Bell, Book and Candle

So, since I haven't done it in a while, I thought it might be nice to pull a random entry from the dictionary again (for a previous instance, see the entry for Netsuke.) Even though I don't blog about it every time I do it, I do enjoy, whenever I have a dictionary out on the table, randomly opening the book to a page and picking out an interesting looking word I don't know.

I thought I would shake it up a little, though, and use a dictionary that I don't often use- The Vulgar Tongue. Complied and published by Francis Grose in 1785, the book was the first recognized dictionary of slang in London. I picked up a copy at Pennsic (the biggest SCA event of the calendar year) a few summers ago. Flipping open my copy brings us to...

Bell, book, and candle. An allusion to the popish form of excommunicating and anathematizing persons who had offended the church.

Well, I probably could have found that somewhere else. "Popish," for those that do not understand the reference, means Catholic in this context. The entry refers to the archaic practice of separating those from the church who had committed especially heinous sins, a ceremony which would conclude when the "bishop would ring a bell to evoke a death toll, close a holy book to symbolize the excommunicant's separation from the church, and snuff out a candle or candles, knocking them to the floor to represent the target's soul being extinguished and removed from the light of God." [Thanks, as is quite often, to The Free Dictionary, for its entry on this one.]

There was a lot of additional information on this entry. The pop culture references abound, so I thought I would post one here. It is actually a bit of an episode of one of my favorites of guilty-pleasure television: Charmed. I used to love this show. When the oldest sister, Prue (played by Shannen Doherty) dies, the song "Bell, Book, and Candle" by Eddi Reader is played over her funeral scene, shown here.




I wonder about the significance of a Wiccan funeral ceremony with background music making reference to a Catholic form of excommunication. The lyric used is "I need a bell, book and candle to keep your ghost away." I won't ramble on about my thoughts about that, for the moment, though they abound. But think I am going to see if Blockbuster has seasons of Charmed for rent.

Also, does anyone understand the significance of the officiant placing the rope in the urn during the ceremony. That one is lost on me.