THE UNITY OF THE PASSION-PLA Y 265 



the history of the world. 1 The conception of evolution 

 being absent, a mystic relationship was conceived as 

 holding between the past and the future. Thus, if the 

 Queen of Sheba visits Solomon, this is a ' prefiguration ' 

 of the three kings at the cradle of the infant Jesus. 

 Jacob's flight and David's flight are but prototypes of 

 the flight into Egypt. Judas' betrayal is prefigured by 

 the sale of Joseph, the mocking of Christ by that of 

 Elijah, the crucifixion by the brazen serpent, the three 

 days in the sepulchre by Jonah's incarceration in the 

 belly of the whale, the passage of the wicked into hell 

 by the burning of Sodom, and the last judgment by 

 Daniel's condemnation of the elders who bore false 

 witness ' against Susanna. 2 In the fourteenth and 

 fifteenth centuries such prefigurations were largely used 

 in the instruction of the common people ; a knowledge 

 of them solves many a mystery in the arrangement of 

 the painted windows of our churches. They were the 

 subject of many manuscript miniatures, possibly in- 

 tended as guides for cloister artists in glass and stone. 

 Still later they were in the early days of wood-engrav- 

 ing grouped together and published as block -books. 

 Manuscripts and block -books of prefigurations have 

 received the somewhat misleading name of Biblia Pau- 

 perum. They would be better described by Sebastian 



1 In the Schatzbehalter, to the cuts of which we have already referred, will be 

 found a considerable number of Old Testament ' prefigurations ' very typical of 

 the passion-play interpretations. 



2 One of the most curious prefigurations of the religious plays is that of the 

 Silndenfatt (M, p. 68), where Melchisedek, after interpreting the burning bush 

 as a symbol of the Light that shall come into the world, then proceeds to cele- 

 brate mass, the consecration of the yet unborn Light ! Compare the Chester 

 Plays, p. 60. 



