[526] Ditchfield, 155.
[527] Frazer, ii. 233; Pfannenschmidt, 93.
[528] Haddon, 335; Grosse, 167; Herbert Spencer in Contemp. Review (1895), 114; Groos, Play of Man, 88, 354. Evidence for the wide use of the dance at savage festivals is given by Wallaschek, 163, 187.
[529] Grimm, i. 39; Pearson, ii. 133; Müllenhoff, Germania, ch. 24, and de antiq. Germ. poesi chorica, 4; Kögel, i. 1. 8. The primitive word form should have been laikaz, whence Gothic laiks, O. N. leikr, O. H. G. leih, A.-S. lâc. The word has, says Müllenhoff, all the senses ‘Spiel, Tanz, Gesang, Opfer, Aufzug.’ From the same root come probably ludus, and possibly, through the Celtic, the O. F. lai. The A.-S. lâc is glossed ludus, sacrificium, victima, munus. It occurs in the compounds ecga-gelâc and sveorða-gelâc, both meaning ‘sword-dance,’ sige-lâc, ‘victory-dance,’ as-lâc, ‘god-dance,’ wine-lâc, ‘love-dance’ (cf. p. 170), &c. An A.-S. synonym for lâc is plega, ‘play,’ which gives sweord-plega and ecg-plega. Spil is not A.-S. and spilian is a loan-word from O. H. G.
[530] Gummere, B. P. 328; Kögel, i. 1. 6.
[531] S. Ambrose, de Elia et Ieiunio, c. 18 (P. L. xiv. 720), de Poenitentia, ii. 6 (P. L. xvi. 508); S. Augustine, contra Parmenianum, iii. 6 (P. L. xliii. 107); S. Chrysostom, Hom. 47 in Iulian. mart. p. 613; Hom. 23 de Novilun. p. 264; C. of Laodicea (†366), c. 53 (Mansi, ii. 571). Cf. D. C. A. s. v. Dancing, and ch. i. Barthélemy, ii. 438, and other writers have some rather doubtful theories as to liturgical dancing in early Christian worship; cf. Julian. Dict. of Hymn. 206.
[532] Du Méril, Com. 67; Pearson, ii. 17, 281; Gröber, ii. 1. 444; Kögel, i. 1. 25; Indiculus Superstitionum (ed. Saupe), 10 ‘de sacrilegiis per ecclesias.’ Amongst the prohibitions are Caesarius of Arles (†542), Sermo xiii. (P. L. xxxix. 2325) ‘quam multi rustici et quam multae mulieres rusticanae cantica diabolica, amatoria et turpia memoriter retinent et ore decantant’; Const. Childeberti (c. 554) de abol. relig. idololatriae (Mansi, ix. 738) ‘noctes pervigiles cum ebrietate, scurrilitate, vel canticis, etiam in ipsis sacris diebus, pascha, natale Domini, et reliquis festivitatibus, vel adveniente die Dominico dansatrices per villas ambulare ... nullatenus fieri permittimus’; C. of Auxerre (573-603), c. 9 (Maassen, i. 180) ‘non licet in ecclesia choros secularium vel puellarum cantica exercere nec convivia in ecclesia praeparare’; C. of Chalons (639-54), c. 19 (Maassen, i. 212) ‘Valde omnibus noscetur esse decretum, ne per dedicationes basilicarum aut festivitates martyrum ad ipsa solemnia confluentes obscoena et turpia cantica, dum orare debent aut clericos psallentes audire, cum choris foemineis, turpia quidem decantare videantur. unde convenit, ut sacerdotes loci illos a septa basilicarum vel porticus ipsarum basilicarum etiam et ab ipsis atriis vetare debeant et arcere.’ Sermo Eligii (Grimm, iv. 1737) ‘nullus in festivitate S. Ioannis vel quibuslibet sanctorum solemnitatibus solstitia aut vallationes vel saltationes aut caraulas aut cantica diabolica exerceat’; Iudicium Clementis (†693), c. 20 (Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 226) ‘si quis in quacunque festivitate ad ecclesiam veniens pallat foris, aut saltat, aut cantat orationes amatorias ... excommunicetur’ (apparently a fragment of a penitential composed by Clement or Willibrord, an A.-S. missionary to Frisia, on whom see Bede, H. E. v. 9, and the only dance prohibition of possible A.-S. provenance of which I know); Statuta Salisburensia (Salzburg: †800; Boretius, i. 229) ‘Ut omnis populus ... absque inlecebroso canticu et lusu saeculari cum laetaniis procedant’; C. of Mainz (813), c. 48 (Mansi, xiv. 74) ‘canticum turpe atque luxuriosum circa ecclesias agere omnino contradicimus’; C. of Rome (826), c. 35 (Mansi, xiv. 1008) ‘sunt quidam, et maxime mulieres, qui festis ac sacris diebus atque sanctorum natalitiis non pro eorum quibus debent delectantur desideriis advenire, sed ballando, verba turpia decantando, choros tenendo ac ducendo, similitudinem paganorum peragendo, advenire procurant’; cf. Dicta abbatis Pirminii (Caspari, Kirchenhistorische Anecdota, 188); Penitentiale pseudo-Theodorianum (Wasserschleben, 607); Leonis IV Homilia (847, Mansi, xiv. 895); Benedictus Levita, Capitularia (†850), vi. 96 (M. G. H. Script. iv. 2); and for Spain, C. of Toledo (589), c. 23 (Mansi, ix. 999), and the undated C. of Braga, c. 80 (quoted on p. 144). Cf. also the denunciations of the Kalends (ch. xi and Appendix N). Nearly four centuries after the C. of Rome we find the C. of Avignon (1209), c. 17 (Mansi, xxii. 791) ‘statuimus, ut in sanctorum vigiliis in ecclesiis historicae saltationes, obscoeni motus, seu choreae non fiant, nec dicantur amatoria carmina, vel cantilenae ibidem....’ Still later the C. of Bayeux (1300), c. 31 (Mansi, xxv. 66) ‘ut dicit Augustinus, melius est festivis diebus fodere vel arare, quam choreas ducere’; and so on ad infinitum. The pseudo-Augustine Sermo, 265, de Christiano nomine cum operibus non Christianis (P. L. xxxix. 2237), which is possibly by Caesarius of Arles, asserts explicitly the pagan character of the custom: ‘isti enim infelices et miseri homines, qui balationes et saltationes ante ipsas basilicas sanctorum exercere non metuunt nec erubescunt, etsi Christiani ad ecclesiam venerint, pagani de ecclesia revertuntur; quia ista consuetudo balandi de paganorum observatione remansit.’ A mediaeval preacher (quoted by A. Lecoy de la Marche, Chaire française au Moyen Âge, 447, from B. N. Lat. MS. 17509, f. 146) declares, ‘chorea enim circulus est cuius centrum est diabolus, et omnes vergunt ad sinistrum.’
[533] Tille, D. W. 301; G. Raynaud, in Études dédiées à Gaston Paris, 53; E. Schröder, Die Tänzer von Kölbigk, in Z. f. Kirchengeschichte, xvii. 94; G. Paris, in Journal des Savants (1899), 733.
[534] H. E. Reynolds, Wells Cathedral, 85 ‘cum ex choreis ludis et spectaculis et lapidum proiectionibus in praefata ecclesia et eius cemeteriis ac claustro dissentiones sanguinis effusiones et violentiae saepius oriantur et in hiis dicta Wellensis ecclesia multa dispendia patiatur.’
[535] Menestrier, Des Ballets anciens et modernes (1863), 4; on other French church dances, cf. Du Tilliot, 21; Barthélemy, iv. 447; Leber, ix. 420. The most famous are the pilota of Auxerre, which was accompanied with ball-play (cf. ch. vi) and the bergeretta of Besançon. Julian, Dict. of Hymn. 206, gives some English examples.