Bringing Religion to the Masses

Historically, Scripture has not always been at the forefront of the Christian tradition. The Medieval Catholic Church placed high and sacred value on many things, however, the Bible was rarely one of them. To receive and comprehend the revelation of Scripture, therefore, the laity looked to stained glass representations, oral stories and traditions, and the arts. In one particular instances the performance of plays proved to be a nearly exclusive means by which the common layperson of northern England received their theology. This series will trace the use of plays and literary devices to educated the common man about Christianity in the absence of Scripture.
Discrediting a literary work when it treats historical events and characters anachronistically, at times, may be appropriate. Understandably, when an author reads history back on itself as well as inserts contemporary characters into past events, the validity of the work becomes highly questionable. However, the English mystery cycles of the Middle Ages present a valid exception to this practice when scrutinized within its culture and genre. One finds that rather than compromising the message of the Biblical events they portray, the social satire and insertion of contemporary beliefs throughout these religious plays serve to supplement the lessons and message of the Bible as well as comment on contemporary issues. In an age where Bible-reading was non-existent among the masses, and Christianity was subject to the interpretation of a select few, the anachronistic treatment and insertion of social commentary and satire provided the audience and community with religious lessons that were often lost in the Catholic tradition.
The later medieval Catholic Church was a highly organized and orthodox institution. The largest land-owning entity in the world, the Church was the foundation of society and the only body to which most European monarchs were subject. In medieval times, the Church held a monopoly on salvation, the eternal state of every person’s soul, and questioning the Church could not only result in persecution, it could seriously threaten one’s chances of avoiding damnation and torture in the after-life. To ensure this monopoly, the Church controlled the accessibility of information by the masses, and it limited how freely and openly any person could make their own interpretations and commentaries on Biblical faith.
It was not, however, that the Church intended to maliciously oppress the masses with religion and keep them in the dark, but rather it believed that the largely illiterate masses were incapable of reading the Bible and understanding it on their own. To do so might endanger a person’s soul. Therefore, it was left to Catholic priests to act as guardians and to protect the laity from misinterpretation and damnation by interpreting the Bible for them and instructing them as to its lessons. As a result, the average European would never in their lifetime read the Holy Scriptures which incorporated the faith they professed to live. Their belief in God and their knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ would be restricted to that which was dispensed by the priests.
However, the English mystery plays originating in the late fourteenth century portrayed multiple Bible stories once a year in the vernacular of all persons who chose to attend. The plays, written by clerics, were not sponsored or censored by the Church, but rather by the city’s trade guilds and intended to present prominent events and morals from the Bible in an easily understood and entertaining fashion. Part of this effort to make the stories more accessible and entertaining was to place the events of the Bible in a later medieval, English context relevant to the audiences’ culture and experience. In the play The Killing of Abel, and in the plays portraying Christ’s coming into the world (Joseph’s Trouble about Mary, The Nativity, The Flight into Egypt), and Christ Before Pilate (1): The Dream of Pilate’s Wife, the anachronistic treatment of the characters as well as the insertion of contemporary social issues enhanced the purpose of the plays linking their message to the lives of the English medievals