Performance, Edification and Education in a Confessional Context. Protestant and Catholic Sacred Theatre in Early Modern Alsace

This article examines the use of the theatre in the Alsatian schools of the early modern age. The theatre as an educational instrument was resorted to both in the schools affected by the Protestant reform and in the Catholic ones. In the former, themes from the Old Testament or ones having a vaguely classical resonance were preferred, while in the latter epic portrayals of the lives of saints or New Testament episodes were preferred. Among the Protestant authors Ch. Th. Walliser and C. Brülow stood out; among the Catholics the priest J. Rasser and the Jesuit J. Balde distinguished themselves. In the Gymnasium of Strasbourg the plays staged in the theatre between the 17th and the 18th centuries helped to structure the Ferman language around religious themes, while in the colleges the Jesuits magnified and disseminated the message of the Council of Trent.