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oa Sounds and Silence
Ringing of the Bells in the Period of Reformation
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Carillon and Bell Culture in the Low Countries, Volume 2, Issue 1, May 2023, p. 73 - 86
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- 01 May 2023
Abstract
The article explores the changes that Protestant theologians and church officials introduced to bell ringing in the Reformation. They concentrated bell ringing on the announcing of all types of services. They abolished all sorts of bell ringing that they suspected to be magical or Papal. Yet, they couldn’t push through all their reforms because the believers in the parishes resisted, especially in the case of weather ringing (Wetterläuten) and ringing against the Turks (Türkenläuten). In some cases, the Reformation theologians gave new interpretations to established forms of ringing, especially in the case of the Angelus ringing (Angelusläuten). At last, it is considered how these changes in the Reformation era still apply to bell ringing in present Protestant churches.