D. 492,) the practice of
hanging bells in church steeples had not begun; and we know from history,
that they were first used to summon the people to worship in A.D. 551, by
a bishop of Campania; the churches, therefore, that were erected by St.
Patrick, (and he built many,) were originally without belfries; and when
the use of bells became common, it was judged more expedient to erect _a
belfry detached from the church_, than by sticking it up against the
side or end walls, to mar the proportions of the original building.
This is the account of the matter given by the old Irish historians, not
one of whom appears to have been aware what "puzzlers" these _round
towers_ were to become in after ages; and in a life of St. Kevin, of
Glendaloch, (co. Wicklow,) who died A.D. 628, we are told that "the holy
bishop did," a short time before his death, "erect a _bell-house_
(cloig-theach) contiguous to the church _formerly_ erected by him, in
which he placed _a bell_, to the glory of God, and for the good of
his own soul."
I am not unaware, in giving you the above quotation, that "all the
antiquarians," and particularly those of Scotland, have long since
decided, that in every matter connected with the ancient history of
Ireland, her native historians (many of whom were eye-witnesses of the
facts they relate) are on no account to be credited; and that the safest
way of dealing with those chroniclers is, in every thing, to take for
granted exactly the reverse of what they may at any time assert.
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