"I praise the true God, call the people, convene the clergy;
I mourn the dead, dispel the pestilence, and grace festivals;
I mourn at the burial, abate the lightnings, announce the Sabbath;
I arouse the indolent, dissipate the winds, and appease the avengeful."


Another rendering of the two last lines reads:--

"Men's death I tell, by doleful knell;
Lightnings and thunder I break asunder;
On Sabbath all to church I call;
The sleepy head, I raise from bed;
The winds so fierce I do disperse;
Men's cruel rage, I do assuage."


And in the Legend itself, an historical account of mediæval
bell-ringing is given by Friar Cuthbert, as he preaches to a crowd from
a pulpit in the open air, in front of the cathedral:--

"But hark! the bells are beginning to chime;...
For the bells themselves are the best of preachers;
Their brazen lips are learned teachers,
From their pulpits of stone, in the upper air,
Sounding aloft, without crack or flaw,
Shriller than trumpets under the Law,
Now a sermon and now a prayer."...