RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Religious Corporations Religious Dramas
religious corporation may contain nothing adverse to the denominational connection of the local church body. If a corporation is found to have adopted such by-laws, the remedy is in the civil courts where such by-laws and all corporate acts based upon them will be nullified. Another power is that of adopting and using a corporate seal. This seal is affixed to all formal documents signed by the officers of the corporation as such and should appear over all instruments intended to bind the corporation. The religious corporation must act as a body in regular meeting. The separate and individual acts of members of the corporation, even though such acts are by a majority of the whole number, are not binding upon the corporation and can not of themselves create corporate liability. A power either specifically granted or necessarily implied is that of purchasing, leasing, exchanging, or mortgaging all forms of real property, provided that such property is necessary and convenient for the purposes of the church body. This question is decided by the civil courts alone. A religious corporation may not engage in business transactions for profit. It may, however, hold revenue-producing property, not used by the church, as investment in the form of an endowment. It has the implied if not the express right to contract money obligations to be evidenced by bonds or notes. The mortgaging of real property by a religious corporation generally requires the consent of some superior ecclesiastical authority, as well as an order of court. Because one of the objects of religious incorporation is to give a legal person standing in court, such corporations have the right to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, in courts of law and of equity. It is in the civil courts and not in the ecclesiastical courts that the religious corporation has standing; and it is from the civil courts that orders or writs will issue, directing or restraining corporate action. A corporation has the right to be represented by counsel, and the necessary cost of litigation is recognized as a legitimate expense. Unlike private corporations, the religious corporation can neither merge nor dissolve without the consent of the local church body and the higher church authorities. The statutes provide when and how there can be a consolidation of such corporations, and also under what circumstances a religious corporation can proceed to its own dissolution.
The American law of religious corporations has developed largely with reference to local churches; yet the practise of incorporation by superior ecclesiastical bodies and by special organizations, such as mission and educational boards, has become general. These general corporations do not differ in their legal character from the local corporations; but because their property interests are widely distributed throughout the possessions of the United States and in foreign lands, they come more often under the jurisdiction of the federal courts and the tribunals of foreign countries.
George James Bayles. Bibliography: W. H. Roberts, Laws Relating to Religious Corporations: Collection of the general Statutes of the States and Territories, Philadelphia, 1896; Laws Relating to General Religious and Non-Business Corporations (New York), Albany, 1899; R. G. Gumming, Membership and
Religious Corporations, ed. A. J. Danaher, ib. 1900-04; C. T. Carr, General Principles of the Law of Corporations, New York, 1905.
RELIGIOUS DRAMAS.
Origins and Earliest Specimens (§ 1).
Gradual Extension of Action (§ 2).
Rise of Objections; Vernacular Plays (§ 3).
Increasing Elaborateness of Production (§ 4).
Literary Style; Corpus Christi Plays and Moralities (§ 5).
Early Protestant Attitude (§ 6).
The Oberammergau Passion Play (§ 7).
The Christmas Plays (§ 8).
The religious drama, as setting forth events recorded in the Bible or moral lessons to be drawn from religious teaching, is distinctively medieval in character, and in origin is closely connected with the services of the Church. At a very early period
a quasi-dramatic effect was given by i. Origins the division of the choir into antiand phonal semi-choruses and in the re- Earliest sponses of the congregation to the Specimens, clergy, though it was not until the
tenth century that there was any approximation to dramatic action. Then, however, tropes, or texts interpolated during the service, as in the introit, were added, the oldest specimens being contained in a St. Gall manuscript of about 900. In many monasteries the crucifixion and resurrection were dramatically represented from Good Friday to Easter; and the custom thus inaugurated received accretion after accretion, such as a scene between Mary Magdalene and Christ, added in the twelfth century. In like manner the antiphon and the trope sung at Christmas gave rise to a little drama, probably modeled on the Easter playlet, the earliest Easter tropes extant dating from the eleventh century; and similar provision was made for the feasts of Holy Innocents and Epiphany. As a specimen the little drama acted on the latter feast may be described. Three of the clergy, robed as Icings, came from three sides of the church and met at the altar, whence they solemnly proceeded, with a star swinging before them from a cord, to the crib, where they were received by two priests vested in dalmatics. Having offered their gifts, they were warned by an angel (a white-robed boy) to escape the wrath of Herod, whereupon they made their exit from the church through the transept. A combination of Christmas, Holy Innocents, and Epiphany was also effected by having the three kings brought before Herod while on their way to Bethlehem, the introduction of that king giving the moment of opposition and thus inaugurating true dramatic life in Christian drama. Yet another drama was evolved from a homily attributed to Augustine and read as a lesson on Christmas. Assailing the Jews for their stubborn refusal to hear their own prophets concerning the Christ, the opportunity was afforded, in the eleventh century, of presenting not only the prophets, but also Vergil (on account of the fourth Eclogue), Nebuchadrezzar, and the Sibyl. The feasts of the Annunciation, Easter Monday, and the Ascension gave rise to minor dramas; while the dramatic representation of eschatological events, e.g., the wise and foolish virgins, traces its origin to the gospel for the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, the last of the church year.
Religious Dramas