Matthew Paris informs us that one
Geoffrey, afterwards Abbot of St. Albans, produced at the town aforesaid
the Play of St. Catherine, and that he borrowed from St. Albans copes in
which to attire the actors. This mention of copes reminds us of the
Boy-Bishop, and is one of the symptoms indicating community of origin.
To this may be added that miracle plays were at first performed in
churches, and, as we shall hereafter see, in some localities were never
removed from their original sphere. The clergy also took an active share
in the performances, as long as they were confined to churches; but on
their emergence into the streets, Pope Gregory forbade the participation
of the priests in what had ceased to be an act of public worship. This
was about A.D. 1210. From that time miracle plays were regarded
by the straiter sort with disfavour, and Robert Manning in his "Handlyng
Sinne" (a translation of a Norman-French "Manuel de Peche") goes so far
as to denounce them, if performed in "ways or greens," as "a sight of
sin," though allowing that the resurrection may be played for the
confirmation of men's faith in that greatest of mysteries. Such
prejudice was by no means universal; in 1328--more than a hundred years
later--we find the Bishop of Chester counselling his spiritual children
to resort "in peaceable manner, with good devotion, to hear and see" the
miracle plays.
We saw that the earliest religious drama known to have been performed in
this country was one on St.
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