THE GROWTH OF THE PASSION-PLAY 305 



folk-spirit and the vernacular ; they helped largely in 

 that complete transformation of Eastern Christianity 

 which turned its fast-day into a festival, its holy day 

 into a holiday, and satisfied the wants of the populace 

 for a festive and dramatic religion comparable with the 

 old heathen faith. The strolling scholars naturally took 

 part in the dramatic performances of the cloister- 

 schools ; such performances were not infrequent and 

 their texts fairly developed even in the twelfth and 

 thirteenth centuries. Then, as the scenic Church ritual 

 grew in extent, and its requirements exceeded the strength 

 of the resident clergy, as might easily be the case in 

 non-monastic or in parish churches, a strolling clerk was 

 called in to assist. It appears probable that the whole 

 of the Easter scenic ritual was occasionally entrusted 

 to a company of strolling scholars ; and then they 

 readily expanded the somewhat elastic ritual, or even 

 re-wrote the bulk of the dialogue. 1 Nor can there be 



1 Besides the strolling-scholar plays printed by Schmeller in the Carmina 

 Buraiia, there are three plays due to Hilarius dating from the first half of the 

 twelfth century and of a like character (see Champollion-Figeac, Hilarius, 

 Versus et Ludi, Paris, 1838). That Hilarius was a genuine Golliard his satirical 

 verses De papa scolastico (p. 41) demonstrate. In the first two of his plays, the 

 Suscitatio Lazari (p. 24) and the Ludus super iconia Sancti Nicolai (p. 34), we 

 have a mixture of Latin and French, precisely as in the corresponding German 

 plays we have a mixture of Latin and German. For example, a verse of Mary's 

 lamentation in the first play runs : 



Ex culpa veteri 



Damuantur poster! 



Mortalis fieri. 



Hor ai dolor 



Hor est mis frere morz 



Por que gei plor. 



The same play ends with a significant rubric, showing that it was intended to be 

 acted at matins or vespers in church : Quo finito, si factum fuerit ad matutinas 

 Lazarus incipiat Te Deum Laudamus, si vero ad_vesperas Magnificat anima mea 

 Dominum. 



Another play due to the strolling scholars is the remarkable De adventu 

 Antichristi (see N), due to the twelfth century. At the end of the next century we 



VOL. II X 



