Enlightened Protestants and Catholics condemned the old (and perilous!) custom of ringing consecrated church bells to avert an approaching thunderstorm. If the lightning rod was the icon of the Enlightenment, they asserted, apotropaic bell-ringing was its unenlightened antithesis. In the Middle Ages it was believed that thunderstorms were caused by devils. The Church's thunderstorm demonology merged with the ancient pagan conviction that spirits could be repelled by loud noises – by what would be described today as sympathetic magic. In the Netherlands and parts of Germany and Austria no figure was more popular than the “thunder saint”, Donatus. But the way his devotional material was used sometimes went well beyond what was ecclesiastically proper. On the other hand, in the century of Enlightenment age-old ritualism not infrequently gave way to processes of allegorisation and spiritualisation. Popular beliefs flourished in the countryside, where demons were kept at bay by safeguarding the threshold and hearth with sharp metal objects and lightning was repelled by particular plants, birds’ nests, and carcasses.

Weather Prophet

Three clouds in the sky,

What should that mean?

The sexton should go home,

He should ring the weather bell!