BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE, an old ceremony of pro nouncing the "major excommunication" or "anathema." Its origins are not clear, E ut it goes back certainly to the end of the 9th century, if not to the middle of the 8th. In this formality the bell represents the public character of the act, for it served not only to call the participants together but to announce it to all ; the ceremony was performed in some conspicuous place and, upon its termination, letters were written to bishops of other sees to report the fact. The book represents the authority of the words spoken by the presiding bishop. The candle is believed to symbolize the possibility that the ban may be lifted by the repentance and amendment of its victim, for just as the candles used are extinguished, so the excommunication itself may be. When the assemblage has been convoked a bishop appears with 12 priests; and all of the 13 hold lighted candles. The bishop, wearing violet vestments, then recites the formula, ending thus: "We separate him, together with his accomplices and abettors, from the precious body and blood of the Lord and from the society of all Christians ; we exclude him from our holy mother the Church in heaven and on earth; we declare him excommuni cate and anathema; we judge him damned, with the Devil and his angels and all the reprobate, to eternal fire until he shall recover himself from the toils of the Devil and return to amend ment and to penitence." Those present answer, "So be it!" Then the bishop and the 12 priests extinguish their candles by dashing them to the ground and (as a general rule) the ceremony is ended. Sometimes the 1 o8th psalm has been recited as a reference to Judas and other enemies of Christ.
The present ceremonial of excommunication is to be found in the Pontificale Romanum, book iii., under the title Ordo excommunicandi et absolvendi. See also Catalan, Pontificale romanum prolegomenis et commentariis illustratum, vol. iii., 253 et seq. (and ed., Paris, 1852) ; Martene, De antiquae Ecclesiae Ritibus, book ch. iv. (Rouen, ; Vacant et Mangenot, Dictionnaire de Theologie catholique, vol. i., coll. II68-71.