RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Obadiah Oberlin
hood. A special oath of obedience on the part of the lower orders of the Church toward the bishop is met with only occasionally through force of custom or local regulations. The regulars also swear obedience to their superiors, and in their case the oath means complete submission to the superiors,, relinquishing all private desires. The order of the Jesuits and the related orders and congregations exact an oath which is quite peculiar to themselves. See Oath. E. Sehling.
Bibliography: On obedience in the ethical sense consult the principal works cited under Ethics. For the ecclesiastical usage consult: G. Phillips, Kirchenrecht, ii. 171 sqq., Regensburg, 1857; KL, ix. 583-586; and in general the treatises on Roman Catholic ecclesiastical law.
OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST: A conception sometimes employed in treating the doctrine of the Atonement (q.v.). This obedience to the will of the Father is represented as active, referring to the works of Christ; or as passive, referring to his suffering (cf. W- G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, ii. 430, New York, 1889; C. Hodge, Systematic Theology, iii. 143, ib. 1872).
OBER-AMMERGAU, 6"ber-am'mer-gau : A village of 1,200 inhabitants in Upper Bavaria, fortysix miles southwest of Munich, and in the valley of the Ammer. The principal industry is wood-carving. The fame of the village is due entirely to the Passion Play, which is given there every ten years in discharge of a vow made under the following circumstances:
" In the year 1633 .there raged in the neighborhood of Ammerthal (' valley of the Ammer ') a deadly plague, which threatened to depopulate the districts infected. The Ammerthalers took every precaution to protect their valley from the dread contagion, but without avail. A native of Ammerthal, who worked during the summer in Eschelohe [an infected place] as a day-laborer, evaded the quarantine, and entered the valley by a secret path, in order to celebrate among his family an annual church festival. He carried the infection with him, and on the second day after his arrival he was a corpse. In three weeks eighty-four of the small community were carried off; and the mourning and terrified survivors, despairing of human succor, made their supplication to God, and registered a solemn vow, that if he heard their cry, and removed the plague, they would represent every ten years, ' for thankful remembrance and edifying contemplation, and by the help of the Almighty, the sufferings of Jesus, the Savior of the world.' The prayer was heard; ' for not a single person died of the plague after the vow was made, though many were infected with it.' In the following year the first fulfilment of the vow was made, and the second in 1644, and so on decennially until 1674. It was then thought better to divide the representations decennially. Accordingly, the next representation was in 1680; and it has been acted regularly every ten years from that date downward " (M. MacColl, Ober-Ammergau Passion Play, pp. viii., 42-43, London, 1880).
The present Passion Play is very different from the rude performance once given. Down to 1830 it was always acted in the churchyard. It is now given upon a stage, in a building built especially for it, which seats 4,500. The performance is introduced, and accompanied at intervals by music, and is, on the whole, one of the most elaborate theatrical representations in existence. Every dweller in Ober-Ammergau is liable to be called upon to play; and the preparatory drilling consumes much time in the years next preceding the decennial performance. The credit of the present play is due to Ottmar Weis (d. 1843), a monk of the
Ettal monastery in the neighborhood, and subsequently pastor, to his pupil Anton A. Daisenberg, and to Rochus Dedler (b. 1779, d. 1822), who for the last twenty years of his life was the schoolmaster at Ober-Ammergau. The present play is modelled upon the Greek drama, and therefore the chorus is an integral part of it. It comprehends the events of our Lord's life from Palm Sunday to Easter. The text is mainly Scriptural; every word attributed to our Lord or to his disciples, friends and foes, during the week referred to, being interwoven in the play. The principal players are persons of local consequence and of high character; and the villagers themselves and the peasants around regard the Passion Play as a solemn religious rite. It is therefore fitly introduced by the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which is administered to the players and to the majority of the intending spectators very early on the day of the play. The acting, considering the limited education of the players, is marvelously realistic. Of late years much money has been spent upon costumes, sceneries, and stage properties. The number of players is said to be about 600, but this includes many children. The tableaux vivants, which are illustrations of the historical allusions in the chorus, are particularly fine, being revelations respecting the possibilities in tableaux. The performances last from eight to five, with an intermission of an hour and a half. They are given on Sundays and Fridays, and in some weeks on Mondays, from the middle of May to the end of September.
The Ober-Ammergau Passion Play has been suffered to pursue a nearly untroubled course. Permission to give it, which has always been readily granted, has to be obtained from the king of Bavaria. In 1780 it was the only passion play allowed in Bavaria, and in 1810 it triumphed over even ecclesiastical opposition. The profits, which are, of course, very large, since the throng of visitors numbers thousands, are religiously devoted to charitable purposes after the payment of a small sum to the players. The charges of admission are very moderate, ranging from one to eight marks (twenty-five cents to two dollars). Altogether the Passion Play is a curious, and in its way a unique, relic of the piety of the Middle Ages.
Bibliography: Translations of the text are: The Passion Play Translated, London, 1890; The Passion Play of Ober-Ammergau, ib. 1900. Consult: H. Rommel, De Passiespelen van Oberammergau, Brugge, 1881; J. A. Daisenberger, Text des Oberammergauer Passionspieles, Munich, 1890; F. W. Farrar, The Passion Play, London, 1890; K. Trautmann, Oberammergau und seine Passionsspiel, Bamberg, 1890; F. Feldigl, Ober-Ammergau und seine Passionspiel in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Partenkirchen, 1900; W. T. Stead, The Story that Transformed the World. Passion Play at Ober-Ammergau, London, 1891; Lady I. Burton, The Passion-Play at Ober-Ammergau, ib. 1900; H. Diemer, Oberammergau und seine Passionsspiele, Munich, 1900; J. Krauskopf, A Rabbi's Impressions of the Oberammergau Passion Play, Philadelphia, 1901; A. G. Hay, Ober-Ammergau and its Great Passion Drama of 1900, London, 1902; E. H. Day, Ober-Ammergau and the Passion Play; a practical and historical Handbook, Milwaukee, 1910; J. H. Short, Oberammergau, New York, 1910. r f
OBERLIN, o'ber-lin, JEAN FREDERIC: Lutheran philanthropist; b. at Strasburg Aug. 31, 1740; d. at Waldersbach (29 m. s.w. of Strasburg)
Oberlin Occam