CURFEW, or COURFEW, a signal given in cities taken in war, &c., to the inhabitants to go to bed. Pasquin says, it was so called, as being intended to advertise the people to secure themselves from the robberies and debaucheries of the night.

CURFEW-Bell in French couvrefeu, and in law Latin of the middle ages, ignitium, or pyritium, was a signal for all persons to extinguish their fires. The most eminent curfew in England was that established by William the Conqueror, who appointed, under severe penalties, that, at the ringing of the bell at 8 o'clock in the evening, every one should put out their lights and fires and go to bed; whence to this day a bell rung about this time is called a curfew-bell. This law was abolished by Henry I. in 1100.

This practice was highly necessary to prevent accidents in those ages when the fires were placed in a hole in the middle of the floor, under an opening in the roof to allow the escape of the smoke. This hole was covered up when the family went to bed. The same practice still exists in some countries, and particularly in some parts of Scotland. But besides securing houses against accidents by fire, the law which was very generally established in England for extinguishing or covering fires, was probably meant also to check the turbulence which frequently prevailed in the middle ages, by forcing the people to retire to rest, or to keep within doors. From this ancient practice, in the opinion of Beckmann, has arisen a custom in Lower Saxony of saying, when people wish to go home sooner than the company choose, that they hear the bürgerglocke, the burgheer's bell.

The ringing of the prayer bell, as it is called, which is still practised in some Protestant countries, according to Beckmann, originated in that of the curfew-bell. Pope John XXIII., dreading that some misfortunes were to befall him, ordered every person on hearing the ignitium to repeat the Ave Maria three times, with a view to avert them. When the appearance of a comet, and a dread of the Turks, alarmed all Christendom, Pope Calixtus VIII. increased these periodical times of prayer, by ordering the prayer-bell to be rung also at noon. Hist. of Invent. ii. 101.