338 Elbert N. S. Thompson 
it may be said, was largely faith, and, on the other, an equally 
large body of homiletic teaching, whose end was mainly works. 
Churchmen could with equal facility expound the powers that be- 
long in particular to each of the members of the Trinity, or point 
a simple moral against idleness. Upon the useless subtlety and ex- 
treme impracticability of the theological speculation, our contem- 
poraries are too prone to insist, even when they are most blind to 
the practical moral teaching that went hand in hand with it. A 
reminder, then, is often needed that in medieval religious thought 
there was this union of theology and morality, of the impractical 
and ephemeral and the practical and enduring, of faith and works. 
The best single example of a play so combining doctrinal theo- 
logy and practical ethics is the Macro morality, Wisdom Who is 
Christ. The first portion of the play is strictly theological; the 
second, which is not of present concern, is suggestive of con- 
temporary society ; the third is ethical.' In the first division, Wisdom 
introduces himself to the audience as a quality present in each 
member of the Trinity, but especially in the Son. She then explains 
to Soul how a man’s psychic nature is composed of two parts, 
sensuality, as ruled by the five senses, and reason, the image of 
God. It is supplied with three distinct powers, Mind, which brings 
man to a knowledge of the Father; Understanding, which reveals 
Christ; and Will, which inspires love for the Holy Ghost. These 
senses and powers the dramatist has completely externalized in his 
allegory. The five senses appear as virgins singing a psalm; the 
three powers play leading roles; the soul itself appears, first in 
a white robe adorned with gold, then, after the powers have 
sinned, “in be most horrybull wyse, fowlere ban a fende.” In thus 
humanizing his abstractions, however, the dramatist has not for- 
gotten his theology. The soul is still to him a psychic entity, 
doomed to suffer for Adam’s sin, and saved only by Christ’s Pas- 
sion and by his own baptism. From its three powers come re- 
spectively Faith, Hope, and Charity, and opposed to them are the 
World, the Flesh, and the Devil. Above all else the soul has 
freedom of the will. 
After Wisdom has expounded this orthodox psychology, Lucifer, 
in the disguise of a gallant, tempts Mind, Will, and Understanding 
by persuading them to despise the contemplative life, and to regard 
work as preferable to meditation and prayer. He even urges them 
to marry, and to enjoy riches and good clothing, for “ Gode,” he 

1 1-552, 552-877, 877—end. 
