votional emblem. Occasionally, too, they gave a scenic representation
of certain portions of religious history, according to the practice of
early times. The account of the _Mystery of the Passion_ having been
acted in the burial-ground of the church of St. Patrice, so recently as
September, 1498, is preserved by Taillepied[100], who tells us, that it
was performed by "bons joueurs et braves personages." The masters of
this guild had the extraordinary privilege of being allowed to charge
the expence attendant on the processions and exhibitions, upon any
citizen they might think proper, whether a member or otherwise.

The neighboring church of St. Godard possesses neither architectural
beauty, nor architectural antiquity; for, although it occupies the scite
of an edifice of remote date, yet the present structure is coeval with
St. Patrice. It has been supposed that this church was the primitive
cathedral of the city[101]. One of the proofs of this assertion is found
in a procession which, before the revolution, was annually made hither
by the chapter of the present cathedral, with great ceremony, as if in
recognition of its priority. The church was originally dedicated to the
Virgin; but it changed its advocation in the year 525, when St. Godard,
more properly called St. Gildard, was buried here in a subterranean
chapel; and, for the reasons before noticed, the old tutelary patroness
was compelled to yield to the new visitor. In the succeeding century,
St. Romain, a saint of still greater fame, was also interred here; and,
as I collect from Pommeraye[102], in the same crypt. This author
strenuously denies the inferences which have been drawn from the annual
procession, which he maintains was performed solely in praise and in
honor of St. Romain; for the chapter, after having paid their devotions
to the Host, descended into the chapel, to prostrate themselves before
the sepulture of the saint; on which subject, an antiquary[103] of Rouen
has preserved the following lines:--

"Ad regnum Domini dextra invitatus et ore,
Huic sacra Romanus credidit ossa loco;
Sontibus addixit quae caeca rebellio flammis,
Nec tulit impietas majus in urbe scelus.
Quid tanto vesana malo profecit Erynnis?
Ipsa sui testis pignoris extat humus.
Crypta manet, memoresque trahit confessio cives,
Nec populi fallit marmor inane fidem.
Orphana, turba, veni, viduisque allabere saxis,
Est aliqui