another day; no less a penalty than loss of dignity, and confiscation of estate, being laid on them that should offend against his pleasure. But for the better satisfaction, take so much of the Law it self as concerns this business. Nihil eadem die vendicet scena theatralis, aut Circense certamen, aut ferarum lachrymosa spectacula: Etiam, si in nostrum ortum aut natalem celebranda solennitas inciderit, differatur. Amissionem militiae, proscrip∣tionemque patrimonii sustinebit, si quis unquam spectaculis hoc die interesse, [praesumpserit.] Given at Constantinople, Martian and Zeno being Consuls, 469. of our Saviours Birth.
Now for the things prohibited in these several Edicts, [unspec III] we will take notice of two chiefly, the sports accustomed to be shown on the Stage or Theater; and those Specta∣cula, wherein Men with Beasts, and sometimes Men with Men did use to fight toge∣ther in the Cirque or Shew-place: 1. That we may know the better what these Princes aimed at, and what the Fathers mean in their frequent invectives against Plays and Shews. And first for that which first is named, the Scene or Stage-play, though they arose from poor beginnings, yet they attained at last to an infinite impudence, such as no modest eye could endure to see, or ear to hear. The whole contexture of the Poems, wanton and lascivious, the speeches most extremely sordid and obscene, the action such as did not so much personate, as perform all base kind of Vices. Their Women, as their parts were framed, did many times act naked on the open Stage, and sometimes did perform the last Acts of Lust, even in the sight of all Spectators; than which what greater scorn could be given to nature, what more immodest spectacle could be represented to the eye of Heaven. This Caesar Bullinger assures us, and withal makes it the chief cause why both profane and sacred Authors did cry down the Stage, as being a place of such uncleanness: Authores omnes tum sacri tum profani, spurcitiem scenae exagitant, non modo quod fabulae obscenae in scena agerentur sed etiam quod motus gestus∣que essent impudici, atque adeo prostibula ipsa in scenam saepe venirent, & scena prostarent. So he: Nor hath he done them wrong, or delivered any thing without good authority. Lactantius and Tertullian have affirmed as much, and from them he had it; moulding up into one relation what they had severally reported. First for their, Women, acting naked, Lactantius saith, that so it was in all their plays, devoted to the memory of their Goddess Flora. Exuuntur vestibus populo flagitante meretrices, quae tunc mimorum funguntur officio, &c. The Whores, which used to act those parts, (for who else would do it) were by the people importuned to put off their Cloaths, which they did accordingly; and being naked personated, as the Mimicks used all shameless and immodest gestures, till the most impudent eye amongst them was glutted with so foul a spectacle. Then for the other filthiness, Tertullian tells us, that the common Prostitutes, such as received the filths of all the Town, like the common-sewers, performed those beastly acts on the publick stage, and which was yet more shameful, in the sight and presence of the self-same Sex. Ipsa etiam prostibula, publicae libidinis hostiae, in scena proferuntur, plus misera in praesentia foeminarum, as that Author hath it. And sure there must be in them some extream impurities, when Salvian a godly Bishop of this Age, hath told us of them, that such they were, Ʋt ea non solum dicere, sed etiam recordari, aliquis sine pollutione non possit: that none could speak, no not so much as think of them, without some infection. Such, that whereas all other crimes, of what kind soever, Murder, Adultery, and Theft, and Sacriledg, and others of that heinous nature, might with∣out any breach of Modesty, be accused and censured: Solae impuritates theatrorum sunt, quae honeste non possunt vel accusari, the baseness of the Theaters was so transcendent, that no man could accuse them, but must put off Modesty. No marvel therefore if the Fathers both of this and the former Ages, used to declame so much against them, and to cry them down; at least to wean the people from them: as being the bane of Chastity, the shipwrack of the Soul, the Devils Temples, the scandal of the World, and the shame of Nature. No marvel if the Council held in Carthage, in the Age be∣fore, or any of the Christian Writers of these present times, Salvian and Chrysostom, and the rest, so highly censured those, who left the Church and publick service of the Lord, to go to those impure delights, and unmanlike spectacles; for that the Fathers in the same place assembled, in this present Century, agreed so well together to peti∣tion the Emperours then being, to redress this mischief; or lastly that the Emperours of these times, sent out their Edicts, to prohibit such unchristian sports.
As wicked, [unspec IV] as unchristian, were those other shews against which the self-same Fa∣thers do inveigh, against the which the foresaid Council did petition, and the good Emperors before remembred, made their several Laws; though of a very disterent