speare's
saying of "out-heroding Herod." In the fifth volume of the Paston
Letters, J. Wheatley writes to Sir J. Paston, "and as for Haylesdon, my
lord of Suffolk was there on Wednesday; at his being there that day,
there was never no man that played _Herod_ in Corpus Christi better, and
more agreeable to his pageant, than he."

Most of these pageants were founded upon scripture narrative; while of
those of Coventry several are founded on legendary history.

The tenth pageant, having for its object the "Baptism of Christ," was
exhibited by the Barbers, &c.

The eleventh pageant was the "Resurrection," brought forward by the
Butchers, &c.

The twelfth and last pageant was the "Holy Ghost," and exhibited the
descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles.

In the well-known mystery, entitled _Corpus Christi_, or the Coventry
play, the prologue is delivered by three persons, who speak alternately,
and are called _vexillators_; it contains the arguments of the several
_pageants_ or _acts_ that constitute the piece, and they amount to no
less than forty, every one of which consists of a detached subject from
scripture, beginning with the Creation of the Universe, and concluding
with the "Last Judgment." In the first pageant or act, the Deity is
represented seated on a throne by himself; after a speech of some length,
the angels enter, singing from the church service portions of the Te
Deum. Lucifer then appears, and desires to know if the hymn was in
honour of God or himself, when a difference arises among the angels, and
the evil ones are with Lucifer expelled by force.

The Reformation had not the effect of annihilating these observances in
many places; the Corpus Christi procession was kept up for years after,
as in Norwich; and it was not until the beginning of the reign of James
I. that they were finally suppressed in all the towns of the kingdom.

John Bale, of the Carmelite Monastery, of Whitefriars, Norwich,
afterwards a convert to Protestantism, and made successively Bishop of
Ossory, Archbishop of Dublin, also a prebend of Canterbury, was a great
writer of mysteries; one of his compositions was entitled "The Chief
Promises of God to Man," its principal characters being God, Adam, Noah,
Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and John Baptist.

Moralities were of later date than mysteries, and differed from them, as
consisting of dramatic allegories, in which the vices and virtues were
personified; the province of ex