AUTOS. — This term designates one-act dramatic compositions of religious subject matter that reached their peak of perfection and success in Spain with Calderón, though they were also cultivated by numerous other authors, both well-known (such as Valdivielso, Lope de Vega, Mira de Amescua, etc.) and anonymous.
It is not easy to give a precise definition of these works based on their content, nor is it possible—given the current use of the word *a.* in Spanish literature—to restore it to its original meaning, which appears instead, in the *Códice de a. viejos* (the famous 16th-century anonymous collection of such works), to be linked to the genre later called *comedias a lo divino*. The works most similar to the type of *a.* as commonly understood are there referred to as *farsas*; however, we shall not depart here from the now entrenched usage and will adopt the traditional subdivision into *autos del nacimiento* and *autos sacramentales*, which forms the basis of the present treatment. But one thing must first be said: namely, that *autos* are a characteristic product of Spanish theater, without parallel in the conglomerate of European drama, although the *autos del nacimiento* do bear a certain resemblance to our dramatic offices, French *mystères*, and sacred representations. This is natural, since all these compositions arise from a common cultural and religious climate, a shared spiritual need, and were intended—at least in their earliest forms—to be performed in the same places (churches, cloisters, squares) or on rough, improvised stages, with the aid of minimal scenic details designed to evoke in the minds of the spectators (a varied and heterogeneous crowd in terms of culture and social status) the essential ideas about the nature of the characters, the unfolding of the action, and so forth.
The first Spanish dramatic work that can be called an *auto* in the strictest sense is the fragment of 147 verses from the late 12th century, dealing with the visit of the Magi, studied and published by Menéndez Pidal under the title *Auto de los Reyes Magos*. Here, Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar appear first in soliloquies and reciprocal dialogues; then it is the turn of Herod, who in a soliloquy reveals his apprehension and decides to summon his wise men to learn what is about to happen. The fragment, much debated regarding its derivation but whose antiquity nonetheless commands special attention, is divided into five scenes that rework and expand, with a certain dramatic vividness, the corresponding episodes from the Gospel of St. Matthew. Thus, we are properly dealing with an *auto del nacimiento*, since this category includes those theatrical compositions whose subject is the birth of Jesus and the Gospel episodes most directly connected to it (the Annunciation, the Flight into Egypt, etc.). If, however, we set aside this first, unwitting sketch of what would become the "genre" thus designated, we must turn to the *Vita Christi* by Fray Iñigo de Mendoza (1482) to find inserted, "for the entertainment of readers," a passage in the form of a dialogued eclogue (with shepherds, an Angel, and the Virgin Mary wrapping her child in swaddling clothes) that more justly deserves the title of *auto del nacimiento*. Moreover, works in eclogue form intended for actual performance on Christmas night include those by Juan del Encina, which stage shepherds, the appearance of the Angel, etc. Alongside Encina, Juan Fernández, his contemporary and disciple, should be remembered as an author of *autos del nacimiento*; the Portuguese Gil Vicente, author of the *Auto dos Reis Magos*, an *Auto da Visitacão*, and other Nativity-related works, may also be considered an innovator and renewer of the dramatic works in this cycle. But there is no doubt that the fame and originality of Spanish religious theater are chiefly founded on the compositions of the other cycle, the *autos sacramentales*. Here there is truly something characteristic and inimitable: namely, a mentality—shared by authors and spectators alike—that presupposes a wholly particular religious formation and sentiment.
The *autos sacramentales* were initially and essentially dedicated to the feast of Corpus Christi (extended, as is well known, to the entire Christian world by Pope Urban IV in 1263 and introduced into Spain in 1314), which meant that they took as their natural center the great drama of the Passion, and, to a greater or lesser extent, the mystery of the Incarnation and the Trinity, as well as the sacrament of the Eucharist.
Everyone understands the difficulty of staging and giving spectacular form to such themes, and indeed the *autos sacramentales* are extremely lacking in action and theatrical resources. Yet where real characters or the possibility of developing the drama in direct form are lacking, we find instead a multitude of symbolic or allegorical figures, personifications of the most unexpected abstractions—from Faith and Hope to Fire, Water, Earth, from Guilt and Justice to divine attributes, vices, human sentiments, senses, and thoughts. Thus, the theological or philosophical subject matter takes on tangible form, comes to life, and acquires didactic and moral value, if not indeed artistic and poetic value.
Apart from discussions of the themes treated by the *autos sacramentales* and the abstract or symbolic characters that appear in them, it is certain that authors such as Encina and Fernández (already mentioned), Juan de Timoneda, Lope de Vega, Valdivielso, Tirso de Molina, Mira de Amescua, Calderón, and Francisco de Rojas enriched Spanish theater with *autos sacramentales* that even today constitute—not merely documents of a museum of cultural or literary curiosities—but monuments of a peculiarly Spanish art, universal in either their value or their very content.
A more extensive examination is now due of that 16th-century collection of *autos*, for the most part anonymous: the *Códice de autos viejos*.
In this work we have proof that originally these compositions were not limited to the two cycles of the Nativity and Corpus Christi around which they later became centered, but freely developed the most varied and popular religious subjects, enriching the sparse gallery of evangelical figures with numerous others, mainly saints. Already Gil Vicente had set the example with an *A. de s. Martinho* (written in Spanish) intended for performance at the Corpus Christi festival, but dealing with the famous episode of the Saint giving part of his cloak to a poor man; now, among the *a. viejos*, we find some dedicated to St. John the Baptist, St. Paul, St. George, St. Eulalia, St. Barbara, etc.; then others that recount events from the Old Testament, from Adam’s fault to Cain’s crime, from Abraham’s sacrifice to Hagar’s exile, from the story of Samson to that of Nebuchadnezzar; finally, among those drawing on profane themes, it is interesting to note the *A. de los Triunfos de Petrarca*, where personified abstractions (Love, Fame, Death) appear alongside biblical, mythological, historical, and evangelical figures (Adam, David, Solomon, Samson, Absalom, Alexander, Hercules, etc.). If we add to this the compositions relating to the cycles of the Nativity and Corpus Christi as well as those of a more properly allegorical nature, we gain an idea of the importance of this codex, in which, as has been rightly said, the moral history of humanity is synthesized, from original sin to Redemption. The genius of Calderón would bring these theatrical representations (especially the *a. sacramentales*) to their apogee; after the 17th century, disciples failed to maintain the artistic level achieved by the master, and then, with the spread of French Enlightenment ideas and the debates raised around the nature and content of the *a.*, these declined until, by royal ordinance of 11 June 1765, they were officially prohibited.
**AUTPERT, AMBROSE (Ambrosius Autpertus, Autbertus, not correctly Anserbus)**
— Ecclesiastical writer, born into a distinguished family at the beginning of the 8th century in France (Provence? Aquitaine?).
He received a thorough education, focusing more on sacred than profane studies (cf. preface to Book VIII on the *Apocalypse*). Coming to Italy, he visited Rome and traveled as far as Benevento. There, in the nearby Benedictine monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno, he embraced the religious life. Ordained a priest, he devoted himself to preaching. Upon the death of Abbot John I (773–77), he was chosen by the French monks—numerous in that place—to succeed him, while the Lombard or Italian monks elected Potone. A nationalistic dispute arose, and A. relinquished the abbacy (778). Summoned to Rome by Pope Adrian I along with other monks to clarify Potone’s alleged disloyalty to Charlemagne, he died suddenly en route between May and June 781 (cf. *Codex Carolinus*, no. 67, in MGH, *Epist.* III, p. 595); incorrectly, however, the *Chronicon Vulturense* commonly gives 19 July 778 as his date of death. His body, transported to his monastery, was buried in the church of San Pietro.
For his virtues, the same chronicler calls him *sacristissimus*; Mabillon (*Acta SS. O.S.B.*, III, part 2, Paris 1672, pp. 259–67) and the Bollandists (*Acta SS. Iulii*, IV, Antwerp 1725, pp. 646–41) accord him the title of saint.
WORKS.
— In PL 89, A. occupies only a few columns (1265–1332); yet all his writings together would fill at least two volumes. His works have largely been attributed to better-known names, from St. Ambrose of Milan to St. Ildefonsus, not to mention those claimed by the monks of Montecassino for their abbot Autpert (834–38).
1. First comes his great commentary on the *Apocalypse* in 10 books (in *Maxima Bibliotheca veterum Patrum*, XIII, Lyons 1677, pp. 403–657; not, as some write, in PL, where it is missing), which he called, for its easy intelligibility, *Speculum parvulorum*; he secured the approval of Pope Stephen III (IV), which he used against envious detractors. For this laborious composition, A. draws on earlier Latin writers, especially Primasius, likewise accepting Augustine’s theory of *recapitulation* (cf. *Praef.*, ch. *Cum itaque*). Throughout the work the author’s piety shines through (cf. preface to Book VIII).
2. *Conflict of Vices and Virtues* (*Conflictus vitiorum atque virtutum*), an ascetical treatise dedicated to Lanfrid, first abbot of Benediktbeuern in Bavaria (cf. the *Anonymous of Melk*, *De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis*, 51: PL 213, 975). With the cessation of violent persecutions, the struggle for Christians now consists in that of virtues against vices. Inspired by Prudentius’ *Psychomachia*, the *Conflictus* unfolds through the personification of 25 principal vices that seek to entice the soul with subtle arguments, overcome by those of the virtues. The epilogue, resolving the difficulty of those who believe they cannot be sanctified while remaining in their homeland, is a document of the differing spiritual tendencies between Benedictine monasticism, which cherished *stabilitas loci*, and the Celtic tradition, which favored distant wandering (*venitela*, q.v.). This ascetical opuscule is among the most celebrated of the Middle Ages, which attributed it to Ambrose of Milan (PL 17, 1057–74). Isidore of Seville (*ibid.*, 83, 1131–44), as well as Leo I, Gregory I, and especially Augustine (*ibid.*, 40, 1091–1106)—under whose name two of his fragments are cited in the *Corpus Iuris Canonici* (Causa 22, q. 2, can. 13; C. 27, q. 1, c. 20). For these various attributions, cf. F. Arevalo, *Isidoriiana*, III, ch. 84, nn. 20–41 (PL 81, 615–624).
3. *Life of Paldone, Tato, and Taso of Volturno* (*Vita Paldonis, Tatonis et Tasonis Vulturensium*) (the founders of his monastery: PL 89, 1319–32; critical ed. G. Waitz, in MGH, *Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum*, Hanover 1878, pp. 546–55). A liturgical work praised by Paul the Deacon (*Historia Langobardorum*, VI, 40) and included in the *Chronicon Vulturense* (critical ed. V. Federici [*Fonti per la storia d’Italia*, 58], I, Rome 1925, pp. 101–23), as well as in the 11th-century *Lezionario Farfense*, though with variants and additions (cf. U. Balzani, *Il Chronicon Farfense* [*Fonti per la storia d’Italia*, 23], I, Rome 1903, pp. XII and 9–16).
4. *Homilies*: three (*De Cudipitate*, on the *Purification of St Mary*, and on the *Transfiguration of the Lord*: PL 89, 1277–1320); others, on the *Nativity of St Mary*, are contained in ms. *Paris* 3783 (see Morin, in *Rev. Bénéd.*, 8 [1891], pp. 275–78); others, still to be identified, are in manuscripts from Montecassino, intermingled with those of the homonymous Cassinese abbot.
5. *Oratio contra septies septena vitia*, which opens the *Chronicon Vulturumense* (loc. cit., I, pp. 3–15); in Migne it appears as an appendix to the works of St Ambrose (PL 17, 755–62).
6. The commentaries on *Leviticus*, the *Song of Songs*, and *Sahni*, noted by the *Chronicon Vulturumense* as remarkable for their *mellifluus suavitate*, appear to be lost.
7. Of his *Epistolary*, only one letter to Stephen III (IV), prefixed to the commentary on the Apocalypse, survives.
A. is one of the most important figures of the period preceding the Carolingian Renaissance. He seems to precede his contemporaries by several centuries, and when a critical edition of all his works becomes available, more than one scholar will be astonished to discover that a theologian of such stature remained almost unknown for twelve centuries (Morin).
His *Life*, written in the 11th century by the monk John and not lacking in legendary elements, is inserted in the *Chronicon Vulturumense*, I, chaps. 64–74 (loc. cit., pp. 177–201).
BIBL.
- PP. Maurini, *Histoire Littéraire de la France*, IV, Paris 1738, pp. 141–61; G. Morin, *Les Leçons apocryphes du Bréviaire Romain*, in *Rev. Bénéd.*, 3 (1891), pp. 275–86; 2nd ed. *De la besogne pour les jeunes*, in *Rev. d'histoire eccl.*, 6 (1905), pp. 336–38; id., *Le «Conflits» d'Ambroise A. et ses points d'attache avec la Bavière*, in *Rev. Bénéd.*, 27 (1910), pp. 204–12; id., *Études, Textes, Découvertes* (*Anecdota Maredsolana*, 2nd series), I, Maredsous-Paris 1913, p. 506 (index); T. A. Agius, *On Pseudo-Jérôme, Epistle IX*, in *The Journal of Theological Studies*, 24 (1923), pp. 176–83; C. Lambot, *L'Homélie du Pseudo-Jérôme sur l'Assomption et l'Évangile de la Nativité de Marie d'après une lettre inédite d'Hincmar*, in *Rev. Bénéd.*, 46 (1934), pp. 265–82; M. D'Argenio, *A. A. e la sua dottrina spirituale nella «Vita» dei tre Fondatori e nel «Conflits»*, Milan 1947.