134 Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 



About the middle of the fourth century the orthodox church saw 

 dark days. The Arian sect, with its taking hymuology, was militant 

 in the Christian world. The orthodox Bishop of Antioch was driven 

 into exile, and the fortunes of the faithful sank to a low ebb. It 

 was at this time, tradition says, that Flavius^ and Diodorus of 

 Antioch revived — or, possibly more accurately, invented — antiphonal 

 singing. In any case, the time was ripe for it. St. John Chrysos- 

 tom" used it in processions to combat Arian hymnology, and Am- 

 brose,^ Bishop of Milan, brought it to the West. 



For many characteristics of antiphonal singing the church was 

 probably indebted to the Greek drama. The Arian hymnology had 

 made clear the need of a more prominent musical element, but 

 does not, so far as can now be determined, satisfactorily explain the 

 peculiar arrangement of antiphonal singing. If one will place the 

 liturgical service side by side with one of the old Greek tragic dra- 

 mas, he will be struck by the correspondence of function between the 

 choir of the one and the chorus of the other. This pertains not 

 alone to the frequent dividing and reuniting of chorus and choir 

 respectively, nor to the distribution of the singing throughout the 

 action of the play and liturgy, but is present in a more subtle sense. 

 The chorus interprets and accentuates the action of the drama, but 

 rarely advances it. The choir discharges the same office continually 

 for the service of the liturgy, as it passes on to its climax in the 

 Eucharist. 



If now the Responsoria are added to this forming liturgy — which, 

 however, tradition assigns to the Italians, but which seem so close a 

 copy of the interchange of speech between the protagonist and 

 chorus, and are so strikingly akin to the antiphon that one must 

 suspect a common origin — the liturgy has received in the fourth 

 century that final form and texture which through the use of fifteen 

 centuries has remained practically unaltered. Additions, expansions, 

 intrusions, have at times been made, but the Roman and English 

 liturgies of to-day are essentially the same as St. Chrysostom's Lit- 

 urgy of the fourth century. 



Xor should it be thought singular that the Fathers looked to 

 the classic theater for aid. The theater had a strong hold upon the 

 people ; witness Tertullian's* De Spectaculis (A. D. 200) against plays, 

 and St. John Chrysostom's' threat of excommunication, if any of his 



1 Smith's Diet, of Christian Bio?, s. v. Flavins. 2 Schafif, vol. 3, p. 579. 



3 Smith's Diet, of Christian Biog. s. v. Ambrose. « Hase, p. 1. 



5 Hase, p. 5. 



