[263] Scenes between the Mercator, his wife, and their lad Rubin play a large part in the later German Passion plays; cf. Wirth, 168.
[264] Creizenach, i. 155. Two fourteenth-century texts exist, one in Provençal, one in Catalan.
[265] Text in Mone, Schauspiele des Mittelalters, i. 72; cf. Creizenach, i. 121; Wirth, 135, 282.
[266] Text in Froning, 340 (begins ‘Incipit ordo sive registrum de passione domini’); cf. Creizenach, i. 219; Wirth, 137, 295.
[267] Text in Froning, 305 (begins ‘Ad materiae reductionem de passione domini. Incipit ludus pascalis’); cf. Creizenach, i. 92, 120; Wirth, 134, 293.
[268] Giuliano da Cividale, Cronaca Friulana (D’Ancona, i. 91; Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. xxiv. 1205, 1209): ‘Anno domini MCCLXXXXVIII die vii exeunte Maio, videlicet in die Pentecostes et in aliis duobus sequentibus diebus, facta fuit Repraesentatio Ludi Christi, videlicet Passionis, Resurrectionis, Ascensionis, Adventus Spiritus Sancti, Adventus Christi ad iudicium, in curia Domini Patriarchae Austriae civitatis, honorifice et laudabiliter, per Clerum civitatensem .... Anno MCCCIII facta fuit per Clerum, sive per Capitulum civitatense, Repraesentatio: sive factae fuerunt Repraesentationes infra scriptae: In primis, de Creatione primorum parentum; deinde de Annunciatione Beatae Virginis, de Partu et aliis multis, et de Passione et Resurrectione, Ascensione et Adventu Spiritus Sancti, et de Antichristo et aliis, et demum de Adventu Christi ad iudicium. Et predicta facta fuerunt solemniter in curia domini Patriarchae in festo Pentecostes cum aliis duobus diebus sequentibus, praesente r. d. Ottobono patriarcha aquileiensi, d. Iacobo q. d. Ottonelli de Civitate episcopo concordiensi, et aliis multis nobilibus de civitatibus et castris Foro-iulii, die XV exeunte Maio.’ Still earlier, some dramatic fragments not later than the mid-thirteenth century from Kloster Himmelgarten near Nordhausen, include scenes from both the early and late life of Christ (Text, ed. Sievers, in Zeitsch. f. d. Phil. xxi. 393; cf. Creizenach, i. 124); but these might conceivably belong to a set of plays for different dates, such as those of the Sainte Geneviève MS. (Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 379). Besides the English cosmic cycles, there are several fifteenth-century French ones described by Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 394 sqq.: in Germany plays of this scope are rare.
[269] Pearson, ii. 312; Köppen, 49; Ten Brink, i. 287.
[270] Cf. Sepet, xxxviii. 415; Creizenach, i. 260; G. Smith, 253; Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 352. Le Mistère du viel testament, printed †1510 (ed. Rothschild, 1878-91, for Soc. des anciens textes français), is a fifteenth-century compilation of O. T. plays from various sources.
[271] French versions of the Vengeance de Notre Seigneur, of which the chief episode is the Siege of Jerusalem, appear in the fifteenth century (Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 12, 415, 451). A late Coventry play on the same theme is unfortunately lost.
[276] Plan in Mone, ii. 156; Froning, 277; Davidson, 199; Pearson, ii. 320; Könnecke, Bilderatlas, 55: on the play, cf. Creizenach, i. 224; Wirth, 139, 327. Another sixteenth-century plan from Lucerne is given by Leibing, Die Inscenierung des 2-tägigen Osterspiels, 1869; cf. Creizenach, i. 168.
[277] See the mention of ‘en mi la place’ in the prologue; but ‘place’ might be only the French equivalent of ‘platea’ as used in the Fleury Suscitatio Lazari.
[278] Pearson, ii. 322.
[279] Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 37.
[280] Reproduced in Clédat, 4; Bapst, 33, from Horae of †1460; cf. Jusserand, Lit. Hist. i. 470.
[281] D’Ancona, i. 191, however, describes the Italian devozioni as taking place on talami or platforms in the naves of churches. In France, minor religious plays at least took place on scaffolds, built up sometimes against the wall of a church (Bapst, 23, 29). A raised stage, with sedes along the back of it, is shown by the miniatures in the MS. of the Valenciennes Passion (reproduced in Jusserand, Shakespeare in France, 63; cf. Julleville, Les Mystères, ii. 153); but this is as late as 1547.
[282] Julleville, Les Myst. i. 386; Bapst, 28.
[283] Cf. p. 137. Amongst the ‘establies’ required for the Rouen play of 1474 was ‘Enfer faict en maniere d’une grande gueulle se cloant et ouvrant quant besoing en est’ (Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 37). Just such an ‘enfer’ is represented in the Fouquet and Valenciennes miniatures.
[286] Froning, 363 ‘Et notandum, quod optime congruit, ne populus nimiam moram faciendo gravetur, et ut resurrectio domini gloriosius celebretur, ut ulterior ordo ludi in diem alterum conservetur; quod si apud rectores deliberatum fuerit, Augustinus coram populo proclamet dicens sine rigmo, ut in die crastino revertatur.’
[287] Creizenach, i. 340.
[289] Cf. p. 74. By the fifteenth century lay performers appear even in the ritual Quem quaeritis. An Augsburg version of 1487 (Milchsack, 129) concludes ‘Permittitur tamen aliis, qui forsan huiusmodi personas [i.e. ‘sacerdotes’ et ‘cantores’] non habent, ut cum aliis personis et etiam moribus honestis tamen et discretis, huiusmodi visitationem sepulchri exequantur.’ See also the jest of Tyll Ulenspiegel with the parson’s concubine who played the angel, quoted by Pearson, ii. 308.
[290] Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 2. For plays by German guilds cf. Pearson, ii. 364.
[291] Creizenach, i. 137; Julleville, Les Myst. i. 115; Les Com. 43. Probably the ‘Jeu de Nicholas’ of Jean Bodel, and the fourteenth-century ‘Miracles de Notre Dame,’ belong to the répertoires of puys.
[292] Julleville, Les Myst. i. 412; Les Com. 55.
[293] Du Méril, 410, 414, prints examples of such épîtres farcies for the feasts of St. Stephen and St. Thomas of Canterbury: cf. the numerous references in D’Ancona, i. 66, and vol. i. p. 277.
[294] Text in Coussemaker, 256, from Bibl. St. Quentin MS. 75 (fourteenth century); cf. Julleville, Les Myst. i. 64. The Quem quaeritis includes the Hortulanus scene and has, like the Prague versions, the Mercator. It was probably written later than 1286, as the Ordinarius of that year (Coussemaker, 337) directs a shorter version in Latin.
[295] Text in Froning, 49, from Trier MS. 75 (begins ‘incipit ludus de nocte paschae, de tribus Mariis et Maria Magdalena’ ... ends ‘explicit ludus’); cf. Creizenach, i. 112; Davidson, 149; Wirth, 120, 235.
[296] Cf. Academy for Jan. 4 and 11, 1890, where Prof. Skeat prints the text from Shrewsbury MS. Mus. iii. 42 f. 48 (a book of anthems). Manly, i. xxviii, also gives it with some valuable notes of his own.
[297] Creizenach, i. 109.
[298] Ibid. i. 99, 202; Pearson, ii. 271, 302, 394; Wirth, 168, 201, 215; D’Ancona, i. 62.
[299] Cf. vol. i. p. 83.
[300] Cf. vol. i. pp. 185, 207, 213.
[303] Cf. vol. i. pp. 258, 268, 327.
[304] Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 412; Les Com. 149, 237 (Chaumont), 239 (Chauny).
[306] D’Ancona, i. 87 sqq.; F. Torraca, Discussioni e ricerche (1888), 92; Creizenach, i. 299 sqq.; J. A. Symonds, Renaissance in Italy, iv. 242 sqq.; G. Smith, 297; Wechssler, 30; Gaspary, i. 138, 357; I. S. A. Herford, The Confraternities of Penance, their Dramas and their Lamentations in E. H. Review, vi. (1891), 646. A first instalment of dramatic Lauds was published by Monaci, Appunti per la storia del teatro italiano in Rivista di Filologia Romana, i. 235, ii. 29. For other collections cf. D’Ancona, i. 153; Gaspary, i. 361. D’Ancona has published Sacre Rappresentazioni (1872). A selection of Lauds, Devozioni, and Rappresentazioni is in F. Torraca, Il teatro italiano dei Secoli xiii, xiv, e xv (1885).
[307] D’Ancona, i. 94.
[308] Galvano Fiamma, de rebus gestis a Vicecomitibus (D’Ancona, i. 97; Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. xii. 1017). The ceremony was ‘in die Epifanie in conventu fratrum Praedicatorum.... Fuerunt coronati tres Reges in equis magnis, vallati domicellis, vestiti variis, cum somariis multis et familia magna nimis. Et fuit stella aurea discurrens per aera, quae praecedebat istos tres Reges, et pervenerunt ad columnas Sancti Laurentii, ubi erat rex Herodes effigiatus, cum scribis et sapientibus. Et visi sunt interrogare regem Herodem, ubi Christus nasceretur, et revolutis multis libris responderunt, quod deberet nasci in civitate Bethleem in distantia quinque milliariorum a Hierusalem. Quo audito, isti tres Reges coronati aureis coronis, tenentes in manibus scyphos aureos cum auro, thure et myrrha, praecedente stella per aera, cum somariis et mirabili famulatu, clangentibus tubis, et bucinis praecedentibus, simiis, babuynis, et diversis generibus animalium, cum mirabili populorum tumultu, pervenerunt ad ecclesiam Sancti Eustorgii. Ubi in latere altaris maioris erat praesepium cum bove et asino, et in praesepio erat Christus parvulus in brachiis Virginis matris. Et isti Reges obtulerunt Christo munera; deinde visi sunt dormire, et Angelus alatus ei dixit quod non redirent per contratam Sancti Laurentii, sed per portam Romanam: quod et factum fuit. Et fuit tantus concursus populi et militum et dominarum et clericorum, quod nunquam similis fere visus fuit. Et fuit ordinatum, quod omni anno istud festum fieret.’ This is precisely the liturgic Stella translated into an out-of-door spectacle, which in its turn becomes the model for many a Quattrocento painting; cf., e.g., Botticelli’s Magi in the Uffizi, or Gentile da Fabriano’s, with the baboons done to the life, in the Accademia.
[309] D’Ancona, i. 94, 301, considers, however, that the late fifteenth-century Passio of Revello was not a native growth, but modelled on contemporary cyclic plays from France.
[311] Creizenach, i. 242; cf. the lists in Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 183.
[312] Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 9 sqq.
[313] D’Ancona, i. 218; Guasti, Le feste di San Giovanni Baptista in Firenze (1884). Rappresentazioni on St. John’s day were known to the late fourteenth-century Florentine historian Goro di Stagio Dati. An account of the feast in 1407 makes no mention of them, but they appear in that of 1439, and are elaborately described in the Storia of Matteo di Marco Palmieri about 1454 (D’Ancona, i. 228). Early in the morning of June 22 started a procession of clergy, compagnie, edifizii, and cavalleria. These stopped in the Piazza della Signoria, and rappresentazioni, forming a complete cycle from the Fall of Lucifer to the Last Judgement, and lasting sixteen hours, were given upon the edifizii. D’Ancona suggests that the dumb show type of rappresentazioni preceded the dialogued one, ‘come più semplice.’ But this seems equally inconsistent with his view that the rappresentazioni grew out of devozioni, and mine that they were an adaptation of earlier cyclical plays to the conditions of the Florentine feast.
[315] D’Ancona, i. 243; Schack, ii. 103; Ticknor, Hist. of Spanish Lit. ii. 249. The Autos Sacramentales are so named from their connexion with this day.
[316] Creizenach, i. 170, 227. The earliest German mention is at the council of Prague in 1366 (Höfler, Concilia Pragensia, 13, in Abhandl. d. königl. böhmischen Gesellsch. der Wiss. series v. vol. 12) ‘omnibus ... clericis et laicis ... mandatur ut ludos theatrales vel etiam fistulatores vel ioculatores in festo corporis Christi in processionibus ire quovis modo permittant et admittant.’ Extant Frohnleichnamsspiele are those of Innsbruck, †1391 (Text in Mone, Altteutsche Schauspiele, 145), and of Künzelsau, †1479 (ed. H. Werner, in Germania, iv. 338). Cf. the description (†1553) of Naogeorgos (transl. Googe) in Stubbes, i. 337.
[317] Julleville, ii. 208.
[318] Ward, i. 44; Davidson, 215; Malleson-Tuker, ii. 227.
[319] See e.g. the ‘Processio huius ludi’ at the end of the text of the Alsfeld Passion of 1501 (Froning, 858); cf. Pearson, ii. 365. As to the general relations of processions and plays, cf. p. 160.
[321] The closest merging of play and procession is suggested by an order at Draguignan in 1558 (Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 209), where it was ordered ‘Le dit jeu jora avec la procession comme auparadvant et le plus d’istoeres et plus brieves que puront estre seront et se dira tout en cheminant sans ce que personne du jeu s’areste pour eviter prolixité et confusion tant de ladite, prosession que jeu, et que les estrangiers le voient aisement.’ Perhaps the short speeches of the Innsbruck play were similarly delivered while the procession was moving. The nearest continental approach to the English type is the Künzelsau play, which was divided into three parts and played at three different stations (Creizenach, i. 227).
[322] Creizenach, i. 218.
[323] Creizenach, i. 128, 137 sqq., 156; Julleville, Les Myst. i. 95, 107, 115, 185; ii. 2, 4, 5, 221, 226, 345; Les Com. 49; Sepet, 202, 242; Clédat, 63, 73, 105.
[324] Creizenach, i. 130, 165, 176; Julleville, Les Myst. i. 347; Les Com. 291; D’Ancona, i. 57; Pearson, ii. 303; Wirth, 144. A play could be given outside the church without wholly losing its connexion with the liturgy. It became a sort of procession: cf. pp. 32, 67. D’Ancona, i. 59, quotes from Bibl. de l’École des Chartes, iii. 450, a licence given by the Bishop of Langres in 1408 ‘Ut in quadem platea vel plateis congruis et honestis, infra vel extra villam, prope et supra rippariam loci, coram clero et populo, alta et intelligibili voce, lingua latina et materna, cum magna reverentia et honore ac diversis personacium et habituum generibus ad hoc congruis et necessariis, solemniter et publice vitam et miracula egregii confessoris et pontificis Machuti, recitare et exponere, missamque solemnem in pontificalibus, in platea seu plateis supradictis super altare portatili consecrato per alterum vestrum canonicorum vel alium ydoneum sacerdotem celebrare ... licentiam et auctoritatem impertimus per praesentes.’ Cf. the examples of plays at the Feasts of Fools and of the Boy Bishop (vol. i. pp. 295, 296, 299, 304, 306, 309, 313, 342, 348, 349, 380).
[326] Cf. vol. i. p. 318. Pearson, ii. 285, translates: ‘The old Fathers of the Church, in order to strengthen the belief of the faithful and to attract the unbeliever by this manner of religious service, rightly instituted at the Feast of Epiphany or the Octave religious performances of such a kind as the star guiding the Magi to the new-born Christ, the cruelty of Herod, the dispatch of the soldiers, the lying-in of the Blessed Virgin, the angel warning the Magi not to return to Herod, and other events of the birth of Christ. But what nowadays happens in many churches? Not a customary ritual, not an act of reverence, but one of irreligion and extravagance conducted with all the license of youth. The priests having changed their clothes go forth as a troop of warriors; there is no distinction between priest and warrior to be marked. At an unfitting gathering of priests and laymen the church is desecrated by feasting and drinking, buffoonery, unbecoming jokes, play, the clang of weapons, the presence of shameless wenches, the vanities of the world, and all sorts of disorder. Rarely does such a gathering break up without quarrelling.’
[327] On Gerhoh (1093-1169) see the article in the 2nd ed. of Wetzer and Welte’s Kirchenlexicon. He took a strong reforming and anti-imperial line in the controversies of his day.
[328] Gerhohus, Comm. in Ps. cxxxii (P. L. cxciv. 890) ‘Cohaerebat ipsi Ecclesiae claustrum satis honestum, sed a claustrali religione omnino vacuum, cum neque in dormitorio fratres dormirent, neque in refectorio comederent, exceptis rarissimis festis, maxime in quibus Herodem repraesentarent Christi persecutorem, parvulorum interfectorem, seu ludis aliis aut spectaculis quasi theatralibus exhibendis comportaretur symbolum ad faciendum convivium in refectorio aliis pene omnibus temporibus vacuo.’
[329] Gerhohus, de Inv. Ant. lib. i. c. 5, de spectaculis theatricis in ecclesia Dei exhibitis (Gerhohi Opera Inedita, ed. Scheibelberger, i. 25) ‘Et sacerdotes, qui dicuntur, iam non ecclesiae vel altaris ministerio dediti sunt, sed exercitiis avaritiae, vanitatum et spectaculorum, adeo ut ecclesias ipsas, videlicet orationum domus, in theatra commutent ac mimicis ludorum spectaculis impleant. Inter quae nimirum spectacula adstantibus ac spectantibus ipsorum feminis interdum et antichristi, de quo nobis sermo est, non ut ipsi aestimant imaginariam similitudinem exhibent sed in veritate, ut credi potest iniquitatis ipsius mysterium pro parte sua implent. Quidni enim diabolus abutatur in serium rebus sibi exhibitis in vanitatis ludicrum, sicut Dominus quoque Iesus convertens in seria ludibria, quibus apud Iudaeos vel Pilatum in passione sua affectus est?... Quid ergo mirum si et isti nunc antichristum vel Herodem in suis ludis simulantes eosdem non, ut eis intentioni est, ludicro mentiuntur sed in veritate exhibent, utpote quorum vita ab antichristi laxa conversatione non longe abest?... Contigit, ut comperimus, aliquando apud tales, ut eum quem inter ludicra sua quasi mortuum ab Elisaeo propheta suscitantem exhiberent peracta simulatione mortuum invenirent. Alius item antichristo suo quasi suscitandus oblatus intra septem dies vere mortuus, ut comperimus, et sepultus est. Et quis scire potest an et cetera simulata antichristi scilicet effigiem, daemonum larvas, herodianam insaniem in veritate non exhibeant?... Exhibent praeterea imaginaliter et salvatoris infantiae cunabula, parvuli vagitum, puerperae virginis matronalem habitum, stellae quasi sidus flammigerum, infantum necem, maternum Rachelis ploratum. Sed divinitas insuper et matura facies ecclesiae abhorret spectacula theatralia, non respicit in vanitates et insanias falsas, immo non falsas sed iam veras insanias, in quibus viri totos se frangunt in feminas quasi pudeat eos, quod viri sunt, clerici in milites, homines se in daemonum larvas transfigurant....’
[330] Prynne, Histriomastix, 556, refers to ‘the visible apparition of the Devill on the Stage at the Belsavage Play-house, in Queene Elizabeth’s dayes (to the great amazement both of the Actors and Spectators) whiles they were there prophanely playing the History of Faustus (the truth of which I have heard from many now alive, who well remember it), there being some distracted with that fearefull sight.’
[331] Pollard, xxiv. I do not know how Ward, i. 43, gets at the very different theory that in 1210 (sic for 1207) Innocent III ordered plays ‘to be represented outside the church as well as inside.’ Mr. Pollard, by the way, assigns the prohibition to ‘Pope Gregory,’ a further mistake, due, I suppose, to the fact that it was subsequently included in the Gregorian Decretals.
[332] Cf. vol. i. p. 279.
[333] Quoted by Creizenach, i. 101, ‘Non tamen hic prohibetur repraesentare praesepe Domini, Herodem, magos et qualiter Rachel ploravit filios suos, etc., quae tangunt festivitates illas, de quibus hic fit mentio, cum talia ad devotionem potius inducant homines quam ad lasciviam vel voluptatem, sicut in pascha sepulcrum Domini et alia repraesentantur ad devotionem excitandam’: cf. vol i. p. 342. J. Aquila, Opusculum Enchiridion appellatum ferme de omni ludorum genere, f. 14 (Oppenheim, 1516), after referring to the canon, says, ‘Demonstrationes quae fiunt ad honorem dei puta passionis Christi aut vitae alicuius sancti non prohibentur in sacris locis ac temporibus fieri.’ Both canon and gloss are cited in Dives and Pauper, a book of fifteenth-century English morality (F. A. Gasquet, Eve of Reformation, 317): cf. also D’Ancona, i. 54.
[334] Cf. vol. i. p. 91. An anchoress of Tarrant Keynston (Ancren Riwle, †1150, C. S. 318) was bound to confess if she ‘eode oðe pleouwe ine chircheie: biheold hit ⁊ oðe wrastlinge ⁊ oðer fol gomenes’: but ‘pleouwe,’ like ludus (vol. i. p. 393), may have a very general meaning.
[335] Manning, 146:—
Robert Mannyng of Brunne (1303) translates:—
The reference to ‘Seynt Ysodre’ is to Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum xviii. 59, de horum [ludorum] exsecratione (P. L. lxxxii. 660). The saint is speaking of course of the Roman spectacula.
[336] On the ‘pardon’ or ‘Ablass’ given to actors at Oberammergau, and the meaning, or want of meaning, to be attached to it, see an amusing controversy in the Nineteenth Century for January and February, 1901.
[337] L’Enfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance (1727), ii. 404; Hardt, Magnum Oecumenicum Constantiense Concilium (1700), iv. 1089; K. Schmidt, Die Digby-Spiele, 12. The performance, which was possibly a dumb show, took place at a banquet on Jan. 24, 1417/8, and was repeated on the following Sunday before the emperor, who had arrived in the interval. Hardt quotes the German of one Dacher, an eye-witness: ‘Am 24ᵗᵉⁿ tag des Monats Januarii, das war auff Timotheus tag, da luden die Bischöff aus Engeland, der Bischoff Salisburgensis, der Bischoff von Londen, und demnach funff Bischoff von Engeland, alle Räht zu Costniz und sonst viel ehrbar Bürger daselbst, in Burchart Walters Haus, das man vorzeiten nennt zu dem Burgthor, itzt zu dem gulden Schvvert, allernächst bey S. Laurenz. Und gab ihnen fast ein köstlich mahl, ie 2. Gericht nach einander, jedes Gericht besonder mit 8 Essen: Die trug man allvveg eins mahl dar, deren allvveg waren 4 verguld oder versilbert. In dem mahl, zvvischen dem Essen, so machten sie solch bild und geberd, als unser Frau ihr Kind unsern Herrn und auch Gott gebahr, mit fast köstlichen Tüchern und Gevvand. Und Joseph stellten sie zu ihr. Und die heiligen 3 Könige, als die unser Frauen die Opffer brachten. Und hatten gemacht einen lauteren guldnen Stern, der ging vor ihnen, an einem kleinen eisern Drat. Und machten König Herodem, vvie er den drey Königen nachsandt, und vvie er die Kindlein ertodtet. Das machten sie alles mit gar köstlichem Gevvand, und mit grossen guldenen und silbernen Gürteln, und machten das mit grosser Gezierd, und mit grosser Demuht.’
[338] The provincial C. of Sens (1460), c. 3 (Labbé, xiii. 1728), while confirming the Basle decree, allowed ‘aliquid iuxta consuetudines ecclesiae, in Nativitate Domini, vel Resurrectione ... fiat cum honestate et pace, absque prolongatione, impedimento, vel diminutione servitii, larvatione et sordidatione faciei’; cf. the Toledo decree of 1473 quoted vol. i. p. 342. The C. of Compostella (1565), c.c. 9-11 (Aguirra Conc. Hispan. v. 450, 460), forbade ‘actus sive repraesentationes’ during service in church; they might take place with leave of the bishop, or in his absence the chapter, before or after service. Devotional ‘actus’ were allowed in Passion week on similar conditions. The Corpus Christi procession ‘semel tantum subsistat, causa horum actuum vel representationum in eo loco extra ecclesiam quem Praelatus aut [capitulum] idoneum iudicabit.’ On the other hand the C. of Seville (1512), c. 21 (Aguirra, v. 370), had forbidden priests or monks to perform or give a ‘locus’ for such ‘actus’: ‘Sumus informati, quod in quibusdam Ecclesiis nostri Archiepiscopatus et Provinciae permittitur fieri nonnullas repraesentationes Passionis Domini nostri Iesu Christi, et alios actus, et memoriam Resurrectionis, Nativitatis Salvatoris nostri, vel alias repraesentationes. Et quia ex talibus actibus orta sunt, et oriuntur plura absurda, et saepe saepius scandala in cordibus illorum qui non sunt bene confirmati in nostra sancta fide Catholica, videntes confusiones, et excessus, qui in hoc committuntur....’ Cf. also the Langres licence of 1408 (p. 97).
[339] Text in Reliquiae Antiquae, ii. 42; Hazlitt, 73; from late fourteenth-century volume of homilies formerly in library of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields. There is also in Rel. Ant. i. 322 a satirical English poem from Cott. MS. Cleop. B. ii (fifteenth century), against the miracle plays of the ‘frer mynours,’ apparently at Rome. But the Minorite in Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede (†1394, ed. Skeat), 107, says of his order, ‘At marketts & myracles we medleþ vs nevere.’
[340] Creizenach, i. 157, 162: Julleville, Les Myst. i. 107, 187; G. Smith, 251; Pollard, xix; Ward, i. 41.
[343] Cf. pp. 37, 41, 45; Lange, 130, 155; ‘officium sepulchri,’ ‘officium peregrinorum,’ ‘officium pastorum,’ ‘officium regum trium,’ ‘stellae officium’ (Rouen, eleventh century-fifteenth century); ‘resurrectionis domini aguntur officia’ (Prague, fourteenth century). At Melk in 1517, ‘acturus officium angeli’ (Lange, 110), ‘officium’ has rather the sense of ‘part.’
[344] Cf. pp. 37, 48, 49, 53, 71, 77; Lange, 48, 93, 95, 146; ‘Ordo visitationis sepulchri’ (Strassburg, 1513), ‘Ordo visitandi sepulchrum’ (Bamberg, 1597), ‘Ordo ad visitandum sepulchrum’ (Prague, twelfth century, Haarlem, thirteenth century), ‘Ordo sepulchri’ (Würzburg, thirteenth century), ‘Ordo ad suscipiendum peregrinum’ (Beauvais), ‘Ordo stellae’ (Laon, thirteenth century), ‘Ordo [stellae]’ (Bilsen, eleventh century), ‘Ordo Rachaelis’ (Freising, eleventh century), ‘Ordo Prophetarum’ (Laon, thirteenth century), ‘Ordo creacionis, etc.’ (Regensburg, 1194), ‘Ordo, sive registrum de Passione domini’ (Frankfort, fourteenth century).