310 Elbert N. S. Thompson 
such as the conflict between the virtues and the vices, the debate 
between the body and the soul, the coming of Death to summon 
man, and even the Judgment scene itself, were widely accepted. 
Most of the didactic poems and treatises that handle these themes 
seem to-day inexcusably long and tedious; many were strictly aca- 
demic in purpose. But the allegory that they contained could be 
used just as effectively in plain sermons and popular religious 
manuals, where it proved itself an indispensable aid in the trans- 
mission of religious truth. 
In their allegorical sermons churchmen used dialogue just as 
naturally as in their recital of historical or biographical fact, and 
thus recited dramatic scenes that were really moral plays. In a brief 
bit of dialogue in one of the Bickling Homilies, ‘The End of the 
World is Near,” a man who stands at the grave of a lifelong friend 
is informed by the bones that nothing remains but “a portion of 
dust, and the relict of worms,” and is urged to incline his heart to 
good counsel and prayer.! Still more significant are Hugo of Saint 
Victor’s and Bernard’s sermons on the intercession of Mercy and 
Peace for the sinner whom Justice and Truth would condemn, for 
these discourses, which will be shortly outlined, place fictitious words 
in the mouths of these allegorical characters—the essence of the 
moral plays.? 
A very similar moral allegory was carried by Peter of Blois to 
a conclusion that marks his sermon still more emphatically as the 
forerunner of the English moralities.? It is based on the verses, 
“Who will rise up for me against the evil doers? or who will 
stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Unless the Lord 
had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.” In the 
spirit of these words the preacher loses at once his own identity. 
“What can I, poor man, do,” he exclaims, “unless God aid me 
against the evil doers!”* His little drama halts a while to permit 
the discussion of three books, the Book of the Way, the Book of 
Conscience, and the Book of Life, which man will see at Doomsday. 
But the preacher shortly returns to picture the scene at God’s judg- 


a: 
2S. Victor, Patr, Lat., 172. 621-25, and Bernard, Guures Completes, 3. 
340-48. See below, chap. 5. In one of the most interesting exempla of 
the Alphabet of Tales (No. 496) Righteousness, Truth, Peace, and Mercy 
figure as characters. One of Bozon’s exempla (No. 3) introduces the 
same type of character. 
3 Sermo ad Populum, Patr. Lat., 207. 750-75. 
aes 7945 16S 
