342 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences f Arts^ and Letters. 
gladly brought myriads of cand'els and torches, so that night 
became as bright as day. The grove resounded with glad 
voices, and Francis stood before the prcesepium* in an estasy 
of gladness. At Mass, celebrated with the prcesepium as 
altar, the Celebrant reseived a new spiritual comfort. In 
the sweet voice of one inspired, Francis sang the Gospel of 
the Mass, and preached an appropriate sermon. When he 
wished to mention the Child Jesus, he called him Boy of 
Bethlehem, speaking with the soft sound of a bleating sheep. 
The spiritual gifts from on high were miany. A child lying 
lifeless in the Crib was waked to life by the holy Francis. 
The provender was preserved as a, panacea: for bodily ills 
of men and of animals. On the spot where the celebration 
occurred a church was built, in which an altar to the honor of 
St. Francis was erected over the Prcesepium. 
Although we have no information as to what specifically in¬ 
spired St. Francis to erect his Prcesepium, we may infer that he 
was under the influence of traditions both from Bethlehem and 
from Rome. During the period 1219-1220, some three or four 
years before the celebration at Greccio, St. Francis had him¬ 
self journeyed in the East; and the Crib of 1223 may have 
been “the crystallization of haunting memories carried away 
from the real Bethlehem.” 1 The influence of the tradition of 
Sancta Maria ad Prsesepe at Rome is to be seen, perhaps, 
in the use of the Prcesepe as the altar at Mass. 2 At the pres¬ 
ent time we have no grounds for inferring that St. Francis 
whs influenced by the mise en scene of the Christmas liturgical 
plays. Although the Prcesepe had been associated with these 
plays north of the Alps as early as the eleventh century, 
neither Bona ventura nor Thomas of Celano gives any positive 
suggestion of St. Francis’ acquaintance with them. 3 
5 Evelyn Martinengo Cesaresco in The Contemporary Review, Vol. 
XXXVII (1900), p. 117. 
8 Bonaventura: Celehrantur Missarum solemnia super prcesepe . 
"Thomas of Celano: Celehrantnr Missarum. solemnm super prcesepe; 
.... in honorem heal'ssimi Patris Francisci super prcesepe 
altare construitur. 
3 Thode (p. 418) and Hager (p. 12) wrongly assert that the cele¬ 
bration at Greccio was itself a play. As D’ Ancona pointed out (Vol. 
I. p. 117), this celebration, though dramatic in character, was not 
drama. 
