Glenn Ehrstine. Theater, Culture, and Community in Reformation Bern, 1523-1555.

(Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought, 85.) Leiden and Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2002. xviii + 346 pp. index, append, illus, bibl. n.p. ISBN: 90-04-12353-9. Glenn Ehrsrine, in his study of theater in Reformation Bern, represents the dialectic between theater and religious reform that facilitated the reception of Reformation religion in the Bern while at the same creating a new form of Protestant theater. His study provides an interesting view of how advocates of reform exploited the available cultural forms to advance their religious program.

The study begins with a discussion of reformers' attitudes toward theater. Here Ehrstine shows how reformers' rejected the tradition of the passion play and Fastnachtspiel (carnival play) while at the same time embracing humanist theater as a means of instruction. Having established the ideological backdrop, he then turns his focus to Bern, where he looks at the dramatic works of two figures, Niklaus Manuel and Hans von Rile. Much of the book deals with a close study of their dramatic works in relationship to the course of the Reformation in Bern.

Having provided an overview of Bern's religious and political development in the years from 1520 to 1555, Ehrstine moves on to discuss the three plays by Manuel performed in the 1520s. With these works he represents how Manuel, beginning in 1523, took the tradition of the Fasmachtspielin Bern and used it as a tool to agitate for reform within an environment where only a minority of the patriciate and populace had embraced the agenda of reform. The tradition of invective and transgression that was a part of the Fastnachtspiel allowed Manuel to direct a scathing critique at the Papacy and the corruption of true religion without identifying his work explicitly as stemming from the ideology of reform associated with Zwingli and Luther. In this way his plays contributed to building momentum for reform in an environment where the city magistrates were disinclined to support religious change.

After the carrying through of reform in Bern in 1528 and following, civic leaders became increasingly ill-disposed toward the old tradition of carnival, associated as it was with the old religious order, though the tradition of public theater continued to be exploited for the purpose of building religious solidarity. It is here that Ehrstine investigates the works of von Rue, whose many biblical dramas shaped a dramatic genre that was oriented around themes of reformed religion, and in turn provided a means for the enactment of the new civic faith that involved participation by the community. Here, as with his discussion of Manuel, Ehrstine considers the political constraints within which von Rile composed his dramas, with a watchful civic magistracy that closely monitored the theocratic order of the city. In considering von Rile's plays, Ehrstine notes the way in which they reflected a Protestant visual culture that directed its audience toward reflection on moral and spiritual trials, and visually represented Protestant theological themes. Ehrstine follows with a discussion of how in Reformation Bern, where, in keeping with Zwinglian practice, music was banned from worship, the public dramas drew upon the broader Protestant emphasis on using music as a tool to inculcate the evangelical faith. Musical interludes punctuated these plays and allowed another means for the public to participate in the drama of reform. In this way theater in Reformation Bern became a multimedia spectacle that exploited many available means of communication to promote the reception of reformed faith. Ehrstine emphasizes the degree to which Protestants proved adept at media manipulation--the example of broadsheets as a prominent example--and their readiness to embrace public eloquence as an avenue to testify to their faith. His discussion of theater in Bern demonstrates this

in a detailed fashion.

In many ways Ehrstine's study is exemplary. Though it focuses on a tightly circumscribed body of work, it uses this microcosm to reveal the intersections between the larger world of theology, politics, and culture in the era of reform. The book is written in a straightforward manner, with a gratifying lack of jargon, and is handsomely presented. It is a study that should prove useful to a wide range of scholars with specialities ranging from the politics of reform in Switzerland, to humanist and Protestant theater, and to cultural change in the sixteenth century. With his work Ehrstine has made a valuable addition to the study of culture and politics in the era of reform.

PATRICK HAYDEN-ROY

Nebraska Wesleyan University