THE GROWTH OF THE PASSION-PLA Y 279 



of the Devil, and smile at the mode in which Judas' 

 soul was carried off to Hell; yet none the less God, 

 Devil, and Hell were intensely real to them, and became 

 rather more so than less when the earnestness of their 

 religion was softened by touches of humour in its stage 

 representation. The realism of life itself ever brings 

 the ridiculous into closest contact with the sublime. 



IV. TJie Growth of the Passion-Play 



Although much research is still needful to complete 

 our knowledge of the successive stages in the growth of 

 the passion-play, we are nevertheless able to appreciate 

 fairly accurately the influence of the three chief factors 

 in the development of the German religious drama. 

 These factors were the following : (a) a love of festival 

 and symbolic representation dating from heathen days 

 and peculiarly national in character. This factor fostered 

 the demand for dramatic ritual rather than moulded the 

 character of its growth ; (6) the Church ritual ; and (c) 

 the influence of the cloister-schools and scholars. The 

 last two factors were both international in their char- 

 acter, and account for the cosmopolitan elements in the 

 plays. While the second factor was ecclesiastical and, 

 on the whole, conservative, the third was progressive and 

 democratic. It was the influence of the strolling scholars 

 which replaced Latin by the vernacular, and ultimately 

 handed over the religious drama to the people to mould 

 according to the folk-conceptions of Christianity and of 

 life in general. 



One of the most striking features of a popular fifteenth- 



