21 



of the exterior with its surroundinjifs, amply testify. The 

 inhal)it;uits, niimhering some twelve hundred, are peasants 

 and with few exceptions, carvers in wood, an occupation 

 which tends to raise them above the ordinary farmer. 



Many of their carvings are really art works and bear 

 marks of careful study. An atmosphere of general peace 

 and good will seems to pervade the place, the viHagers 

 pursue the even tenor of their ways, making their faith 

 their life, and cultivating those traits of character so 

 essential to the performance of this duty in fulfilment of a 

 vow made during a terrible pestilence in 1633. 



When the pestilence was at its height, the poor peasants 

 vowed to God, that, if He would stay the plague, they 

 would perform every ten years, in token of their deep 

 gratitude, this sacred drama representing the character 

 of Christ from His entrance into Jerusalem to His ascen- 

 sion ; this has religiously been continued with scarcely an 

 omission every ten years to the present time. 



The Judge then gave a brief outline of the history of 

 the sacred drama ; a history which exhibits very clearly 

 the gradual development of Christianity out of the forms 

 and customs of Paganism, in the early period of the 

 Churcii. Under the papacy of Gregory the Great the 

 germs of the true mystery plays are found ; the Ciiurch 

 then began to commemorate by processions with choruses, 

 chants and dialogues, scenes of the passions and of the 

 resurrection of the Saviour, and the various events of His 

 life. He spoke of the popularity of these plays, in Eng- 

 land, in the middle of the fourteenth century, and their 

 continuance to a later period in Germany, Spain and Italy 

 and to their tinal interdiction, generally, at the close of the 

 last century. 



The performance of these plays has been several times 

 prohibited ; the villagers of Ober-ammergau have however 



