I was extremely interested by the part of Bob Moore's message which
I've snipped below, because it fits in so well with what can be seen
happening in many English dioceses in the thirteenth century in the
area of traditional games and plays. He wrote:
> [...] ever since I wrote The
> Origins of European Dissent almost the whole of my work has stemmed
> from the (not particularly original) suspicion I then formed, since
> hardened into certainty, that beliefs and practices characterised by
> bishops and others as novelties were usually nothing of the kind, but
> traditional beliefs and practices of which the said bishops had
> begun, for reasons of their own, to express their disapproval. Most
> of what I've published since has been directed to understanding the
> reasons for the mounting disapproval, and has drawn me into an ever
> firmer conviction that what such pronouncements assert is excellent
> and often very interesting evidence for what is going on inside the
> minds of those who make the assertions, and no evidence at all for
> what was going on outside them. [...]
Now in a number of English dioceses shortly after Lateran IV, there is
a sudden rise in mandates and clauses in synodial statutes which
condemn various observances by clergy and laity at Christmastime and
in the summer (around Pentecost). From the descriptions, with their
puns on 'ludus' and 'ludibrium' and some illustrative details, it
appears that on the clergy side, the condemned activity is some kind
of misrule or inversion of order within the context of a liturgical
service, usually the offices rather than a mass. On the lay side it
appears we're dealing with summer games or king games (possibly with a
maypole but not likely a yew tree!) which trespassed into consecrated
ground. It seems unlikely that these activities are new; what seems
more likely by far is that the senior clergy, having had their
consciousness raised (so to speak) by the Lateran IV programme to
protect the holiness of sacred persons, space, and time, are seeing
already traditional practices in a new (and very critical) light.
Abigail Ann Young (Dr), Associate Editor/ Records of Early English Drama/
Victoria College/ 150 Charles Street W/ Toronto Ontario Canada
Phone (416) 585-4504/ FAX (416) 585-4594/ [log in to unmask]
List-owner of REED-L <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed-l.html>
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed.html => REED's home page
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/stage.html => our theatre resource page
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~young => my home page
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