A distinction which has been much discussed by those concerned with the laws governing churches, especially perhaps the Church of England and to a lesser extent the Church in Wales, is that between canon law and ecclesiastical law. At times, the terms appear to be used synonymously, whilst at others, there is a clear distinction. It is submitted that both views can be correct. However, they are correct only while certain conditions prevail.

The adjacent quotation is from Gwyn Thomas (1913–1981), the Anglo-Welsh novelist and playwright, who fulminated against the revival of Catalan with a force which is scarcely comprehensible, despite the fact that Spanish, or perhaps one should say Castilian, was his preferred choice of language both to learn at school and at Oxford, and later to teach. The force of his invective becomes explicable however when one remembers that he lived at a time when the Welsh language was starting to be just the sort of ‘first-class nuisance’ which he chided Catalan for being, and was about to commence a similar sort of revival.

In the July 1995 number of the Ecclesiastical Law Journal, Mr R. H. Bloor presented an interesting account of recent difficulties encountered by the parish church of St Mary's Belton with regard to the chiming of its church clock. In his article, ‘Clocks, Bells and Cockerels’, he took occasion to consider briefly the law relating to bells as a noise nuisance and usefully brought some unreported cases to the attention of readers of the Journal. He did not however consider one question which is, it is submitted, of peculiar importance to ecclesiastical lawyers, a question raised by the present author in a letter to The Times on 22 October 1994, namely whether the obligation of clerics to ring a bell under ecclesiastical and canon law can be a defence to a complaint of nuisance for the noise caused. Nor did he examine the differences which exist, particularly with regard to defences, depending upon whether the complaint is one of public, private or statutory nuisance. The present paper is therefore offered as a discussion of these points and as a wider review of the authorities relating to them.

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