498 THE DRAMA. 



critics hold to be of earlier date than the twelfth century, and which is still 

 represented in the country districts of Brittany. 



These dramas French, German, English, Italian, and Breton all com- 

 posed in the same spirit of fervent piety, were produced at almost the same 

 time in all countries, and in almost the same shape. They were conceived, 

 written, and played by priests or by monks. But the laymen in course of 

 time competed with the clergy for theatrical representations, and it may be 

 said that the whole of Christendom then took part in the performance of 

 the mysteries and the miracles. 



In most European countries, notably in France, from the twelfth century, 

 each art or trade was organized as a religious association (confr&rie) as soon as 

 it had constituted itself into an industrial or trade corporation. Having their 

 origin in local feeling and political emancipation, these associations were in 

 many instances dramatic companies, enjoying the favour of the magistracy 

 and clergy of the town. Moreover, all classes of the population were invited 

 to take parts in the public representations of these great sacred dramas, in 

 which as many as six hundred persons sometimes figured. The Church, so 

 severe at first with regard to the secular theatre, relaxed her regulations in 

 this respect, and encouraged those who took part, as actors or spectators, in 

 these edifying spectacles, which revived the principal facts of Bible history, 

 and popularised the triumph of the Christian religion. The municipalities, 

 for their part, encouraged and remunerated the authors and the actors, and 

 had numerous copies taken of these pious compositions, the official text of 

 which was deposited in the archives of the town. 



As long as the mysteries and miracles preserved their exclusively liturgical 

 character, the persons who figured in them as actors were not considered to 

 exercise any special profession, but rather a sort of religious function. Thus, 

 from the fourteenth century, the champions of the dogma of the Immaculate 

 Conception, which had not as yet been proclaimed by the Church, formed 

 dramatic associations for the purpose of propagating this dogma by playing 

 the Mysteries of Our Lady, composed in honour of the Virgin Mary, who 

 conceived without sin (Fig. 381). Amongst these confreres, all of whom 

 wore the ecclesiastical dress as a symbol of their clerical origin, there were 

 some who entitled themselves "Brothers of the Passion," and they soon 

 established a permanent theatre in the village of St. Maur-des-Fosses, near 

 Paris, in 1398. This theatre was almost at once closed by order of the 



