Nine
Carnival Plays was written during a time when the Catholic Church was under
fire. People were beginning to see flaws
in the Church, and the Protestant Reformation was in it’s beginning. Carnival plays helped to depict the wrong
doings of the Church and show how a reformation was needed. Free thinking was encouraged during the
carnivals, and the church and state had no control over the lives of the
celebrators. This allowed people to feel liberated and to change their view on
religion. Although this is portrayed in
almost all (if not all) of the plays, I am going to focus on just three: “The Stolen Bacon”, “The Farmer with the
Blur”, and “The Grand Inquisitor in the Soup.”
In “The Stolen Bacon”, the priest
is portrayed as a lying, thieving, lowlife.
Not only does he help Heinz and Kunz trick Hermann into thinking he
stole his own bacon, he goes even further into trying to get money out of the
situation. Priests were relied upon for
help and assistance, so people trusted them.
This play shows how the priests had gained power through the people’s
trust, and used them for their own personal gain. Priests should be helping everyone get to
heaven, but this priest helped con a man and allowed two other men to get away
with stealing.
The Church is also known for having
sex scandals. In “The Farmer with the
Blur”, the farmer catches his wife in bed with a priest. Not only are priests supposed to be celibate,
but having an affair with an already married woman makes it worse. Instead of the priest accepting what he has
done and ask for forgiveness, he allows the neighbor to trick the farmer. He is selfish and does not want to be looked down upon for his greedy acts.
“The Grand Inquisitor in the Soup”
goes further to pick out more flaws of the church. They are merely trying to put on a show. Instead of using prayer to get closer to God,
they are using it as a way to get money for food and wine. The Inquisitor makes a big scene and twists
people’s words to get them to give a monetary penance, when in fact a penance should
be some type of prayer or something to get closer to God.
During the time Nine Carnival Plays was written, there
were definite flaws in the Church.
Priests were doing some of these things (including asking for money for
indulgences). However, that does not
mean the Church itself was flawed, merely the people it was made of. We are all human and make mistakes, this just
shows how people saw the Church during these times and shows why the Protestant
Reformation began.
I don't know if I'd go as far as to say the plays 'allowed people to feel liberated and changed their view on religion' but I do agree that it was a step in the right direction for the Reformation.
ReplyDeleteMartin Luther, a monk and scholar born in Germany, wrote his 95 Theses in 1517 about Catholic priests taking money for indulgences and other unethical practices. His two main views were that the Bible is the central religious authority, and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds. He is credited in history to have sparked the Protestant Reformation. I think these plays were based on just normal happenings at the time they were written, and were used to make people laugh. I don't necessarily feel that they were meant to be read into very deep. I think it would be the equivalent of a live viewing of Saturday Night Live today. Most of these plays were published in the 1550's, so the reformation was in full swing by that time. Sachs was a protestant, so he probably enjoyed taunting the Catholic priesthood quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Emily about the church being made up of people who are flawed. I know that even today there are many people who put on a show in the church in order to gain the attention they want. So the church has changed since this time period but the people in it will always consist of a few hypocrites and people doing things for themselves. I think many organizations have these type of people, and as humans we can't get away from that.
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