ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the possible historical implications of this ludus magnus in the light of current scholarship dealing with so-called 'liturgical drama' in the Middle Ages. Recently, a few historians and other non-specialists have discussed the passage within the general context of medieval drama, one in particular interpreting ludus magnus as relating to 'liturgical drama as missionary theatre'. Neither 'missionary theatre' nor 'liturgical drama' are, however, terms found in medieval texts and both raise certain problems in view of ongoing and fundamental historiographical discussions in the field of liturgical drama over the past 40 years. Many surviving plays are unique, the Ludus de Antichristo and the Danielis ludus being two very different cases in point. However, even unique plays or representations of this period often share common characteristics, as in the case of the two ludi. Here we have the use of liturgical materials in a religious, but not liturgically limited, narrative, possibly with political intentions.
