THE GROWTH OF THE PASSION-PLAY 289 



which are to be found in so many of the passion-plays ? 

 The Church and the cloister have evidently worked con- 

 temporaneously ; and we can hardly doubt that the latter 

 was progressive, and exercised much influence in expand- 

 ing the conservative ritual of the former. But the exact 

 manner of the action and reaction between the two ap- 

 pears at least for the earlier stages of the religious drama 

 fco be still very obscure. To the influence of the strolling 

 scholars who wandered from cloister-school to cloister- 

 school, introducing at a later stage of development 

 new and cosmopolitan elements, I shall return below. 



The four portions of the Church scenic ritual which 

 chiefly concern us are (i.) the Officium Stellae at the 

 Epiphany or, as it is sometimes termed, the Officium 

 trium Regum; (ii.) the Adoratio Crucis or Sepultura 

 Domini on Good Friday ; (iii. ) the Elevatio Crucis or 

 Elevatio Corporis Christi on Easter Eve, or early in 

 the morning of Easter Day ; and (iv. ) the Resurrectio 

 or Visitatio Sepulchri during the Easter Day morning 

 service. In addition to these there appears to have been 

 a scenic ritual connected with Christmas, which was prob- 

 ably closely related to the birth -plays and Christmas 

 hymns. A feature of this ritual would undoubtedly 

 have been the singing at the cradle of the Christ-child. 

 A cradle such as the nuns in the fourteenth century used 

 to rock the Christ-child in is exhibited in the National 

 Museum at Munich (Saal III.), and this rocking ceremony 

 in the churches has survived almost to the present day. 1 



1 See Q, p. 49 ; R, p. 24 ; and T, p. 585. The cradle, and Joseph's by-play 

 with it, are special features of the Christmas dramas even as early as the fifteenth 

 century ; see Piderit, Ein Weihnachtsspiel aus einer Hs. des XV. Jahrhunderts,, 

 1869. 



VOL. II TT 



