THE CONTENTS OF THE PASSION-PLA Y 391 



themselves with wine, and either drop off to sleep one 

 after the other, 1 or, Gabriel appearing, collapse in terror 

 at his chant : 



Eecedete, recidite 

 infideles, cedite ! 



Not infrequently the three archangels come to the tomb 

 Michael with a drawn sword, Gabriel with a candle, 

 and Eaphael with a banner. 2 Exurge, quare obdormis, 

 domine! Adjuva nos et libera nos ! they cry, and 

 Jesus, arising, takes the banner from Raphael and sings, 

 Ego dormivi & Resurrexi. 3 These chants are usually 



1 Before the thirteenth century all the soldiers remained asleep during the 

 Resurrection ; then it appears to have been thought desirable that there should 

 be witnesses, and so some remained awake (see Didron, Manuel d' Iconographie 

 chrttienne, p. 200). Compare, however, Hefner-Alteneck, Trachten des Mittel- 

 alters, plates 12, 4, 5 (before 1220 all asleep), 3 (about 1250 all awake), 84, 

 88. In Pfalzgraf Otto Heinrich's Bible at Gotha (fol. 43) two are asleep and two 

 are awake. Diirer in his Greater Passion has some asleep and some awake. In 

 Cranach's Passion (Schuchardt, p. 205, No. 14), all five are asleep. In the 

 Coventry Mysteries (p. 343) all fall asleep. Note, however, Jack Snacker of 

 Wytney (p. 417) who kept awake. 



2 Otherwise Raphael appears as a priest, Gabriel as a herald with a wand, 

 and Michael as a warrior (see Didron, p. 282). Among the list of relics given 

 by King Athelstan to the monastery of Exeter we read De candela quam Angelus 

 domini in sepulchro Christi irradiavit (see Warren, Leofric Missal, p. 4). The 

 Resurrection was usually acted with great solemnity. Thus in the Frankfurt 

 Play (S, p. 152) we read that in order "ut resurrectio Domini gloriosius cele- 

 braretur" it may be deferred to the beginning of the second day's play the 

 Frankfurt was at that time a two days' play that then the ' Dominica persona ' 

 shall be clothed in "vestibus triumphalibus, videlicet subtili et dalmatico 

 casulaque rubea circumdatus, habens coronam cum dyademate in capite et 

 crucem cum vexilla in manu sua." In this play, as in the Oberammergauer 

 (D, pp. 81-91), the Descent into Hell precedes the Resurrection, an unusual 

 order, although that of the Apostles' Creed. 



3 Besides my earlier references to representations of Christ with the resur- 

 rection-banner (see p. 310), I may also cite the Schatzbehalter, Fig. 77 ; Hans 

 Holbein's title-page to Coverdale's Bible, 1535 ; and a Resurrection by the Elder 

 Holbein (Munich, Pinakothek, No. 20). A distinction must always be made 

 between the cross of the Passion and the banner-cross of the Resurrection (see 

 Didron, Christian Iconography, p. 385). The cross of the Resurrection was and 

 is usually carried in religious processions ; that of the Passion is suspended 

 over altars, etc. In Gerard David's Fight of St. Michael with Hell it is Michael 

 who bears the cross of the resurrection. 



