66 
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
constructed of cloth and oakum in the middle of the nave, 125 and in 
some sort of figure to serve as the golden idol of the Biblical ac¬ 
count. 126 Pointing to the idol, Nebuchadnezzar begins the action, 
promptly by ordering two of his soldiers to command the Pueri 
(Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) to fall down in worship. 127 
After they have spurned the idol, the three young men are con¬ 
ducted into the presence of Nebuchadnezzar. Hearing of their 
contumacy, the king angrily orders that they be cast into the fur¬ 
nace. After the order has been executed and the furnace lighted, 
the Pueri sing the Benedictus. Aroused by the sound of their 
voices, Nebuchadnezzar asks his soldiers what the young men are 
singing, and is told that they are praising God. The Vocatores 
now intrude into the action, asking the king what he said at this 
juncture. Nebuchadnezzar closes the dramatic episode by deliver¬ 
ing the testimony already known to us from the Laon version. 
As to the day on which the Rouen processus was performed 
scholars have not agreed. Du Cange, 128 Sepet, 129 and Chambers 130 
have assigned the performance to Christmas Day; Gaste 131 asso¬ 
ciates it with the Vigil of Christmas (Dec. 24) ; and DuMeril 132 
and Chasles 133 speak positively for the Feast of the Circumcision 
125 Fornace in medio navis ecclesie lintheo et stupis constituta. See above, p. 50. 
128 Ostendens ymaginemj ostendant ymaginem. 
127 It may be that the Armati deliver the command to the Pueri twice (See 
above, p. 61). The general action of this whole dramatic episode is provided by 
Dan. iii, 13-92. Except in the Benedictus sung by the Pueri, however, the 
dramatist does not use the Vulgate phraseology. 
128 Du Cange (G-lossarium medice et infimce Latinitatis, Vol. Ill, Niort, 1884, 
p. 460) introduces his text as follows: “Festum Asinorum, cujus Officium, quod 
die Christi Natalitio celebratur, ut et nomenclature rationem, accipe ex Ordi- 
nario Ecclesiae Rotomagensis Ms.: Nota, Cantor, si ...” I assume that 
a similar annotation occurs in the earlier editions of Du Cange, momentarily 
inaccessible to me. 
129 Sepet (p. 42) writes as follows: Le texte nous indique positivement que la 
Procession de Vane faisait partie de l’office du jour de Noel. What textual evi¬ 
dence Sepet refers to I do not know. 
130 Chambers (Vol. II, p. 55) assigns the Ordo to Christmas, rather than to 
the preceding day, because “the ee Introit with which the text concludes is 
Puer natus est, which belongs to the Magna missa of the feast-day, and not to 
the eve.” Chambers overlooks the fact that Puer natus est is the Introit also 
of the Mass of January first. As Villetard has observed (op. cit. infra, p. 47, 
note), the entire liturgy of the Circumcision is essentially a compilation from 
other feasts, chiefly Christmas. 
151 Gaste (p. 4) assigns the dramatic performance to “La veille de Noel” 
without reference to evidence of any kind. 
132 See DuMeril, p. 181, note. DuM6ril cites no evidence. 
133 Chasles writes (p. 126, note 3) as follows: “La procession des Prophgtes 
du Christ avait lieu le jour de la Circoncision. Jusqu’S, present on avait pens£, 
a la suite de M. Sepet et de M. Gaste, que cette procession se faisait le jour de 
