Abstract
In 1539 the Flemish city of Ghent organised a grandiose festival in which nineteen Chambers of Rhetoric from Flanders, Brabant and Hainault participated. Some weeks after the theatre competition a rebellion broke out in the city. The festival carne to be seen as one of the immediate causes of the revolt. However, the government was far more disturbed when the festival's allegorical plays were printed in one volume, which was a novelty in itself. The authorities soon claimed that the plays were full of heretical Lutheran views and the distribution of the printed plays was prohibited. Several clandestine editions appeared. Once printed, the plays gained a whole new dimension. They became important as texts, and could be used for reflection and discussion. The new medium—the printed play—facilitated the absorption of new ideas as it used the traditional rhetoricians' drama to convey new theological doctrines.
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