| Eyam Parcish Church Bell | |
|---|---|
|
Origin |
Eyam, Derbyshire |
|
Type |
Church Bell |
|
Effects |
Enforces communal decisions |
|
Activation |
Ringing during meeting |
|
Collected by |
Warehouse 11 |
|
Section |
|
|
Aisle |
940966-8164 |
|
Shelf |
242679-3940-428 |
| [Source] | |
Origins[]
Eyam is an English village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales that lies within the Peak District National Park. Eyam’s main claim to fame is the story of how the village chose to go into isolation so as to prevent infection spreading after bubonic plague was discovered there in 1665. The history of the plague in the village began in 1665 when a flea-infested bundle of cloth arrived from London for Alexander Hadfield, the local tailor. Within a week his assistant George Viccars, noticing the bundle was damp, had opened it up. Before long he was dead and more began dying in the household soon after.
As the disease spread, the villagers turned for leadership to their rector, the Reverend William Mompesson, and the ejected Puritan minister Thomas Stanley. They introduced a number of precautions to slow the spread of the illness from May 1666. The measures included the arrangement that families were to bury their own dead and relocation of church services to the natural amphitheatre of Cucklett Delph, allowing villagers to separate themselves and so reducing the risk of infection. Perhaps the best-known decision was to quarantine the entire village to prevent further spread of the disease. Merchants from surrounding villages sent supplies that they would leave on marked rocks; the villagers then made holes there which they would fill with vinegar to disinfect the money left as payment.
The plague ran its course over 14 months and one account states that it killed at least 260 villagers, with only 83 surviving out of a population of 350. That figure has been challenged, with alternative figures of 430 survivors from a population of around 800 being given. The church in Eyam has a record of 273 individuals who were victims of the plague.
Effects[]
The artifact only activates when rung during a meeting of more than thirty individuals. If rung after a vote or debate then everyone who hears the bell toll will be unable to act against the majority opinion. While they cannot be made to do anything that endangers themselves, they will find themselves complying with any decrees regardless of their personal feelings on the matter.
To deactivate the artifact, any member of the majority voters can ring the bell a second time, which will either dispel the compulsive effect of overwrite it if another decision was made.