THE GROWTH OF THE PASSION-PLAY 297 



Demi and standing outside the door, cried in a gruff 

 voice : Who is the King of Glory ? The choir re- 

 sponded : The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord 

 mighty in battle. The blow on the door and the above 

 responses were thrice repeated. The door was then 

 opened, the populace admitted, and the choir and 

 ecclesiastics form the head of a procession, which 

 marched to the altar with the appropriate 139th Psalm 

 and the Kyrieleyson. 1 The host was then elevated, and 

 the priest sang the hymn : 2 - 



vere digna hostia 



per quam fracta sunt Tartara. 



Afterwards the Easter matins were conducted in the 

 customary form. 3 



We have in this ceremony a most important factor 

 in the development of the passion-plays. The ritual 

 itself is based upon the account given in the Gospel 



Gloria laus . . . Postea Subdiaconus hastili crucis percutit portum qua statim 

 aperta Processio intrat Ecclesiam cantando Responsorium : Ingrediente Domino," 

 A still fuller form of this ceremony even, with the Attolite portas and Quis est iste 

 Rex gloriac of the office of the Elevatio Crucis, has been printed by Martene, De 

 antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus, Liber iv. cap. 20. 14, and Ordo 4 & 8. 



1 In one version, a rubric states that the Guild of Butchers are to carry the 

 cross back to the altar, the thin end of the popular wedge. 



2 Mone, Latcinische Hymnen. No. 161. 



3 Concerning the Elevatio Crucis our information is more scanty than in the 

 case of the Adoratio Crucis. Beyond the rituals given by Milchsack I can refer 

 to none with the devil incident. The Breviarius ffavelbcrgensis, 1511, gives a 

 simple elevation in sancta node pasce (c. iiii b ). The York Manual and Pro- 

 cessional (p. 170) runs : 



In aurora pulsatis campanis ad classicum congregate clero et populo, flexis genibus 

 dicitur Oratio Dominicalis et postea Sacerdos thurificet sepulchruin et proferatur 

 sacramentum cum imagine cum corona spinea. 



In a footnote the editor quotes two other rituals. In the first of these (St. John 

 Lawson's MS. Manuale, A.D. 1405) the pyxidemcum Corpore et crucem were raised 

 from the sepulchre ; in the second (the Sarum Processional), after the Corpus 

 Christ i and cross had been raised from the sepulchre, a procession went round the 



