Religion: The Role Of Theatre In The Middle Ages

Throughout history, religion has served to shape and possibly even create, the art of theatre. For yet, as far back as to the great civilizations of antiquity, theatre has acted as a purposeful testimony to the analogous cultures and convictions of old. Some even theorize the analogies are as so closely related, that the very origins of theatre were developed from the acting out of religious rituals (Introduction to Theatre). Even when analyzing the history of theatre at a surface level, it is inevitable to deny its shared correlation with religion. As predominantly more evident in the past, religion has played a decisive role in both the culture and set the tone for common social constructs. Theatre then served as a manifestation of these
Enter back in the Roman Catholic Church, whom converts many of the pagan barbarians and becomes the center of artistic and educational activities. The Church was the head influencer and even secular rulers were subject to the Churches influence. Knowing that the Church was the main influencer, when Drama finally made its return it was mostly religious. During the Middle Ages, the Church, the same group responsible for the decline of the art of drama, began embrace and utilize theatre. They began to present religious drama in sanctuaries and cathedrals. However, why was the Church now embracing drama and serving as an instrument for its revival? Many theorize it to be dependent on a couple of factors. The main idea being found within the Roman Catholic rituals, which now contained musical accompaniment, annual symbolic events, and the necessary space provided by the church. This revival by under the influence of the Church gave birth to new forms of drama such as the development of Religious Vernacular Drama, with two general subcategories being Cycle Plays and Morality Plays. With Religious Vernacular Drama, came new forms and changes to religious focused theatre. Stages were moved outside of the Church and bigger budgets were given to dramas. Cycle Plays would focus on Biblical stories from the Old and New Testament. Morality Plays would focus on teaching a moral lesson by use of allegorical characters (Edwin & Goldfarb, 2018 p. 150). Religious Theatre would stay dominant up until the sixteenth century with the weakening of the Catholic Church. The Church and Religious Drama was being overwhelmed by secular merits. Later the Church would even find itself on the other side of power as Elizabeth I banned religious drama from England in 1559