[Bell Historians] Re: Oldest Christian Bell

[Richard Smith]

John Camp wrote:

> Possibly.  But RAS's argument* is circular.  It goes like this: Egbert
> directed his priests to ring their church bells.  How do we know?
> Because he used the word "signa".  Therefore "signa" means church bells.

Quite the contrary.  My point, though not terribly well 
argued, was that we cannot tell precisely what is meant. 
Egbert's phrase, 'ecclesiarum signa', is commonly translated 
as '[of the] church bell', but I'm quite prepared to believe 
it could mean a gong or cymbal or cowbell.  I'm inclined to 
dismiss a gong or a cymbal because there's no evidence that 
such bells were in use in English churches.  But we 
certainly shouldn't rule out a small cowbell, and that's why 
I wrote in the previous email that I wasn't aware of any 
solid evidence for English tower bells before the early 10th 
century.

RAS