The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the attitude held by Christian moralists towards the performing or watching a spectacle on the eve of the Reformation. The sources which I will be examining are Italian texts of moral theology, in particular, manuals devoted to the sacrament of penance, dating from the mid-fifteenth century to the first quarter of the sixteenth century. My analysis appears to show: first, a lack of significant consideration od the world of spectacle as a subject of moral reflection in its own right; and, second, a tendency to legitimize more than condemn performances, by proposing a series of circumstances which are to be avoided instead of a more general prohibition.
The confessor and the theatre
ARCANGELI, Alessandro
1996
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the attitude held by Christian moralists towards the performing or watching a spectacle on the eve of the Reformation. The sources which I will be examining are Italian texts of moral theology, in particular, manuals devoted to the sacrament of penance, dating from the mid-fifteenth century to the first quarter of the sixteenth century. My analysis appears to show: first, a lack of significant consideration od the world of spectacle as a subject of moral reflection in its own right; and, second, a tendency to legitimize more than condemn performances, by proposing a series of circumstances which are to be avoided instead of a more general prohibition.
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