: B1r. (STC 10027)
The following meditation is the source of Donne’s famous line: “And therefore neuer send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.” The meditation emphasizes community and the connections between people: when one community member dies, so too does a portion of those who are left living. The tolling of the passing bell is also a reminder of one’s mortality.
John Donne, Devotions vpon Emergent Occasions
17. Nunc lento sonitu dic*nt, Morieris. Now, this Bell tolling softly for another, saies to me, Thou must die.
17. MEDITATION.
PErchance hee for whom this Bell tolls, may bee so ill, as that he knowes not it tolls for him; And perchance I may thinke my selfe so much better than I am, as that they who are about mee, and see my state, may haue caused it to toll for mee, and I know not that. The Church is Catholike, vniuersall, so are all her Actions, All that she does, belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concernes mee; for that child is thereby connected to that Head which is my Head too, and engraffed into that body, whereof I am a member. And when she buries a Man, that action concernes me; All mankinde is of one Author; and is one volume; when one Man dies, one Chapter is not torne out of the booke, but translated into a better language; and euery Chapter must be so translated; God emploies seuerall translators; some peeces are translated by Age, some by sicknesse, some by warre, some by iustice; but Gods hand is in euery translation; and his hand shall binde vp all our scattered leaues againe, for that Librarie where euery booke shall lie open to one another: As therefore the Bell that rings to a Sermon, calls not vpon the Preacher onely, but vpon the Congregation to come; so this Bell calls vs all: but how much more mee, who am brought so neere the doore by this sicknesse. There was a contention as farre as a suite, (in which both pietie and dignitie, religion, and estimation, were mingled) which of the religious Orders should ring to praiers first in the Morning; and it was determined, that they should ring first that rose earliest. If we vnderstand aright the dignitie of this Bell, that tolls for our euening prayer, wee would bee glad to make it ours, by rising early, in that application, that it might bee ours, as wel as his, whose indeed it is. The Bell doth toll for him that thinkes it doth; and though it intermit againe, yet from that minute, that that occasion wrought vpon him, hee is vnited to God. Who casts not vp his Eie to the Sunne when it rises? but who takes off his Eie from a Comet, when that breakes out? who bends not his eare to any bell, which vpon any occasion rings? but who can remoue it from that bell, which is passing a peece of himselfe out of this world? No Man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; euery man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends, or of thine owne were; Any Mans death diminishes me, because I am inuolued in Mankinde; And therefore neuer send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. Neither can we call this a begging of Miserie or a borrowing of Miserie, as though we were not miserable enough of our selues, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking vpon vs the Miserie of our Neighbours. Truly it were an excusable couetousnesse if wee did; for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any Man hath enough of it. No Man hath affliction enough, that is not matured, and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction. If a Man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and haue none coined into currant Monies, his treasure will not defray him as he trauells. Tribulation is Treasure in the nature of it, but it is not currant money in the vse of it, except wee get nearer and nearer our home, heauen, by it. Another Man may be sicke too, and sicke to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a Mine, and be of no vse to him; but this bell that tels mee of his affliction, digs out, and applies that gold to mee. if by this consideration of anothers danger, I take mine owne into Contemplation, and so secure my selfe, by making my recourse to my God, who is our onely securitie.
John Donne, Devotions vpon Emergent Occasions and seuerall steps in my Sicknes London, 1624: T1v–T6r or p. 411–419. (STC 7033a)
Footnotes
1. David Garrioch. “Sounds of the city: the soundscape of early modern European towns.” Urban History, 30(1), 2003: 9-10.
2. Lubken, Deborah. “Joyful Ringing, Solemn Tolling: Methods and Meanings of Early American Tower Bells.” William and Mary Quarterly, 69(4), 2012: 823–825.
3. David Garrioch. “Sounds of the city: the soundscape of early modern European towns.” Urban History, 30(1), 2003: 11.
4. David Garrioch. “Sounds of the city: the soundscape of early modern European towns.” Urban History, 30(1), 2003: 11.
