Vol. 3, No. 1, Summer 2004

The Justification of Prejudice

St. Augustine’s writings significantly influenced medieval thought. His theories, couched in faith and logic and founded on the duality of God and Satan, justified the prejudice against theatre and literature. The foundation for his writings followed the early Roman Christian moral and doctrinal philosophy defined by behavior and Tertullian’s emphasis on effect with a strong conviction that human will is from birth inclined to evil.(7) In essence, St. Augustine thought in terms of cause and effect evidenced by behavior. A person’s attitudes and experiences determine life’s paths that can be seen (and known) by how a person behaves and for the sake of eternal salvation, unrighteous behavior must be abolished. As Will Durant points out, St. Augustine believed that "there must be a clean heart to let in the rays of divinity that surrounds us."(8) Consequently, the prejudice against the theatre made sense to the medieval mind because theatre led to unrighteous attitudes and behavior. Destroy or ban theatre, and one would then destroy or inhibit a significant cause for an individual’s damnation and for society’s problems.

During the Medieval Age, the church controlled both the government and society. To the medieval mind, the supreme question in all matters of life was the question of conduct.(9) Life was hard, so much so that people necessarily needed to focus on a better life after death. [page 7] They considered life on earth as a gateway to the next life. A better life after death, however, was determined both by how a person acted and his experiences, which in turn was conducive to what thoughts a person harbored. In short, to the medieval mind, how a person behaved determined who a person was. Because the church stood as judge of a person’s behavior, and because behavior evidenced a person’s motives and attitudes, the church also judged a person’s thoughts and determined whether a person goes to heaven or hell. Eventually, this led to church officials determining whether or not a person should be executed for the good of society, based on their own judgment of that person’s behavior.

Consequently, church officials prescribed certain standards of experience, thoughts, and attitudes in order to help people behave in such a way that they would attain a better life after death as well as be a righteous contribution to society. These standards can be categorized as morality, reality, and utility or usefulness. For instance, a person must seek only a true experience of reality. Any embellishing or exaggerating was considered to be wrong. That experience must also be practical or useful. A person must also behave morally. That is, a person must act under the strictures of Christian doctrine with the hope of maintaining righteous thought and the reward after death.

Because church officials promoted thinking based on the duality of God and Satan, if people followed these standards they would be rewarded in heaven. If not, they would be damned to hell. Behavioral evidence was clear and final. Thinking was more focused on a dogmatic, static view than process, development, and personal betterment. That is, those in authority judged a person as complete in the moment instead of regarding the moment as a potential transition and part of a person’s process of becoming.

The theatre did not fare well under this view of a person’s relationship with life. The objections against the theatre can be seen as three interrelating criteria that parallels Medieval standards of living: the criterion of morality, the criterion of reality, and the criterion of utility. These criteria affected the theory and practice of theatre. While the medieval age was not a time of scholarship in theatre, grievances and particular views about theatre developed during this age that Renaissance critics had to answer in order to promote theatre in their time.

[page 8] According to the criterion of morality, literary works were not conducive to righteous action or behavior. Action on stage does not portray a moral action leading to righteousness. Saintsbury asserts that St. Augustine’s writings showed the beginning of Puritan attitudes against the theatre, for literature, heathen religion, and the Seven Deadly Sins were inextricably connected.(10) The subjects of drama were either men or devils masquerading as gods, or men committing shameful acts. Furthermore, since few dramas were entirely free from obscenity and blasphemy, such blemishes were inseparable from dramatic art. In short, the theatre was immoral.

According to the criterion of reality, drama was untrue. Drama was fiction and therefore false, for it embellished and portrayed a life that was different than a reality of the times. Being false, the theatre manipulated people to believe in a lie, which was the work of Satan. Furthermore, because drama was false, it led to spiritual agitation. People experienced an emotional upheaval that affected their spiritual state. Emotional upheaval was immoral because God commanded people to deal calmly, gently and quietly with the Holy Spirit. To Thomas Aquinas, emotions were quieted in real beauty.(11) Therefore, the theatre did not portray real beauty, but an illusion.

According to the criterion of utility, drama had no practical use. St. Augustine’s writings implied that not only was drama false and its morals detestable, but drama was frivolous and puerile. Drama was not only unworthy of a Christian, but even of a reasonable human being.(12) Even when the subject of drama was unobjectionable, it was idle fiction and possessed no truth or usefulness. There were more profitable occupations in which the righteous person should be engaged.

As is well known, the Christian community also affected theatre practice during the Medieval Age. The theatre did not thrive during the early medieval age. Ironically, however, [page 9] the church reintroduced the theatre into society. Church officials had problems promoting beliefs in society, for most common people could not read in order to study the scriptures. Neither could people speak, or understand Latin, yet Mass was conducted in Latin. The church came to realize that people did not know very much about doctrine. Instead, people treated religion as a kind of superstition.

The problem was how to educate people as part of the Mass experience, yet maintain the traditional way of conducting Mass. The answer to the problem was to show people either through a kind of dialogue, moving around the sanctuary from mansion to mansion, or acting it out. An important beginning of liturgical drama was the Quem Quaeritis trope given at Easter time. From this beginning, people added mimetic action, properties and costumes, and more complex plots.

Gradually, liturgical drama transformed. Religious plays moved from the interior of the church to the church steps outdoors or adjacent to the church. The stage directions of The Mystery of Adam (c. 1150) imply that the drama was performed outside the church. Liturgical drama became more and more elaborate. Eventually, secular plays began to appear, much to the dismay of Christian leaders. Folk plays such as Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham eliminated moral preaching and paved the way for great drama.

Transition to Defense

The reintroduction of theatre in society posed significant complications, for church officials continued to promote prejudice against theatre. The question was how to control the effects of theatre in a changing society, to use theatre as a tool to promote standards of morality, reality, and utility, and to portray a Christian doctrine based on behavior as evidence of righteous thought. The fourteenth century at least in part offered an answer to church concerns as well as satisfying society’s growing demand for theatrical entertainment.

[page 10] To begin to answer medieval objections against drama, theorists and poets such a Petrarch (1304-1374), Boccaccio (1313-1375), and Dante (1265-1321) developed allegory as the method to interpret drama. They based their method on the writings of Stoic philosophers who introduced allegory as a method of interpretation. Characters came to symbolize or represent a concept of an ideal. For instance, instead of merely being brute conquerors of monsters and giants, characters such as Hercules and Ulysses were regarded as symbols combating the vices and passions of mankind. In time, such characters became types of pagan saints.(13)

After a while, allegory infiltrated the interpretation of scripture. Abraham, Adam, Eve, and Moses became types of various virtues, while biblical events and stories became symbolic of the various moral struggles within a person’s soul. Consequently, morality plays such as Mankind (c. 1470) and Everyman (c. 1500) as well as miracle plays within the cycles such as Noah’s Fludde and The Second Shepherds Play dominated the theatre scene.

Under the criterion of reality, drama became dependent on its allegorical foundations. The moral teachings of drama was sought in the hidden meanings discoverable beneath the literal expression. Even the pagan classical drama was accepted as long as the references to Greed and Roman gods and rituals were regarded only as symbolic truths. According to Boccaccio, Dante, and Petrarch, the playwright’s function is to hide and obscure the actual truth behind a veil of fiction.

While regarding allegory as the "warp and wood" of drama, Petrarch and Boccaccio further modified the medieval point of view by arguing that theology is a form of poetry. That is, theology is the poetry of God.(14) However, while perhaps justifying drama from the standpoint of ethics and divinity, allegory allowed drama no place as an independent art. Drama merely became a popularized form of theology.