The first organ
The oldest organ stood on a gallery against the north wall of the choir, above the door of the old sacristy; that is why this wall has no windows. It was probably built around 1543 by the organ builder Reussens. In 1639 there were two organs, a new one and an old one. For the great feasts the church brought in organists from outside, such as ‘Hermes, den organist van Bruessele’ in 1566-1567. When the new organ came, the old one was sold on 21 April 1792 for 450 guilders to the parish priest of Kwerps.
The Rochet organ (1792)
Parish priest Forneville had a new gallery built at the back of the nave, above the west door. On 28 April 1789 the churchwardens ordered three organ cases from Floris Bonet, master joiner in Charleroi, for 1,290 guilders; the sculptor J.J. Delbas carved the decoration, with musical instruments, flowers and Saint Cornelius with his horn. The organ itself, with three manuals and 32 stops, came in 1792 from Adriaan Rochet of Nivelles (1749-1823), the last master of Brabant Baroque organ building. Inside the case it still reads: ‘Adrianus Rochet Nivellensis fecit organum anno 1792’. It cost 2,105 guilders, partly paid from the pilgrims' offerings. To make room, the lower part of the large west window was bricked up.
Rochet himself came twice a year to maintain the organ until 1822. In 1829 the Brussels joiner Corten made a porch under the gallery in the same style as the panelling, with a new spiral staircase. Around 1900 August Verhulst of Herent rebuilt the organ with two manuals and 26 stops, but he kept many of Rochet's pipes, each with its original note.
The bells
In 1552 there were a small bell and a large one. In 1593 there was only a little bell in the churchyard, as the tower had no bells left. By 1639 there were three again, of about 3,000, 1,800 and 700 pounds, and in 1663 Claude Humblot cast a fourth. According to an inventory of 1732 the three largest were called Catherine (cast in 1503), Cornelius and Mary (both of 1665). In 1743 master Roelants recast a cracked bell, and in 1813 the great bell of 3,000 pounds, also cracked, was recast into two bells by Andreas Vanden Gheyn in Leuven; the godparents were the baron and baroness Le Boucq de Beaudignies.
Since 1924 the bells have been rung electrically. In 1943 the Germans took away the 960-kilo bell, and another cracked on the day the last stone of the spire was lowered. A bell committee collected money and scrap copper, and Marcel Michiels of Tournai cast two new bells: Catherine, of about 1,600 kilos, and a second of about 960 kilos. They cost 217,000 francs and were blessed on 21 October 1951. The inscription on Catherine says, roughly: ‘I lost my old form, I fell silent for a while in anxious times, but Catherine is reborn and now rings out far and wide’. The third bell is still the one of 1813: ‘Cornelius vocor’, my name is Cornelius.