ORDO PROPHETARUM 
KARL YOUNG 
As has often been observed by recent writers on the subject, 1 the 
liturgical plays of the Christmas season may be divided into the 
following groups: (1) a play of the shepherds (Officium Pas- 
torum), performed on Christmas Day; 2 (2) a play of the Magi 
(Officium Stellce), for Epiphany; 3 (3) a play representing the 
Slaughter of the Innocents (Ordo Rachelis), for performance on 
Epiphany or on Innocents Day (December 28) ; 4 * 6 and (4) a play of 
the prophets (Or do Prophet arum), associated with Christmas Day, 
or with the octave of Christmas. 
In undertaking a special study of the Ordo Prophetarum 5 1 wish, 
in both introduction and conclusion, to pay homage to M. Marius 
Sepet, whose brilliant monograph Les Prophetes du Christ 6 not 
1 See, for example, E. K. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage, Vol. II, Oxford. 
1903, pp. 41-56 ; or the present writer, Ordo Rachelis (University of Wisconsin 
Studies in Language and Literature, No. 4, Madison, 1919), p. 3. 
2 The most extensive treatment of this play, so far as I know, is a study by 
the present writer entitled Officium Pastorum: A Study of the Dramatic De¬ 
velopments within the Liturgy of Christmas, in Transactions of the Wisconsin 
Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, Vol. XVII, Part I (1912), pp. 299-396. 
3 The most thorough study of this play is by H. Anz, Die lateinischen Magier- 
spiele, Leipzig, 1905. 
4 This play has recently been treated by the present writer in a special study 
entitled Ordo Rachelis, mentioned above. 
6 For general purposes, I use the designation found at the head of the version 
from Laon. See below, p. 40. 
6 Sepet’s monograph appeared first in serial form in Bibliotheque de Vficole des 
Chartes (Vols. XXVIII, 1867, pp. 1-27, 211-264 ; XXIX, 1868, pp. 105-139, 
261-293; XXXVIII, 1877, pp. 397-443), and then as a separate volume, Les 
Prophetes du Christ, Paris, 1878. I make my references throughout to the 
separate volume. E. Mart&ne (Tractatus de Antiqua Ecclesioe Disciplina, Lyons, 
1706, pp. 78, 106-107) was familiar with the phenomenon of the Ordo Prophet¬ 
arum, but he presents no full text of it, and does not trace its origin. E. Du- 
M§ril (Les Origines Latines du TM&tre Moderne, Caen, 1849, p. 180), in editing 
the Limoges version of the Ordo Prophetarum, bases upon a passage in Durandus 
the following remark: “II [the Limoges version] avait aussi son origine dans 
