Mime In The Medieval Church

The pattern that began in the early church continued in the Middle Ages: official pronouncements squelched mime even as some leaders found creative and helpful ways of incorporating it into their practice of the Christian faith.

a.d. 300-1000 Synods, canons, and councils struggled throughout the Middle Ages against the secular use of mime that survived from Graeco-Roman culture. The mime traditions had been carried forward by artists known as mimes (mimus), jongleurs, and histriones, which later evolved into the medieval artists known as minstrels, jongleurs, and troubadours. The councils of the church threatened to withhold Communion from mimes and, in the worst cases, excommunicated them. The immoral use of the arts was condemned by the church, yet the arts still flourished. Both priests as well as lay persons participated in hosting the mimes. The English priest Alcuin advised Bishop Higbald of Lindisfarne that "it is better to feed the poor from your table than the actors … it is better to please God than the actors; it is better to have a care for the poor than for the mimes." The Archbishop of Lyons, Agobard, denounced ecclesiastics who "gave food and drink to actors, to the basest of mimes and to the most wretched of jesters" while leaving the poor to starve. All of this points to the fact that mime was not dead and was in fact a very active part of life in the medieval church … but at great expense. Buchnell states "the migratory professional entertainer was always in trouble with the church even though he may have influenced the style and manner of the sacred services." Mime in the Mass. While the councils struggled against secular mime, liturgical mime was evolving in the church. The seed that had been planted by the early church mimes began to grow. By the tenth century the Mass had become largely mimetic due to the language barrier caused by the use of Latin. Its ceremonies used mime, movement, costume, color, and furniture. Each element had symbolic meaning that the people understood; in this way they participated in the Mass. Peter Buchnell, in his book Entertainment and Ritual, states

those who had participated for sometimes (in the Mass) grew to read the meaning beyond the symbol whilst the fully initiated discovered a personal divine truth … almost all the average man knew of his faith was through what he could see. Ritual was visual … and dramatic.

The drama of the Mass served the same purposes as the parables of Jesus insofar as they allowed The Mass replaced the Greek/Roman theater in many ways. It was not drama in the sense of impersonation, it was dramatic in presentation. The Mass was believed to be a recreation of the sacrifice of Christ, where Christ's blood and body was believed to be rebroken literally for the church (transubstantiation). Because of the idea that this was a literal event, many disqualify the Mass as drama, though it is dramatic. The priest's mime, movement, costume, color, furniture, bread, and wine became more than just objects and gestures; they took on the nature of what they had represented. For a Roman Catholic, the Mass was not considered a drama representing Christ's sacrifice, it was Christ sacrificed. In the tenth century this changed, and the Mass gave birth to theater. The introduction of the Mass was called the introit, and it was during the Easter Introit that mime and drama were first introduced. The liturgy of the church also included tropes [from the Latin tropus meaning added melody]. Tropes are embellishments to the sung parts of the medieval liturgy. These embellishments included movement, dress, and mimetic gestures as part of their execution. The tropes that were part of the Easter Introit began to introduce mimed gestures of the Marys at the tomb, the visitation of the angels who proclaimed Jesus had risen, and the transformation of the Marys' sorrow into joy at hearing the good news. The playlet, called Quem queritis, was first performed at the monastery of Saint Gall (a.d. 970). Rubrics (stage directions which include mimography) were added to the tropes in the tenth century. An example of these rubrics is seen in St. Ethelwold's code of rules for Easter celebration in his diocese. In the rubrics of Planctus Marias et a liorum, the Marys and angels were instructed on how to enact each section of the trope with the specific mimed gestures and postures indicated. Their pointing, beating their chest, falling at Jesus' feet, wringing hands, etc., were all indicated in mimography. The actors were clergy, holy sisters, choirboys. The play was chanted to music rather than spoken in a stage voice, and the gestures were simple. The theater was now the church, containing the plates (place for performance) or the open space containing an altar, and for the auditorium, the open space surrounding the altar accommodated the worshipers. The rites and actions found in the liturgy were referred to as the officium (office). As certain officium became more dramatic they were referred to as the representatio (representation). As the representatio became more of a play then a rite, it was referred to as a ludus (twelfth century). Ludus, the old Roman word for a "play," now referred to a biblical narrative presented in a dramatic form. The ludus was introduced into the Easter introit and was met with great enthusiasm by the celebrants and congregation alike. Because drama increased the joy of worshiping God's triumph in the resurrection, it was retained as a worthy ceremony, and was also used for occasions such as Christmas and other Christian holidays. Drama was embraced by the church completely and began to develop artistically. Irene Mawer states that mime was used in religion as it had been in the false worship of Dionysus. When the Church at last turned to illumine by it her most sacred mysteries, mime made alive the loving sufferings of Our Lady as it had pictured those of Demeter, and with the same simplicity of purpose told the life of Christ as it had that of Dionysus. Whether the altar that was the center of the story and the 'stage' were in the church in Italy, France or England, or in an open place among the hills of Greece, it mattered little. In every age when the heart of the world grows young again, mime will tell that story which most it cares to hear, by giving it life and color and action. Drama and Dance in the Western Empire Mime, dance, and drama did appear sporadically throughout the history of the West. In the early church there were the Arians, gnostics, and the Sect of the Unbended-Knee (who used gesture to expel evil spirits), the battle-songs of the Teuton warriors who told the story of a blond-haired Christ, and the dances of the Roman churches. In 604 Abbot Meletius of England was advised by Gregory the First to allow dance in the church. The church in Paris had priests leading the choir boys in a round dance during the singing of the psalm. Historian Lincoln Kirstein states

Scaliger said the first Roman bishops were called preasuls and they led a sacred "dance" around altars at festivals. Theodosius says that Christians of Antioch "danced" in church and in front of martyrs' tombs.

In the seventh century processionals are recorded in which a reenactment of the death and burial of Christ were done in Jerusalem. In the tenth century a Benedictine nun named Hiroswitha of Gandershem, Saxony, wrote and acted plays on martyrdom and the glorification of chastity. She was styled "the Christian Sappho" and was influenced by the writings of Terence. These events seemed to happen outside of the development of the liturgical musical drama. Even if this is true, it reflects the fact the church was ready for the reemergence of drama. This was also encouraged by the view perpetuated by the allegorical interpretation of the bible and the Mass as promoted by a contemporary of Charlemagne, Amalarius, bishop of Metz. Allegorical interpretation opened the way for drama, dance, and mime. Mime in the Eastern Empire Mime in the Byzantine Empire lasted longer than in the Western Empire, probably due to the popularity of what Sathas calls "liturgical drama" promoted by the Arians. In the first century Nicholas of Damascus wrote tragedies and comedies. In the second century Ezekiel, a Hellenized Jew, wrote a play called Exodus dealing with the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, with the characters of Moses, Sepphora, Chus, Raguel, God, and a messenger. The play was quoted by Christians for centuries to come. In the fourth century we not only find the mimograph Arius, but also Metodius of Byzantium, who wrote the Banquet of Chastity and the dialogues Freewill and The Resurrection. In the eighth century Eustathius states that the religious play Susanna was probably written by John of Damascus. The Death of Christ was written in Greek by Stephanos the Sabbaite in 790, two centuries before the tropes of Quem queritis. The play Christ's Suffering, was probably encouraged by Ignatius, a deacon in Constantinople, and created by a group of writers in the eleventh century. The tradition of mime seems to have never died completely in the Byzantine church. Liudprand, Bishop of Cremona, stated that the Church of St. Sophia was turned into a theater where religious plays could be performed, like the prophet play called Elijah. However, Liudprand is from the tenth century and predated the prophet plays of the West. Sermons were also said to be mimed or acted out in the Byzantine church and Western drama might have been influenced by the Eastern church. Mime in the Early Plays From the tenth century onward, there was a rebirth of theater. Passion plays (about Christ), mystery plays (about Scripture), miracle plays (about miracles of the saints), prophet plays (about prophets), and morality plays (about moral truths) were all products of the church, from which modern theater was to evolve. Mime was an essential part of these church dramas, with actors miming the song or chant of the choir or soloist. When drama evolved into the Passion play proper, the actor spoke and the parts of the mime were replaced by mimetic movement, which accompanied the speaking. Leone di Somi wrote "the actor's movements … are of so great importance that perhaps the power of words is not more than the power of gesture." About mime he said that "this corporal eloquence … is of tremendous importance, called … the soul of rhetoric." He believed that the actor was "above all other things to render whatever is spoken thoroughly effective, with suitable alteration of tones and appropriate gestures." Bucknell states that "early Christian drama must have required … training of the voice and a strong technique in mime and gesture from its actors." This is supported by evidence in the rubrics for a play about Adam and Eve:

Adam shall be trained to speak at the right moment so that he may come neither too soon nor too late. Not only he, but all, shall be well practiced in speaking calmly and making gestures appropriate to the things they say.

The rubrics of a mimed vignette in a play about Cain and Abel are as follows:

Abel shall have a saucepan beneath his garment against which he (Cain) shall knock when he pretends to kill Abel. Abel shall lie stretched as if he were dead.

While mime was being employed in dramatic presentations, it was also used in its purely silent form. Leone di Somi wrote about silent comedies, a type of mime familiar in certain parts of Europe "wherein the story is so clearly and pleasantly presented by means of action alone that only those who have witnessed this kind of play would credit its force." Mime took on new forms and was used in the dumb show (silent play), in the stories of mummers, jesters, and later the Commedia dell' Arte. In this period of creativity, mime became an extension of human worship of God and God's ministry to humankind. Priests were said to have mimed and gestured their text; laity and whole cities joined together to act out God's Word, using every art available. The church delivered the message of Christ in a visual medium that supported its spoken word. The increased use of drama in the church revived an art form that then was also used for ungodly entertainment. Such dramas created sinful Herods and demons who were more popular than saints. It portrayed false gods to laugh at because God was too serious to be comic. Sin became more pleasurable than piety, and people turned to the popular fleshly desires. The church had to throw out the theater it had created. The spoken theater was to evolve into Jacobean drama and produce the plays of Shakespeare. Mime was to be lost to the Commedia dell' Arte. Dance was to be lost to the Ballet of the Courts. The church was to lose all but the most basic pulpit-supporting dramas and specials play for Christmas and Easter. Though the church had ruled the arts for hundreds of years, she allowed it to become sinful and lost it to the secular world in the early years of the 1500s.