Meaning:
The phrase `bell, book and candle' is the final line of an incantation
denoting excommunication from the Catholic church.
Background:
In the excommunication ceremony officials close the book, quench the candle
and toll a bell, as for someone who had died. The phrase is old and first
appears, in Old English, circa 1300:
"Curced in kirc an sal ai be wid candil, boke, and bell."
Shakespeare used the phrase in King John, 1595:
BASTARD:
Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back,
When gold and silver becks me to come on.
Bell, book and candle was taken up as the title of a 1958 US film starring
Kim Novak.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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Back in the 11th century, the excommunicated Roman Emperor Henry IV trekked with
his family over the wintry Alps to Canossa to beg for forgiveness from Pope
Gregory VII.
Over one millennium and countless dynasties, the Catholic Church has remained,
although it doesn't have that kind of muscle any more.
Besides, most American presidents are Protestants. Pope Leo can condemn the war
all he likes but he cannot threaten bell, book and candle no matter how evil he
thinks of the racketeers.
