SOURCE: "The Introduction of a Regular Stage Censorship," in The Stage Controversy from Corneille to Rousseau, Publications of the Institute of French Studies, Inc., 1933, pp. 130–55.

In the excerpt that follows, Barras describes the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church to seventeenth-century theatre.

Led by [Jacques-Bénigne] Bossuet the Church presented, officially at least, a united front against plays [during the seventeenth century]. In the Jubilee of 1694 the condemnation of the pariah comedians was solemnly confirmed. On December 9, 1695, Guy de Sève de Rochechouart, Bishop of Arras, in accordance with the explicit policy of the Church, issued a severe Mandement, proscribing the stage in general with all its satellites—actors, playwrights and spectators. The French clergy soon became so intolerant that in 1696 a number of Parisian actors decided to carry an appeal to Rome. They accused the clergy specifically of refusing to grant them the sacraments. But the Papal...