896 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
comprises the following: (1) the Depositio Crucis, an office 
which was performed usually just after the Mass of Good 
Friday, and which centered in the placing within the sepul- 
dirum of a crucifix, or of a Host, or of both of these; (2) the 
Elevatio Crucis, consisting in the raising from the sepulchrum 
of the “buried” object or objects, celebrated usually just be¬ 
fore Matins of Easter morning; and (3) the Visitatio Sepul- 
chri, observed immediately after Easter Matins, in commemora¬ 
tion of the visit of the Maries to the empty sepulchre,—an of¬ 
fice that followed naturally, but not inevitably, upon the De¬ 
positio and the Elevatio. It was to the second of these offices 
that the Tollite portas very naturally attached itself, and it is 
primarily to the evolution of the Elevatio Crucis that we must 
direct our subsequent attention. 
In the following pages I present texts of the Elevatio il¬ 
lustrating both the simpler forms of the office in which there is 
no trace of the Descent theme, and the more elaborate forms 
in which the Tollite portas is a dominating element. Since no 
real study of the Elevatio has yet been made, I am glad of this 
modest opportunity for calling attention to this important of¬ 
fice. Of the Depositio I make no study in the present article. 
For the sake of completeness I present such texts of the De¬ 
positio as are found in the manuscripts from which I print 
texts of the Elevatio ", deferring for the moment a more special 
study of the former office. Likewise, for the sake of complete¬ 
ness I shall offer a few texts of the Visitatio, hoping thus in a 
measure to escape condemnation from those investigators who 
have too often been exasperated by the printing of only one or 
two of these closely related dramatic offices from a manuscript 
that contains all three of them. 
et la reserve de VEucharistie, Paris, 1858, pp. 14-15; La Civilitd Cat- 
tolica, Serie XVI, Vol. VIII, 1896, pp. 598-9; Messager des Fideles, 
1886-87, No. 2, pp. 66-7; H. Thurston, Easter Sepulchre, or Altar of 
Repose, in The Month (1903), pp. 404-414; D. Rock, The Church of 
Our Fathers, Vol. IV, London, 1904, pp. 278-9; One is surprised to 
find no contribution to this subject in G. Cohen’s Histoire de la Mise 
en Scene dans le Theatre religieux francais du Moyen Age, Paris, 1906,. 
pp. 21-3. 
