Bell ringing became an art and it even gained a fancy latin name:  Campanology, the study of bells.

There were two main ways to ring the church bell…

Pealing the bell and tolling the Bell. 

If you were to tug on the rope connected to the bell itself, this was called pealing.  This was the sound to signal the beginning of a worship service.  If the rope attached to the clapper was pulled this was called tolling.  This was the sound to signal that someone had died, that a funeral was about to begin.