$93. THE ORGAN AND THE BELL. 441
superstition ascribed to bells a magical effect in quieting storms and expelling pestilence. Special towers were built for them.1 The use of church bells is expressed in the old lines which are inscribed in many of them ;
" Lauda Deum verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum, Defunctos ploro, pestcmfugo.festaque honoro."*
1 Called Campanile. The one on place of San Marco at Venice is especially celebrated.
2 The literature on bells is given by Siegel, II. 239, and Otte, p. 2 and 102. We mention Nic. Eggers : De Origine et Nomine Campanarum, Jen., 1684 ; by the same: De Campanarum Mater ia et Forma, 1685; Waller: De Campania et prcecipuis earum Usibus, Holm., 1694; Eschenwecker : Circa Campanas, Hal., 1708; J. B. Thiers: Traite des Cloches, Par., 1719; Montanus: Hist. Nachricht von den Glocken, etc., Chemnitz, 1726; Chrysander: Hist. Nachricht von Kirchen- Glocken, Kinteln, 1755; Heinrich Otte: Glockenkunde, Leipz., 1858; comp. also his Handbuch der kirchlichen Kunst-Archdologie des deutschen Mittelalters, Leipz., 1868, 4th ed., p. 245-248 (with illustrations) ; and the articles Bells, Glocken, in the archaeological works of Smith and Cheetham, Wetzer and Welte, and Herzog. Schiller has made the bell the subject of his greatest lyric poem, which ends with this beautiful description of its symbolic meaning :
" Und dicss sei fortan ihr Beruf,
Wuzii der Meister sie erschuf: Hoch iiber' m niedern Erdenleben
Soil sie im biauen Himmelszelt, Die Nachbarin des Donners, schweben
Und grdnzen an die Sternenwelt; Soil eine Stimme sein von oben,
Wie der Gestirne helle Schaar, Die ihren Schopfer wandelnd loben
Und filhren das bekranzte Jahr. Nur ewigen und ernsten Dingen
Sei ihr metalCner Mund geweiht, Und stiindlich mit den schnellen Schwingen
Berilhr im Fliifje sie die Zeit. Dem Schicksal leihe sie die Zunge;
Selbtt herzlos, ohne Mitgefilhl, Beyleite sie mit ihrem Schwunge
Des Lebens wechsslvolles Spiel. Und wie der Klang im Ohr vergehet,
Der mdchtig tonend ihr entschallt, So lehre sie, doss nichts bestehet,
Doss alles Irdische verhallt.'1
442 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
99. The Worship of Saints. Comp. vol. III. $ 81-87 (p. 409-460).
The Worship of Saints, handed down from the Nicene age, was a Christian substitute for heathen idolatry and heroworship, and well suited to the taste and antecedents of the barbarian races, but was equally popular among the culti vated Greeks. The scholastics made a distinction between three grades of worship : 1) adoration (Aar/oe/a), which belongs to God alone ; 2) veneration (douJf &), which is due to the saints as those whom God himself has honored, and who reign with him in heaven ; 3) special veneration (bnspdouAeta), which is due to the Virgin Mary as the mother of the Saviour and the queen of all saints. But the people did not always mind this distinction, and the priests rather encouraged the excesses of saint-worship. Prayers were freely addressed to the saints, though not as the givers of the blessings desired, but as inter cessors and advocates. Hence the form : "Pray for us" (Or a pro nobis).
The number of saints and their festivals multiplied very rapidly. Each nation, country, province or city chose its patron saint, as Peter and Paul in Rome, St. Ambrose in Milan, St. Martin, St. Denys (Dionysius) and St. Germain in France, St. George in England, St. Patrick in Ireland, St. Boniface in Germany, and especially the Virgin Mary, who has innumer able localities and churches under her care and protection. The fact of saintship was at first decided by the voice of the people, which was obeyed as the voice of God. Great and good men and women who lived in the odor of sanctity and did eminent service to the cause of religion as missionaries or martyrs or bishops or monks or nuns, were gratefully remembered after their death ; they became patron saints of the country or prov ince of their labors and sufferings, and their worship spread gradually over the entire church. Their relics were held sacred;