Batch. For whom the bells ring, should they be removed?

In the Lotlike everywhere else in France, the bells ring. Some people are happy about it, others don’t want to hear it anymore? What exactly is it?

Whether it’s sunny or cold, whether it’s raining or the sun is hot, the bell tower resonates the A or F of the bells it houses. We rural people find it easier to hear the bells two or three times a day. We even rely on it.

The bell is one of the oldest sound instruments

The bell must have appeared from the moment when, thanks to the use of fire, man was able to sufficiently master the clay technique to make “sound vessels” by resonance. The oldest metal bells date from the Bronze Age.

The use of bells by Christians dates back to the 5th^e century. The evangelizing monks waved them to warn of their arrival in the villages. From VI^e century, they have become essential to punctuate monastic life. The bell calls the monks to prayer. It also allows lay Brothers who do not participate in all services to join others while continuing their work.

Bells became widespread in churches from Charlemagne onwards. Around the year 800, several councils demanded the installation of bells in parish churches.

The chapel of the Black Madonna in Rocamadour has one of the oldest bells in France. Before IX^e century, of very rare manufacture since forged and not cast, it is suspended from the vault.

We will have to wait until the 13th^e century so that technical progress made it possible to cast large sizes.

Bell ringing is a major element of parish life

Historically, bells were the most powerful medium. They announced parish events (from prayer to services), but also communal (from the hours of the day to elections) and national (from the terror of epidemics to declarations of war). On September 3, 1939, all the bells in France rang. Today other media are taking over. Ringing constituted a language, founded a communication system and accompanied forgotten modes of relationships between individuals. And even “mastering the use of ringing has constituted over the centuries a major issue of power which agitated the rural microcosms” underlines the historian Alain Corbin in his work “The bells of the Earth”.

True means of mass communication, they transmit very precise information: the symbolism is very strong. We don’t ring out mass on an ordinary Sunday the way we ring out Christmas mass.

This is why, with regard to religious bells, the law does not allow the mayor to remove them. We can barely regulate them. Thus in France, the first angelus rings from 6 a.m. (as in Alsace) until 9 a.m. in certain places.

From their origins, bells have had a liturgical function (religious services and exceptional festivals). Ringing bells at a wedding or funeral invites people to feel involved in community life and to take an interest in their neighbors.

The number of bells set in motion, the rhythm, the duration depend on the degree of solemnity of the celebration. Silence also has a deep meaning. The bells are silent from the service of Maundy Thursday to that of the Easter Vigil.

But the electrification and automation of bells led to standardization. In the past, ordinary masses and festive masses were announced in different ways. By the sound of the bells alone, residents could know if the bell tower was announcing which sacrament and of course a funeral. And even in certain places depending on the different ringtone, you could know if you were burying a man, a woman or a child. “Of course, it’s not about going back to that. But many people today no longer even know what the Angelus stands for,” laments François de Figeac, who adds: “yet we should keep the heritage alive for future generations.”

It is true that in certain churches built without a bell tower in the 1970s and 1980s, parishioners are today asking for the (re)installation of bells. Thus trying to restore a collective meaning to ringing as an element of parish life.

The bell towers also house civil bells.

Alongside religious use, civic use must be distinguished. Civil time corresponds to the hours of the day.

The bell towers also house civil bell ringing. This was the case on 1^er August 2014. On that day, the Government proposed ringing the tocsin in all the bell towers of France to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. But due to ignorance, the historic ringing (officially replaced by a siren since the 1960s) has often given way to a simple flight of bells, or even to the death knell.

There is a real impoverishment of this heritage, due in particular to the decline in religious practice and the reduction in the number of priests. According to a 2017 survey, 4% of parishes no longer ring the Angelus and 18% have given up ringing it in the morning. Conflicts around bell ringing are rather rare, but have been increasing over the years, especially in large towns and urban areas. Thus some priests, to avoid problems, prefer to refrain from ringing the Angelus.

Bells for our daily life and the highlights of life

If sound disputes exist, they are rare because the French are very attached to their bells, whether they are believers or not. Those who don’t want to hear the bells are neo-rural people who want absolute silence because they left the city for that purpose. But generally, they alienate the entire rural population. The bells always punctuate our daily lives and the highlights of life, but without us really being aware of them.

Bells are voices because they sing. Faithfully, they sanctify time, each with its own sound. The prayer of the bell tower is a way of life that does not get tired of starting again. “When you live in a village, the bells adorn the space and sanctify time” confides Father David Réveillac, parish priest of Gourdon.

It would be dangerous for the bell to become a museum. The bell is not an object of art. It is made to be heard. The voice of the bells is a constant reminder of the invisible presence of God among men.

André DECUP

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