Note 74 — Chapter I · THE FALL OF THE THEATRES

Salvian, vi. 31 ‘quae est enim in baptismo salutari Christianorum prima confessio? quae scilicet nisi ut renuntiare se diabolo ac pompis eius et spectaculis atque operibus protestentur?’ The natural interpretation of this is that the word ‘spectaculis’ actually occurred in the formula abrenuntiationis. Was this so? It was not when Tertullian wrote (†200). He gives the formula as ‘renunciare diabolo et pompae et angelis eius,’ and goes on to argue that visiting ‘spectacula’ amounts to ‘idolatria,’ or worship of the ‘diabolus’ (de Spectaculis, c. 4). Nor is the word used in any of the numerous versions of the formula given by Schaff, iii. 248; Duchesne, 293; Martene, i. 44; Martin von Bracara, de Caeremoniis (ed. Caspari), c. 15.