Religion and Latin drama in the early modern Low Countries

Abstract

AbstractIn the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Low Countries were a melting pot of religious beliefs: Roman Catholicism and several Protestant and Catholic Reformation movements coexisted together, the ‘radical Reformation movement’ of the Anabaptists, the ‘militant movement’ of Calvinism, and the more mild variant of Lutheranism. The Southern part of the Low Countries were ‘re‐catholicized’ after the Fall of Antwerp in 1585, and the Counter‐ Reformation was active there. Authors of several denominations wrote Latin plays. In this article I will look at the theology represented in some of these plays, particularly those of Macropedius and Laurimanus as examples of Roman Catholic (non‐Jesuit) plays; those of Lummenaeus a Marca and Libenius as examples of Jesuit drama; and those of Gnapheus as examples of Protestant theatrical writing. Thus, it will be possible to draw some general conclusions about religion, theology and confessionalization in neo‐Latin drama of the Low Countries.