THE GROWTH OF THE PASSION-PLAY 309 



Now as Easter approached the parson said to Ulenspiegel, his 

 sacristan : "It is the custom here that the peasants every Easter 

 give in the night an Easter -play of how our Lord arose from the 

 grave." And so he (Tyll) must help, since it were fitting that 

 the sacristan should arrange such matters. Then Ulenspiegel 

 thought : How now shall the peasants get through this Mary- 

 play ? And he said to the parson : " There is no peasant here 

 who is learned enough ; you must lend me your maid, who can 

 both write and read." Then said the parson : " So be it, take all 

 who can help you, man or woman ; my maid, indeed, has acted 

 often enough before." The housekeeper was right glad, and 

 wished to be the angel in the grave, for she knew the requisite 

 verses by heart. Then Ulenspiegel took unto himself two peasants 

 that they might play with him the three Maries, and he taught 

 one peasant the Latin verses. And finally, the parson was our 

 Lord, who had to arise from the grave. Now when Ulenspiegel 

 came before the sepulchre with his two peasants dressed as Maries, 

 the housekeeper, as the angel, recited the Latin verse, Quern 

 queritis ? l Whom seek ye here ? Then said the peasant who 

 represented the first Mary, even as Ulenspiegel had taught him : 

 " We seek an old, one-eyed, parson's concubine ! " 2 



The resulting catastrophe may be easily imagined. 

 The angel sprang from the grave and rushed in a fury 

 at the Maries. In the scuffle which followed, her wings 

 were knocked off; then the parson dropped his resur- 

 rection-banner and came to her assistance. A scene 



1 See our account of the Visitation ritual, p. 299. 



2 This defect in vision appears to have been common to the class. Thus a 

 Cellarius complains in the Consultatio Sacerdotum : 



me regit una bestia, sinerem salire, 

 sed meretrix monocula renuit abire. 



Poems of Walter Mapes, p. 175. 



The widespread existence of these women deserves a careful consideration, 

 when the moral aspect of Catholic asceticism is considered. Much information 

 will be found in the Church visitations of the sixteenth century, but more, 

 perhaps, in mediaeval literature. Considerable insight may be gained from a 

 perusal of the Heidelberg quodlibet disputation, De fide concubinarum in 

 Sacerdotes, edited by Crato of Udenheim about 1500 and often reprinted. 



