370 



MYSTICISM 



might participate. Tlie earliest record of tlie 

 p. : I'.i man. ' ni a miracle play in England i- found 

 in Matthew Paii-. who i elate- that (o-otlrey, 

 afterwards AMMit of St Alhans, while a secular, 

 exhibited at I 'mi-table in Illo the miracle play of 

 fit CiiHii'n in\ and liorrowed copes from St All -aim 

 to dress his charaetei-. Kiti-lcphcn. in his Lift of 

 T/IUUIIII it lltrktt (Us:; i. describes with approval 

 tin- representation ill l.iiliilnil of the sull'erings of 

 tin 1 s.,mt- ami miracle- of tlie confessors. On tin 1 

 establishment of tin- Corpus Christi festival by 

 Pope 1'rlian IV. in 1*204, miracle play* became 

 one of its adjuncts, niul every considerable town 

 had a fraternity for their performance. Throughout 

 the l.'ith ami following centuries they continued 



in lull force in England, mid are mentioned. soi 



time.- pprovlnylj*, sometimes disapprovingly, by 

 contemporary writers. lle-igned at lir.-t as a means 

 of* religions instruction for the ]>eo|de, they had 

 long- before the Heformatioii so far departed from 

 their original character as to lie mixed up in many 

 in-t:inees with huHoonci v and irreverence, inten- 

 tional or unintentional, and to In- the mean- of 

 inducing contempt rather than respect for the 

 church and religion. An example of the degrada- 

 tion of the Mysteries may be seen in the folk-book 

 of Till Eulenspiegel (<|.v. ). They lingered on after 

 the Keformatnin. the mystery-play of The Three 

 Kinffs of Cologne being performed at Newcastle so 

 Ian- even as 1599. Remarkable collections exist 

 ill Knglish mysteries and miracles of the 15th cen- 

 tury, known as the Towneley Mysteries (Surtees 

 1836 1 ), the Coventry Mysteries i Shakespeare 

 S.K-. 1H41 ), the Chester ' Plays (Shakespeare Soc. 

 1843), and the York Play- K'lar. Press, 1885). 



' int of the mysteries and miracle-plays sprang a 

 third class of ndigious plays, called ttoroutist, in 

 which allegorical personifications of the Virtues and 

 Vices were intriKluced as drctmotil penona. These 

 p"i -ullage.- at lirst took part in the play along 

 with the scriptural or legendary characters, but 

 afterwards entirely superseded them. The oldest 

 known English compositions of this kind are of the 

 time of Henry VI.; they are more elaborate and 

 interesting than the miracle-plays. Moralities 

 continued in fashion till Elizabeth's time, and were 

 tlie immediate preeur-ors of the regular drama. 



Miracle-play.- mid mysteries were as popular in 

 France, (Jermany, Spain, and Italy a-s in England; 

 and indeed some of the /iiintorulea still acted among 

 l'asc|iies (i|.v.) are mere survivals. A piece of 

 the kind yet extant, composed in France in the llth 

 renturv, is entitled the. Mystery uf t/ie. UY.ve itntl 

 M IV/-I//HV. written partly in Provencal, partly 

 in Latin. A celebrated tratei nity, the Confrerie de 

 III Passion, founded in Paris in 13.KI, had a mon- 

 opoly for the performance of mysteries and miracle- 

 ]Jays, the exhibition of each of which took several 

 Many of the-e are still extant. 



It is a mistake to -up|iose that the hostility of 

 the Kcformcr- was what suppressed these exliibi- 

 timis. The fathers of the Itcfonnation showed no 

 unfriendly feeling towards them. Luther is reported 

 t." have said that they often did more good and 

 produced more impression than sermons; and Bishop 

 \ lirrfe. C,,,/,,,/,/ .,/ ,l,,hiin lt/*/i/lr (I.V'Si 

 is an onslaught on the friars. The most direct 

 eneoiitngeiiieiit was given to such plays by the 

 founders of the Swedi-h Protestant Church, aiid by 

 the earlier Lutheran bishops, Swedish and Dani-h. 

 The authorship of one drama of the kind i 

 signed to Ciotiiis. In England the greatest check 

 they received was from tlie rise of the -eciilar 

 drama; yet they continued to be occasionally per 

 formed in the times of .lames I. and Charles I., and 

 well known that the lir-t sketch of Milton's 

 "liae l.iixt was a sacred drama, where the 

 qpening s]>ecch wait Satan's Address to the Sun. 



A degenerate relic of the miiacle play mav yet be 

 traced ill -nine reunite dist i ids of England. here 

 the story of St (ieorge. tliediagon. ami lU-el/clnib 

 is rmlely represented by the pe:i.-anlry. Siiange to 

 gay, it was in the Catholic south of (ierinany, \\here 

 these miracle-plavs and m\steries luul pie-ei\ed 

 mii-i of their old religious character, that the 

 severest blow wa.s levelled against them. In 177!' 

 a mmiile-to as is-ued by the Pi ince -urchbishop of 

 Sal/.bnig. conilemning them, and prohibiting their 

 peiiiinmiiice, on the ground of their ludicrous mix- 

 ture of the sacred and the profane, the frequent had 

 acting in the serious parts, the distiaetion of the 

 lower orders from more edifying modes of instruc- 

 tion, and the scandal arising from the e.\|Msuie of 

 s:ieied subjects to the ridicule of freethinkers. This 

 ecclesiastical denunciation was followed by vigorous 

 measure.- on the part of the civil authorities in 

 Austria and Havana. One exception was made to 

 the general suppression. In Hi: 1 ,' 1 the village: 

 Olier. \inmergaii (i|.v.), in the Bavarian highland-, 

 on the cessation of a plague which desolated the 

 surrounding country, had vowed to perform every 

 tenth year the Passion of Our Saviour, out of 

 gratitude, and as a means of religious instruct ion ; 

 a vow which had ever since lieen regularly observed. 

 The pleading of a deputation of Ammergaii pea-ant* 

 with Maximilian of Havana saved their mystery 

 fromthegeneral condemnation, on condition of every- 

 thing that could oH'end good taste lieing expunged. 

 It was then and afterwards somewhat remodelled, 

 and is perhaps the only mystery or miracle-play 

 which has survived to (he present day taking place 

 every ten year.- i Is7d. Issn. |yui, &c.). The inhabit- 

 ants of tilis secluded ullage, long noted for their 

 skill in carving in wood and ivory, have a rare union 

 of artistic cultivation with perfect simplicity. Their 

 familiarity with sacred subjects i- e\en be\mid 

 what is usual in the alpine part of Germany, and 

 the spectacle seems still to lie looked on with feel- 

 ings much like those with which it was originally 

 conceived. What would elsewhere appear impious, 

 is to the alpine pea-ants devout and i-difying. The 

 pei-onator of Chri-t considers his part an act of 

 religious worship; he and the other principal in- 

 formers are said to Ix' selected for their holy life, 

 and consecrated to their work with prayer. The 

 players, almnt .VH) in number, are exclusively the 

 villagers, who, though they have no artistic instruc- 

 tion except front the parish piie-t.act their parts 

 with no little dramatic power, and a delicate 

 appreciation of character. The New Testament 

 nan alive i- stiictly adhered to. the only legendary 

 addition to it being the Si Veronica handkerchief. 

 The acts alternate with tnl>l<-<ui.r from the Old 

 Tc-tamciit and choral odes. Many thousands of 

 the peasantry are attracted by the spectacle from 

 all tne parts of Tyrol and Bavaria, among whom 

 the same devout demeanour prevails as among 

 the performers. Plays of a humbler description, 

 from subjects in legendary or sacred history, are 

 not unfrei|iienily got up by the villagers around 

 Innsbruck, which show a certain rude dramatic 

 talent. 



[.troy's F.tiida turltt 3/)/tf /<( 1837); Monineriu4 

 il Michel, Tlif'dtrr Fra>ifnii>i ui'mm dae,lf-lf Siialei 

 (1&9); Hour, Nrliaimjritie 'let MiUtlait, r.- ( Isir. :; A. 

 d'Anoona, Sucre rafiprtMHtcuinne dti Urcoli 14 I 1 ' I Hnr. 

 ]s7L'i ; Si|..t, fa Drame Chr/tirn au moyrn ii;ie 

 | ; Pi tit -le .lulieville, Hi*tnirr tin ThfAtrr rn Frn,,re 

 . I -.-o , ./;,v,r/,- / ./.nM.hv K.IIiwe.truis. by Jackson 

 : A. \V. IMlUrd, KwilM 3fir,irlr.,^,tit, Mw.; 

 ii,.,l tnlri-l urfni(lKW)): the claMitied list f Hrfirrncei for 

 Ntmlrnlx of Mimrli-iJaiii a<l MU*IH-I'*, by Krtuici.- II. 

 Ktoddard ('ll.-ikclev, r.s. 1SS7); and, for the pamion-pUy 

 at ObMMMMtM, works by Seguin, Twecilic, Furrar, and 



Mysticism is not so much a definite system of 

 thouglit as a tendency of religious feeling, cher- 



