§ 134. THE RELIGIOUS DRAMA. 873
Saviour's birth. The child was born. The three kings and the shepherds come on the scene. The journey to Egypt followed and Egypt's king met the holy family. Herod is eaten by worms. And so the play went on till anti-Christ made his appearance. Here we have a long advance upon the simple dramatic ceremonies of the century before, and at the same time the germ of the elaborate drama which was to follow. The materials, however, are all religious.
The dramatic instinct was not satisfied with a serious treatment of biblical themes. It demanded the introduction of the burlesque and farcical. These elements were fur nished by Judas, the Jews, and the devil, who were made the butts of ridicule. Judas was paid in bad coin. The devil acted a double part. He tempts Eve by his flatteries, he holds the glass before Mary Magdalene while she makes her toilet before going out to dance with every comer, wheels the unfortunate into hell on a wheelbarrow, and receives the lost with mock ceremony into his realm. But he is as frequently represented as the stupid bungler. He was the mediaeval clown, the dupe of devices excelling his own in shrewdness. He sallied out from the stage, frightening little boys and followed with laughter and jibes by the older onlookers. His mishaps were the subject of infinite merri ment.
The association of plays with the church was not received with universal approbation. Gerhoh of Reichersperg op posed them as a desecration. Innocent III. in 1210, if he did not condemn them altogether, condemned their abuse.1 The synod of Treves, 1227, and other synods forbade priests holding "theatrical plays" in the church buildings. Caesar of Heisterbach represents the rigoristic feeling when, hear ing from a priest of a stage that was struck by lightning and twenty men burned to death, declared the burning was a proper punishment for the friends of frivolity and that it was a wonder the priest, who was present, escaped.2
1 The meaning of Innocent's brief is disputed. It may have reference only to the Feast of Fools. The text is in the Decretals, III. 1, 12, Friedberg's ed., II. 452. 2 Dial., X. 28, Strange's ed., II. 238.
874 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
By the end of the thirteenth century, the plays were no longer acted in the churches, but were transferred to the public squares and other open spaces. Gilds and companies of actors took them up and acting again began to be a recog nized vocation. The religious element, however, was re tained, and religious and moral subjects continued to be the basis of all the plays. Even after they began to be acted on the public squares, the plays, like a modern political gather ing, were introduced with prayers and the Veni creator spiritm was chanted. Among the earlier societies, which made it their business to present them, was the confraternity of the Gonfalone. In its chapel, St. Maria della Pieta in the Colosseum, plays were given perhaps as early as 1250. In Passion week the roof of the chapel was turned into a stage and the passion was acted.1 The first company of play actors in Paris was called confrerie de la passion, the " brotherhood of the passion."
The Feasts of the Fools and the Ass. — In these strange festivals, which go back to the eleventh century, full vent was given by the clergy to the love of the burlesque. At first, they were intended to give relief to the otherwise serious occupation of the clergyman and, while they parodied religious institutions, they were not intended to be sacrilegious, but to afford innocent amusement. Later, the observance took on extravagant forms and received universal condemnation. But, already in this period, the celebration in the churches and cathedrals was accompanied with revels which called forth the severe rebuke of Bishop Grosseteste2 and two centuries later of John Huss. Both festivals were celebrated at Christmas tide and the early days of January. The descriptions are confusing, and it is difficult to get a perfectly clear conception of either festival.
On the Feast of the Fools, — festum stultorum,* — the deacons and subdeacons elected a boy as bishop or pope and in drollery allowed him episcopal functions. Prescriptions for the boy-bishop's dress are found in the annals of St. Paul and York and Lincoln cathedrals, and included a white mitre and a staff. The ceremony was observed at Eton. The festival, however, was most popular in France. The boy-prelate rode on an ass at the head of a procession to the church amid the ringing of bells
1 Gregorovius, Hist, of the City of Rome, VI. 712.
2 Luard's ed., pp. 118, 161. On these festivals, see Eselsfest, in Herzo<r, V. 497 sq., and Feste, in Wetzer-Welte, IV. 1398-1407; Chambers, I. 274- 372. 3 Called also festum hypodiaconorum, feast of the deacons, etc.