In many parishes it used to be an invariable custom to ring a single bell, or chime several, at eight o’clock on Sunday morning; this, however, has lost its original significance since the general introduction of early Celebrations. In former times the regular hour for Mattins was at eight, followed by Mass at the canonical hour of nine, and though such an arrangement of services soon came to an end after the Reformation, the bells which used to announce them were continued even down to the present day. There are still not a few parishes where a bell is rung at nine as well as at eight, even when there are no early services.
Cast by Taylor, 1881. Now hanging in the south-west tower of S. Paul’s Cathedral. (See page 52.)]
In pre-Reformation days most churches possessed, besides the regular “ring,” several smaller bells, which are described in inventories as “saunce” or “sanctus” bells, “sacring bells,” and so on. Their uses are sometimes confused nowadays, but were clearly defined. The sanctus bell, or saunce, usually hung in a turret or cot on the gable over the chancel arch, and was intended to announce the progress of the service to those outside who could not come to church. It was rung at that point in the Sarum or English rites of the Eucharist when the singing of the _Sanctus_ or “Holy, Holy, Holy,” just before the Canon of the Mass, was reached; whence its name. The sacring-bell, on the other hand, was much smaller, and hung _inside_ the church, usually on the rood-screen. It was rung at the end of the Consecration Prayer, or “prayer of sacring” (Plate 30), and announced the completion of the act of sacrifice. The Reformers made a dead set against these practices, but it is difficult to see that much superstition was involved therein, and the revival in modern days of the “sacring bell” in the form of a few strokes at the time of the consecration has more to recommend than to condemn it.
A few sacring bells still exist, hanging on rood-screens, in East Anglian churches, as at Salhouse and Scarning (Plate 31), and one at Yelverton, in Norfolk, has just been restored to its old position. Ancient sanctus bells are more numerous, and a few still hang in their original cots, as at Wrington, in Somerset, and Idbury, in Oxfordshire (Plate 32). They have mostly been fixed in the towers and used as “ting-tangs.” The majority have no inscription on them, but there are notable exceptions in some of the Midland counties.