An investigation of the origin of bells in the Western Christian Church based upon a study of musical instruments used within worship services at major religious shrines of Europe and the Middle East (500 B.C.E.-800 C.E.): The Parthenon, the Jewish Temple, Hagia Sophia, and St. Peter's.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to locate the source from which the Western Christian Church borrowed the practice of ringing bells at Christian shrines that is evident at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in the mid-eighth century C.E. Four major religious shrines, the fifth-century B.C.E. Parthenon at Athens, the first-century C.E. Jewish Temple at Jerusalem, the sixth-century C.E. Hagia Sophia Cathedral at Constantinople, and eighth-century C.E. St. Peter's Basilica at Rome, were examined. The shrines were investigated in order to uncover any commonality in the use of musical instruments, especially the ringing of bells, in the rites, rituals, and ceremonies of religious worship. The Greek Pagan Festival, the Panathenaia, performed at the Parthenon records two musical instruments possibly played in the Panathenaic procession: the double pipes and the kithara. The temple orchestra of the Jewish Temple included the kinnor, nevel, metziltayim, hazozerah, halil, and the magrephah; the shofar was blown on Jewish Holidays. No musical instruments were incorporated into Christian rituals at Hagia Sophia, but at St. Peter's a bell reference appears in the middle of the eighth century.;Data indicated that there was no significant relationship among the instrumental musical practices of the four major shrines. No commonality in the use of bells was found at the major shrines of Greek Paganism, Judaism, Eastern Greek Orthodoxy, or Roman Catholicism. The introduction of the practice of ringing bells in religious rituals of the Western Christian Church appears to have been derived from other sources than the four major religious shrines examined.;Recommendations for further study include the examination of religious shrines in Egypt, Syria, and northern India. Additional research is needed to find a link between Buddhism in northern India, where the ringing of bells at Buddhist temples was a common practice, to the Hellenistic culture of the Middle East. This information would provide one source from which the Western Christian Church may have borrowed the practice of ringing bells at religious shrines.