At 22:41 97-11-29 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear All, Please excuse my ignorance, but the question remains the same: why
>was the performance of religious drama in the churches forbidden in 1241 by the
>Pope? Is there any documentation on this event?
>C. Thomas Ault
>Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Oscar G Brockett (and many others) says: "Whe know little about the
transition since so little evidence has survived" !!!
Brockett gives few interresting informations in his work: "History of
Theatre", Boston, Allyn & Bacon inc., 1968, 652p.:
"Whatever the thruth, a number of significant changes occures in religious
drama in the years between 1200 and 1400. First, tha play came to be staged
outdoors primarely during the spring and summer months, in part because of
the favorable weather but also because of the newly created feast of Corpus
Christi. This festival was conceived by Pope Urban IV in 1264, given
official sanction in 1311, and was being celebrated almost everywhe by 1350.
Observed on the Thursday 23 to 24, Corpus Christi was instituted out of a
desire to give special emphasis to the redemptive power of the consecrated
bread and wine. (...) The feast of Corpus Christi was also motivated in part
by the desire to make the church more relevant to the ordinary man and his
life. Therefore, secular groups had to be asigned a role in the
celebrations. Representatives of all ranks and professions (nobles,
merchants, craftmen, and churchmen) were included among those who
participated in the central feature of the Corpus Christi festival: a
procession throught the town with the consecrated Host. Many scholars have
seen in this cooperative venture the beginning of the layman's involvment
that would eventually lead to his predominance in the staging of outdoor plays".
In conclusion, all the specialist seems to associated the outdoors drama
with the use ot the vernacular language instead of latin.
There are many references on the topic:
Glynne Wickman, "A History of the Theater", Cambridge, Cambridge Un. Press,
1985, 264p.
Wilson Edwin, "Living Theater, an Introduction to Theater History", N.Y.,
McGraw-Hill, 1983, 481p.
Loren K Ruff and Walter R. Stump, "Imitation: The Art of the Theater",
Winston-Salem, N. Ca., Hunter Pub. co., 1979, 287p.
Vera Monry Roberts, "On Stage: A History of Theater", N.Y., Harper & Row,
1974, 544p.
Claire Labrecque
Un.Laval, Quebec.
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