Theater, Frömmigkeitspraktiken, Politik: Ein Versuch zur Situierung der Beromünsterer Heiligenspiele

As a consequence of Zwingli’s rigorous ban on the veneration of saints, the genre of saints’ plays flourished in Catholic parts of the Swiss confederation after the Reformation and after the Council of Trent. Lucerne, the heart of Swiss Catholicism, saw its first representation of a saints’ play in 1585 when Jakob Wilhelmi staged the lives and martyrdoms of the apostles on the Wine-Market. The manuscript of this play, as well as those of other vernacular saints’ plays staged in the following years (St. Wilhelm, St. Catherine, St. Leodegar), originates from the collegiate convent at Beromünster, where it was staged in 1560. Several circumstances could explain the lively theatre activity in Beromünster. Among these are some problems in collegiate discipline, which caused the implementation of Catholic reform. The staging of the apostle play in the convent could have been a demonstration of loyalty to the Catholic faith.