paintings of the Last Judgment by the old masters as possessing a
power even now sufficient to stir every sensibility to its depths.
Such works, gazed on day after day, while multitudes were kneeling
beneath in the shadowy aisles, and clouds of incense were floating
above, and the organ was pealing and the choir chanting in full
accord, must produce lasting effects on the imagination, and thus
contribute in return to the faith and fear which inspired them.

Villani as also Sismondi gives a description of a horrible
representation of hell shown at Florence in 1304 by the
inhabitants of San Priano, on the river Arno. The glare of flames,
the shrieks of men disguised as devils, scenes of infernal
torture, filled the night. Unfortunately, the scaffolding broke
beneath the crowd, and many spectators were burned or drowned, and
that which began as an entertaining spectacle ended as a direful
reality. The whole affair is a forcible illustration of the
literality with which the popular mind and faith apprehended the
notion of the infernal world.

Another means by which the views we have been considering were
both expressed and recommended to the senses and belief of the
people was those miracle plays that formed one of the most
peculiar features of the Middle Age. These plays, founded on, and
meant to illustrate, Scripture narratives and theological
doctrines, were at first enacted by the priests in the churches,
afterwards by the various trading companies or guilds of
mechanics. In 1210, Pope Gregory "forbade the clergy to take any
part in the plays in churches or in the mummings at festivals." A
similar prohibition was published by the Council of Treves, in
1227. The Bishop of Worms, in 1316, issued a proclamation against
the abuses which had crept into the festivities of Easter, and
gives a long and curious description of them.40 There were two
popular festivals, of which Michelet gives a full and amusing
description, one called the "Fete of the Tipsy Priests," when they
elected a Bishop of Unreason, offered him incense of burned
leather, sang obscene songs in the choir, and turned the altar
into a dice table; the other called the "Fete of the Cuckolds,"
when the laymen crowned each other with leaves, the priests wore
their surplices wrong side out and threw bran in each others'
eyes, and the bell ringers pelted each other with biscuits. There
is a religious play by Calderon, entitled "The Divine Orpheus," in
which the e