Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/181

 AUTOS

143

AUTRAN

of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, who were subject directly to the patriarch of the civil (imperial) diocese to which they belonged, and who owed no obedience to their immediate metropolitans; they were not unlike the modern ''exempt" bishops immediately subject to the Apostolic See. The most ancient li.st of them is given in the ninth-century •■ Notitia " of Leo the Wise, where they are entitled archbishops and metropolitans, though they had no suffragans. Occasionally priests were called "autocephali ", e. g. the clergj' of a patriarchal dio- cese. (See Soz., Hist. EccL, VI, 21, and Eus,, Hist. Eccl., V, 23, with the note of Valesius, also Blshop, Exemption, Ravenn.\.)

Nf.her, in Kirchenlex., I, 1733; Thom.\ssin, De Vel. el noi'. -fc discipL, I, 3, c, 41, n. 17; Phili.ip.s, Kirchenrecht, VII, 440; L.\DRENTIUS, Inst. Jur. Eccl. (Freiburg, 190S), § 214. Thom.\s J. Sh.\H.VN'.

Autos Sacramentales (Sp. auto, act or ordinance; sacramental, sacramental, pertaining to a sacrament), a form of dramatic literature which is peculiar to ^pain, though in some respects similar in charac- ter to the old Morality plays of England. The auto sacramental may be defined as a dramatic represen- tation of the mystery of the Eucharist. At least this is the definition that would apply to the auto Df the time of Calderon. It does not so well fit, liowever, those of the preceding century, many of ivhicli were sacramental in character only because they were presented during the feast of Corpus I'hristi. They are usually allegorical, the characters representing, for example. Faith, Hope, Air, Sin, Death, etc. There were some indeed, in which not a single human character appeared, but personifica- tions of the Virtues, the Vices, the Elements, etc. As early as the tliirteenth century religious exhibi- tions had been popular with the masses in Spain, rhese usually took the form of simple dialogue, ind were presented during religious festivals, for nstance, at Christmas and Easter. But it is not antil the beginning of the sixteenth century that ive have the first true auto sacramental having for ts theme the mystery of the Eucharist. It was 'El Auto de San Martin", by C.il Vicente. During the sixteenth anil seventeenth centuries these Autos wntinued to appear, being gra<lually improved and ?laborated until brought to their highest state of ievelopnient by Calderon.

The auto sacramental was always presented in the streets in cormexion with the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christ!. It was preceded by a solemn procession through the principal streets of the city, the houses along the route being decorated in honour jf the occasion. In the procession appeared the oriests bearing the Host imder a splendid canopy, "ollowed by a devout throng, in which, in Madrid, jften appeared the king and his court without listinction of rank, and last of all. in beautiful cars, ^ame the actors from the public theatres who were 111 take part in the performance. The procession isually halted before the house of some dignitary ivhile the priests performed certain religious cere- monies, the multitude kneeling meanwdiile as if in church. At the conclusion of these, the auto was ^iven. These jjerformances, and the procession IS well, were given with much splendour and at ireat expen.se, being limited only by the resources 5f the particular town in which they took place.

Of the better known writers of this kind of dramatic literature may be mentioneti Juan de la Enzina antl 'iil Vicente, who wrote in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, while among those wlio wrote autos when they were at the height of their siiccess was Lope de Vega, who composed no less tlian four hundred. \'er>' few of these are now extant. Among his oest arc "The Harvest" and "The Wolf turned ijhepherd. " Then came Montalvdn, whose "Poly-

phemus" was his best known auto, Valdivielso, who wrote "The Prodigal Son"; and lastly, the most successful of all, Calderon. Although not as prolific as Lope de Vega, Calder6n has left about seventy autos, the best known of which are "The DiN-ine Orpheus", a work of considerable poetic merit, ''The Devotion to the Mass", and "The Captivity of the Ark". These autos sacramentales produced a great effect on the people. From time immemorial, allegory of every kind had powerfully appealed to them, and these autos took a strong hold on the popular favour, coming as they did during religious festivals, with their music and their splendour, coupled with the fact that they were given at the public expense and with the sanction of the Church. In 1765, their public representation was forbidden by Charles III, but the habits of centuries could not be so easily overcome, and for many years afterward they continued to be presenteil in some of the smaller towns.

Fitzm.\urice-Kellv, Historia de la LiteratuTa Espariola (Madrid, 1901), passim; Trench, Essay on the Life and Genius of Calderon (London. 1S80); Sch.vck, Geschichle dec dramatischen Literatur und Kunst in Spanien (Berlin, 1846'>, III.

Ventura Fcentes.

Autpert, Ajibrose, an early medieval writer and abbot of the Benedictine Order, b. in France, early in the eighth century; d. after an abbacy of httle more than a year at his monaster}^ of St. Vin- cent on the Voltumo, near Beneventum, in Southern Italy, 778 or 779. Autpert, if forgotten to-day, was not without a name in his own century. Charle- magne made use of his talents; Pope Stephen I\' protected him; and the monastery where lie spent many years, and of which he died abbot w-as famous among the great monasteries of Italy. He has sometimes been confounded with another Autpert who was Abbot of Jhjnte Cassino in the next century. and who left a collection of sermons besides a s]iiritu:d treatise. His cliief work is "Expositio in .Apoc;i- lypsim" (P. L., XX.W, col. 2417-52).

Francis P. Havey.

Autran, Joseph, a French poet, b. at JIarseilles 20 June, 1813; d. in the same city, 6 March, 1877. He pursued his classical studies in the Jesuit college of Aix. His father, however, having met with re- verses, Autran, obliged to earn liis own living, ac- cepted a position as teacher in a religious school. Thus engaged, he published the first work which drew attention to his merits as a poet; this was an ode written on the occasion of Lamartine's departure for the Holy Land. "Le Depart pour I'Orient' was followed (1835) by a collection of poems en- titled "La mer ", remarkable for descriptive power and the charms of its versification. The favour with which it was received led him to publish a second series of the same subject, "Les Poemes de la mer", which appeared in 1852. Meantime, he had written another volume of lyi-ics "Ludibria ventis", which served to increase his popularity as a singer; also a prose worl;, "Italie et la Semaine sainte a Rome' (1841), the fruit of a voyage to the Eternal City. The French conquest of Algiers suggested the sub- ject of an epic poem, "Milianah ", published in 1842. In 1848 "La Fille d'Achille ", a tragedy in five acts, shared with Emile Augier's "Oabrielle " the Prix ilonthyon awarded by the French Academy. This was followed by: "Laboureurs et Soldats" (1845). "Vie rurale" (1856), crowned by the French Acad- emy; "Epitres rustiques"; "Le poeme des beaux jours" (1862); "LeCyclope ", a drama after P^uripides (1869); "Les Paroles de Salomon"; "Sonnets Capri- cieux" (1873); "La L^gende des Paladins" (1875). In 1868 Autran was elected a member of the French Academy to succeed Ponsard. In his later days he was stricken with blindness. Autran, though