THE CONTENTS OF THE PASSION-PLA Y 377 



comes Satan ; he goes to Judas and promises him good 

 pay if he will betray Christ. He then brings Judas to 

 the conclave at the ' Jewish School.' It will be obvious 

 to the reader that the conduct of the devils is hopelessly 

 stupid and without any motive; they fear Christ has 

 come from heaven to die for men, and their object 

 should be to hinder the crucifixion ; they are represented 

 as assisting it, apparently with the sole object of winning 

 Judas' soul in exchange for the Magdalen's. At the 

 same time their language shows that they are acquainted 

 with Christ's purpose, and hate him accordingly. 



About this time in most of the plays we have the 

 counting out to Judas by Caiaphas of the thirty pence. 

 Judas objects first to one penny as rusty, to a second as 

 not ringing well, to a third as broken, to a fourth as 

 having a hole through it, to a fifth as having a wrong 

 impress, and so on. Caiaphas does not take these 

 objections in good part, but the bargain is finally 

 struck. In the Heidelberg Play Judas goes directly 

 from the banquet of Simon to Caiaphas, and the motive 

 for the betrayal is the reproof he has there received. 

 This at least indicates how perplexed the mediaeval play- 

 wrights were to find a reason for Judas' conduct. 1 



appears to be a very early Altercatio Simonis Judaei et Theophili Christiani, but 

 I have not been able to see a copy. A ninth-century painting at Aquileia 

 contains both Ecclesia and Synagoga ; so also the thirteenth-century porch of 

 the Freiburg Minster, which (p. 322) we have already seen is of interest in 

 relation to the religious plays. Compare, too, Jubinal, Mysteres inedits, vol. ii. 

 pp. 258-260, who cites an Altercatio from the twelfth century, p. 404. The 

 arguments of Christian and Jew are opposed to each other with much prolixity 

 in Der sele Wurtzgartt, Ulm, 1483. In the Tyrolese Ludus de ascensione Domini, 

 the Archasinagogus mimics Christ with a mock prayer and creed (ed. Pichler, 

 p. 12). Even as late as this century an altercation between a Pastor and a Jew 

 formed a " Nachspiel" to a peasant-play (see R, p. 142). 

 1 See E, p. 140 ; C, p. 100 ; D, p. 10. 



