About Church Bells
Church bells slowly became popular over the years as Christianity became more and more accepted. Now church bells are very popular and used widespread throughout the world.
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History
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In ancient Rome church bells were not very popular because Christianity was illegal. At this time bells were not thought of as a Christian symbol.
History
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St. Patrick of Ireland introduced bells in church around 432 A.D. Some of his original bells are still in Ireland along with his church in Belfast, Ireland.
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History
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Paulus the bishop of Nola in Campania, Italy, is thought to be one of the first to sound church bells off for Christian worship.
Development
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Around the 15th century, the tone of bells was not completely understood until monks began to work with it. They found that the combination of tin and copper worked best, and that dimension and wall thickness mattered for tone.
Types
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Three different shapes of bells-- the beehive, the primitive and the archaic bell shape--came from the monks' handiwork. The beehives were used for larger bell towers, the primitive bells were longer and thicker walled, and the archaic was more narrow at the top and very flared at the bottom.
Fun Fact
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As the science of making better bells grew, it became a competition between churches and towns about who had the largest or the loudest bells.
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References
- Photo Credit church bell image by AGITA LEIMANE from Fotolia.com
