There is no record of when the bell was invented. There are pictures from early Chinese dynasties which clearly show bells, not the open method version beloved of bell ringers but the "Noddy" variety. Indeed they have been used by different civilisations in religious rites even before the development of a written language.
They are mentioned in Exodus as part of Hebrew worship and they are shown decorating the robes of priests. The early founders of the Celtic church in Britain, Saints Aiden, Cedd and Patrick, brought with them four sided bells similar to Austrian cow bells. St. Patrick's bell is still in his shrine in Dublin. In fact, handbells were the first bells to have appeared in England, the Romans using them to summon their servants. The large portable handbells which succeeded them were made of riveted iron plates immersed in molten bronze.
When the Christian church was recognised by Constantine in Rome, and came out of hiding, founders began to increase the size of bells and priests hung them on the outside of their churches. Paulinus at Nola in Campania is supposedly the first to have done this, and from his act derives the words campanile and campanology.
