Gra carillonu ratusza Głównego Miasta w Gdańsku w świetle procesu konfesjonalizacji

The idea of confessionalization, introduced to history teaching at the end of the 1970s, refers to a phenomenon, characteristic for modern (especially early-modern) times, of mutual creation of pre-modern statehood in Europe based on the cooperation between the autonomous Church and the state. The confessionalization in the social and religious life of Gdańsk was especially influen-tial after the Lutheran church had rooted in the city in mid-16th century. The Gdańsk City Council was quick and efficient in taking control over the local Protestant church to become its actual superior. Its power manifested for instance in issuing the so-called church regulations (Dangizer Kirchenordnung) which ordered the course of services and other religious ceremonies, as well as the decrees specifying the precise standards of behavior for the inhabitants of Gdańsk. Another tool applied by the Council to introduce the social discipline in the spirit of the Protestant moral code was the Main Town Hall carillon. This automatic instrument consisting of a set of fourteen chime bells was ordered by the City Council in the Flemish region of North Brabantia in 1559. Two years later (1561) it was installed inside the cupola of the belfry of the Main Town Hall — the seat of the authorities of the city, to become its unquestionable adornment. The Protestant hymns flowing from the bell tower were used not only to measure time and announce important social and political events taking place in Gdańsk itself and beyond, but also to remind the inhabitants of the instrument’s patron, on the one hand to underline the generosity of the Council, and on the other — as a forceful indication of the actual authority holder in the city on the Motława.