There are no examples of bell towers in antiquity. The first to use a bell tower in a church was Paulinus of Nola, about the start of the 5th century. Bell towers in Italy have almost always been plain vertical towers not attached to a building (). From the beginning, bell towers in northern Europe have been attached to churches. They were known of in England at least by the time of Bede. When Hilda, Abbess of Whitby died (680 AD), a nun reported hearing the sound of a bell. Bell towers are repeatedly mentioned during the 8th century. One was the campanile of St. Peter's Basilica at Rome.