Text: Jakob Bidermann, Cenodoxus (1602, written around the time of "Hamlet")

A Global Stage

• International network of theaters
• Europe alone: 100,000 plays at 566 colleges (1550 - 1560)
• Precursor of modern mass media

My Thesis:

Bidermann and Jesuit Theater

• 1578 Ehingen, Jesuit pupil first, then Jesuit
• Professor of Rethoric in Munich
• Called to Rome in 1622 as Official Theologian and Censor of Books
• Cenodoxus outside St. Michael in 1609
• Professor of Rhetoric - Director of Production
• Students as actors: Preparation for their public roles
• Special occasions: Annual competitions and awards ceremonies
• It's all in Latin. But: not a dead language and lots of help for the non-speakers
• Luckily, everyone knows where this is going

Can Your Heart Stand the Shocking Facts of Cenodoxus, the Doctor of Paris?

• An old plot: Legend of the doctor of Paris - foundation of Carthusian Order
• A new twist: We now know what his problem was - "Cenodoxia"
• Cenodoxus vs. Ignatius
• Battle between good and evil - Meditation on the Two Standards
  • "Shall he be claimed by heaven, Who always did my bidding, never yours? Shall he, who parodied Heaven's hosts of blessed, Hear them in blessedness? Whose every deed Was done at my behest and in my name, Who served for countless years under my flag, Fighting his own creator, shall this man be sundered from me?" (1673ff)

• Human beings must choose freely and correctly. Rules for Making an Election
• "I assume that there are three kinds of thoughts in myself: That is, one kind is my own, which arises strictly from my own freedom and desire; the other two come from outside myself, the one from the good spirit and the other from the evil." (Spiritual Exercises, 282)
• "I will imagine a person whom I have never seen or known. Desiring all perfection for him or her, I will consider what I would say in order to bring such a one to act and elect for the greater glory of God our Lord and the greater perfection of his or her soul. Then, doing the same for myself, I will keep the rule which I set up for another." (Spiritual Exercises, 304)

Play externalizes inner process and lets audience observe it (importance of allegorical figures)

Problem of Deceptive Appearances: Are you sure what you see is what you get?

• Comic Scenes: Laugh while you can.... Mariscus and Darma
• Sometimes even God and Satan surprise you
• In short: Blindness defines the human condition

Different Degrees of Blindness and the Seeing Eye of the Church

• Cenodoxus and his environment: they can't see what Cenodoxus is really doing
• Supernatural forces: Recognize Cenodoxus but he cannot recognize them
• Bruno and his companions: Recognize that Cenodoxus is damned but cannot see why
• Audience: like the supernatural forces, audience can see what is really going on, but once they leave the theater they become more like Bruno and his companions
• What to do? Bruno has the answer: abandon worldly things, embrace faith and a set of rules, i.e., submit to the Church
• Audience members convert, lead actor becomes a Jesuit
• "More than a hundred sermons" - play as purgative

The Doctor of Paris : Is He Really All Bad?

• Embodies dangers of Humanism
• Embodies danger of acting and theater itself
• Embodies danger to soul and authority of church: act 4, scene V, lines 1506ff.

Problem: How do you reconcile the development of modern knowledge with religion? Remember Galileo Galilei? He was a contemporary of Bidermann!