Again, the word signum appears in the almost contemporary 'Life of St. We learn that they were struck or shaken, and we find mention of a cord being used for this purpose (funem illum de quo signum commovetur, 'De Vitâ Martini', I, xxviii), while as regards the use of these signa it appears that they rung before church services and that they roused the monks from their beds. The first Christian writer who frequently speaks of bells (signa) is Gregory of Tours (c. A new set of terms is introduced, signum, campana, clocca, nola, which are all commonly translated 'bell', and it is certain that at a later period these were all used to denote what were in the strictest sense 'church bells' of large size. In coming to the Christian period the same difficulty is encountered. The officer who made the round of the sentries at night carried a (Thucyd., IV, cxxxv Aristoph., Aves, 842 sqq.), and it is difficult to believe that anything resembling an ordinary bell could have been used for a duty in which the avoidance of accidental noise must often have been of the highest importance. We translate the word as bell, but it is possible that it would be more correctly rendered gong or cymbals. We are not only ignorant of the dimensions, but also of the shape of the kodon which was used for example to announce the opening of the public markets (Cf. None the less, the question whether anything corresponding in size to a church bell was known in pre-Christian times does not readily admit of an answer. See for example Martial, 'Epig.', xiv, 161, where the signal for the opening of the baths is made with a tintinnabulum also described as œs thermarum. Further it may be inferred from the purposes for which they were used that the tintinnabula of which we read in the classics, must at least in some instances have betokened hand-bells of larger size. There is consequently no reason why the bells upon the high priest's ephod ( Exodus 33:33) should not have been tiny bells of normal shape. Specimens are still preserved of the bells used in ancient Babylonia and in Egypt, as well as by the Romans and Greeks, while the bell undoubtedly figured no less prominently in such independent civilizations as those of China and Hindustan.

The archaeological evidence for this conclusion has been collected in the monograph of Abbé Morillot and is quite overwhelming. That bells, at any rate hand-bells of relatively small size, were familiar to all the chief nations of antiquity is a fact beyond dispute. The subject will be treated under the following heads:

Ostiarius newadvent