Before concluding this brief sketch of the Sunday and week-day in an English mediæval parish from the point of view of religion, notice must be taken of one regular feature of that life--the Angelus. The Angelus bell, the Ave bell, or the Gabriel bell, as it was variously called in England, probably grew out of the Curfew, which originally was a civil notification of the time to extinguish all lights; but in the thirteenth century it was turned into a universal religious ceremony in honour of Our Lord’s Incarnation and of His Blessed Mother. In 1347 Ralph de Salopia, Bishop of Bath and Wells, desired the cathedral clergy to say, the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night, five _Aves_ for all benefactors living or dead. Some few years before that time, Pope John XXII. had urged the habit of saying three _Aves_ at Curfew time. The practice soon spread to England, and grew as it spread, and Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury, in 1399, at the earnest request of King Henry IV., ordered the usage of saluting the Mother of God the first thing in the early morning and the last thing at night, to be universally adopted in the province--“at daybreak and at the Curfew,” and the bell that was then rung was called by our English ancestors the “Gabriel Bell,” in memory of that archangel’s salutation of Our Blessed Lady. By a fortunate chance we are able to know the actual time at which this Angelus bell was rung, for a casual note in a Bury St. Edmund’s book gives the times of the tolling in that city as at 4 a.m. and 9 p.m. in summer, and 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the winter. Of this religious ceremony a writer says-- “In accordance with a practice of the Early Church at morning and evening, the Angelus bell, as it was called,” pealed “forth from every steeple and bell-turret in the Kingdom, and as the sound floated through the surrounding neighbourhood, the monk in his cell, the baron in his hall, the village maiden in her cottage, and the labourer in the field, reverently knelt and recited the allotted prayer in remembrance of Christ’s Incarnation for us.” CHAPTER VIII CHURCH FESTIVALS The round of Church festivals was followed with a lively interest by the people of every English parish. From Advent to Advent the sequence of ecclesiastical feasts was calculated to bring before the minds of practical Christians the great drama of the Redemption of mankind; and the joyous participation of the people in the various celebrations was outwardly marked by the decoration of their churches for the greater solemnities with hangings and banners, with garlands of flowers, and with the multitude of lights which on those days were set burning before altars and statues.