Johannesspiel

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Title page of the Johannesspiel by Johannes Aal, 1549

The Johannesspiel was a medieval spiritual game that depicts the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist by beheading ( Mk 6,17-29  EU ).

Johannesspiele were performed as an amateur play by religious and believers as a mass vernacular event , for example towards the end of the 20th century at Cappenberg Castle , the former Cappenberg Premonstratensian monastery near Lünen . One of the best-known plays is the two-day performance shown in Solothurn on July 21 and 22, 1549, written by the theologian Johannes Aal in the Swiss dialect. The St. John's Games , which were performed in many parishes, gradually disappeared with the spread of the Reformation , which attacked these games as “idolatry”.

literature

  • Simon Gerengel (1510–1579): The Johannesspiel , "The beautiful Evangelical history of the beheading of St. John the Baptist"
  • Dorothea Freise: Spiritual games in the city of the late Middle Ages - Frankfurt, Friedberg, Alsfeld , 2002 Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, ISBN 978-3-525-35174-1

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ digitized version