378 THE GERMAN PASSION-PLAY 



In the next place we have the entry into Jerusalem ; 

 this formed a choral procession, which with the mediaeval 

 power of pageantry must have been extremely effective. 

 Choruses of the disciples, of youths, of the people, greet 

 the Messiah in the ringing lines of the old Latin proces- 

 sional hymns, such as the Jesus redemptor omnium and 

 the Gloria laus ; or they intone verses from the Vulgate, 

 as Hie est solus noster et redemptor Israhel. All is 

 gladness, song, and dancing. The Church influence in 

 this scene has still remained predominant, and we find a 

 close relationship with the Palm Sunday ritual. 1 



From this incident onwards the passion scenes 

 proper follow each other in rapid succession. Jesus 

 announces his intention of going up to Jerusalem for the 

 Passover, and speaks of his approaching death. Mary, 

 his mother, begs him to find another method of 

 redeeming mankind, for how shall she find comfort ? 

 Mary the Magdalen, who has means of ascertaining all 

 that is going forward in Jerusalem, warns Jesus of 

 imminent danger. Can he not eat the paschal lamb with 

 them in Bethany ? Mary, his mother, shows him the 

 breasts he has sucked, and entreats him for her sake to 



1 See F, p. 120 ; S, p. 144 ; C, p. 80, and B, vol. ii. p. 246. We find the 

 same choruses in the tenth-century Leofric Missal (ed. Warren, p. 256) and the 

 sixteenth - century plays, e.g. the Gloria, laus et honor and the Ingrediente 

 Domino. Compare also the following ritual from Martene, De antiquis Ecclesiae 

 Ritibus, Liber iv. cap. 20. 12 : "Tune scholastici e regione Crucis lento gradu 

 veniant ad earn et cum omni reverentia casulos et cappas in terrain jactantes 

 proni adorent crucifixum clero interim cantante antiphonam Pueri Haebreorum, 

 etc. His recedentibus continuo veniant ex latere pueri laici Kyrie eleison cantantes, 

 et sequendo vexillum quod ante eos portatur, veniant ante crucem, et annuente 

 aedituo jactent ramos palmarum in terrain, proni adorando crucifixum, et clerus 

 interim canat antiphonam Pueri Haebreorum, etc." Gerardus in his Life of St. 

 Udalric describes a somewhat similar ritual, but with a procession cum effigie 

 sedentis Domini super asinum (ibid. xiv. ) 



