Ordo Rachelis
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The ''Ordo Rachelis'' (Play of Rachel), ''Interfectio Puerorum'' (Murder of the Children), or ''Ludus Innocentium'' (Play of the Innocents) is a medieval dramatic tradition consisting in four
play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...
s and based on the
Massacre of the Innocents The Massacre (or Slaughter) of the Innocents is a story recounted in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew ( 2:16– 18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and u ...
, an event recorded in the
Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells the story of who the author believes is Israel's messiah (Christ (title), Christ), Jesus, resurrection of Jesus, his res ...
, and on the prophecy recorded in the
Book of Jeremiah The Book of Jeremiah () is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and the second of the Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. The superscription at chapter Jeremiah 1#Superscription, Jeremiah 1:1–3 identifies the book as "th ...
: "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not" (31:15,
KJV The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...
). The prophecy, which Matthew believed to be fulfilled when
Herod the Great Herod I or Herod the Great () was a History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, Roman Jewish client king of the Herodian kingdom of Judea. He is known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea. Among these works are the rebuilding of the ...
ordered the slaughter of all boys under two in
Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...
, looks backwards to
Rachel Rachel () was a Bible, Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph (Genesis), Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban (Bible), Laban. Her older siste ...
, the matriarch of the
Hebrews The Hebrews (; ) were an ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic-speaking people. Historians mostly consider the Hebrews as synonymous with the Israelites, with the term "Hebrew" denoting an Israelite from the nomadic era, which pre ...
, and towards her lamentation over the death of her children, the Hebrew children, in the massacre. The ''Ordo Rachelis'' plays were probably performed as part of the
liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...
for Innocents Day (28 December).


Texts and origins

The first modern critical edition of the Rachel plays was made by Karl Young in 1919. Young believed the plays developed from dramatic kernels in the Epiphany plays of the ninth and tenth centuries into full dramatic treatments of their own in the eleventh and twelfth. The four extensive treatments which Young classified as ''ordines Rachelis'' differ considerably. There are the ''Lamentatio Rachelis'' from Saint-Martial at
Limoges Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...
(eleventh century), a lengthy part of an Epiphany play from
Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne Departments of France, department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The Ancient Diocese of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held s ...
(twelfth century), a play from
Freising Freising () is a university town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising (district), with a population of about 50,000. Location Freising is the oldest town between Regensburg and Bolzano, and is located on the Isar river in ...
(late eleventh century), and another one from Fleury (thirteenth century). Only the last two can be regarded as "separate dramatic unit . In both of them the '' fuga in Egyptum'' and the ''
pastores Pastores is a town, with a population of 12,621 (2018 census), and a municipality, with a population of 17,814 (2018 census),Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...
,
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, which contains many liturgical pieces, including the play '' Sponsus''. The Fleury version is preserved in the famous Fleury Playbook, an important eleventh-century compilation of liturgical drama. As to the origins of the tradition Karl Young concluded, like Heinrich Anz before him (''Die lateinischen Magierspiele'', 1905), that it was initially an independent trope at Limoges and then appended to the '' Officium stellae'' at Laon, representing a French tradition. This tradition was merged with a German one that arose at Freising at Fleury, though the ecclesiastical affairs that brought about this transmission (from Laon, Limoges, and Freising to Fleury) are unknown. Young differs from Anz in that the latter thought the Freising text also developed from the Limoges original. An older theory of origins was put forth by William Meyer (''Fragmenta Burana'', 1901). He hypothesised that a south German original, large and complex, disintegrated into a Freising play that was largely a whittled-down copy and three divergent French plays that were influenced by the French liturgy. Peter Dronke believes it was to the dialogic poem ''Quid tu, virgo'' by
Notker the Stammerer Notker the Stammerer ( – 6 April 912), Notker Balbulus, or simply Notker, was a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Saint Gall active as a composer, poet and scholar. Described as "a significant figure in the Western Church", Notker made subst ...
, written probably in the 860s, that the eleventh-century dramatists were responding with their Rachel sequences.


Plot and drama

The Rachel of the play is symbolically every Hebrew mother who lost her child to the massacre. In the Freising version, she opens the action by singing a '' planctus'' over her children's bodies before a ''consolatrix'' (female comforter) arrives to soothe her spirit. In the Fleury version, she sings a series of four ''plancti'' before two ''consolatrices'' come out to catch her as she faints. The ''consolatrices'' fail to comfort her, but lead her away. In both versions they sing the final lines. In the Fleury version the drama began with a procession of young boys ''per monasterium'' (down the aisle of the church's nave) and a lamb bearing a cross appears running "to and fro" (''huc et illuc''). Then the action shifts to Herod receiving his sceptre and
Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...
at the manger receiving a message from
Gabriel In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Gabriel ( ) is an archangel with the power to announce God's will to mankind, as the messenger of God. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran. Many Chris ...
to flee to Egypt. Joseph and the holy family exit secretly while Herod attempts suicide as news is brought that the
Magi Magi (), or magus (), is the term for priests in Zoroastrianism and earlier Iranian religions. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Per ...
avoided telling him the Christ child's location. After he regains his composure, he orders the massacre. The lamb is then led off stage and the massacre begins, despite the pleas of the mothers and the children to the angels above. After the Rachel scenes, an angel conducts the children to the choir and a dumb show shows Herod being succeeded as king by Archelaus before the holy family returns from Egypt. The entire Fleury play ends with a singing of the ''
Te Deum The ( or , ; from its incipit, ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to a date before AD 500, but perhaps with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin ...
''.


References

*Chambers, Edmund Kerchever (1903). ''The Mediaeval Stage'', 2 vols. Oxford. . *Dronke, Peter (1994). ''Nine Medieval Latin Plays''. Cambridge Medieval Classics, I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . *Temple, W. M. (1959). "The weeping Rachel." ''Medium aevum'', 28:81–86. *Young, Karl (1919). ''Ordo Rachelis'', University of Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature, IV. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. {{Use dmy dates, date=January 2023 11th-century plays 11th-century manuscripts Plays set in the 1st century BC Medieval drama Medieval Latin literature Catholic liturgy Massacre of the Innocents Plays based on the New Testament Herod Archelaus Cultural depictions of Herod the Great Cultural depictions of the Biblical Magi Saint Joseph (husband of Mary) Gabriel Flight into Egypt Works based on the Gospel of Matthew