SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 397 



possibly the Ascension, 1 the sending of the Holy Ghost, 

 the Death and the Assumption of the Virgin, and the 

 Day of Judgment. 2 Finally the Conclusor would point 

 the moral of the whole play, and draw attention to the 

 complete triumph of Christ. Then, with the hymn of 

 the Kesurrection, Christ ist erstanden ! in which all 

 the spectators joined, the three days' drama would 

 be brought to its conclusion. Such is the great folk 

 passion-play of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 



IX. Summary and Conclusion 



The reader who has followed the author through at 

 least a portion of the mass of detail with which the 

 Middle Ages enriched the gospel story, will be, even if 

 he has made no further studies, in a position to appre- 

 ciate fairly mediaeval life and feeling. He will realise 

 that more may be gained from the religious dramas 

 than amusement at their naivete. As we do not merely 

 smile at the stories of the Greek gods, but study their 



adopted in the Schatzbehalter (fol. viii.) The twelve apostles are each given 

 a joint of the fingers of a left hand, while Christ and the Virgin occupy the 

 thumb. Down the side of the woodcut the Creed is divided among the apostles. 

 Compare also fol. S. vi. In the Coventry Mysteries (Descent of the Holy Ghost) 

 there is a curious identification of each apostle with a different character or virtue. 



1 A curious stage-direction for the Ascension occurs in the Frankfurt play 

 (S, p. 157): "dominica persona precedat discipulos et veniens ad paradysum 

 accepto vexillo sumat animas et dirigat viam versus locum ubi volet ascendere. 

 Animae vero indutis vestibus albis sequantur Dominum cantantes : Summi 

 triumphi re, usque veniant ad gradus ubi debent ascendere. Sit autem thronus 

 ubi Majestas sedeat excellens et altus satis et tantae latitudinis ut animas 

 comode possit capere, Habens etiam gradus quibus comode talis altitude 

 scandatur." 



2 See C, pp. 248-253 ; H, vol. ii. pp. 106-115. Often as separate plays, see 

 B, vol. i. pp. 254, 273. 



