Spiritual plays were arranged by the priests in all parts of
Christianised Europe, who chose scenes and stories from both Old and New
Testaments, and from the lives of the saints and holy men. The plays
were acted upon a stage, usually erected under the choir of the church.
As women were not permitted to appear, priests took all the characters,
male and female. We learn, from many reliable sources, that these sacred
representations had a great effect upon the pious worshippers.
In the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and chiefly in
the west of Europe, profane elements crept in amongst the holy legends,
and these religious entertainments also developed so greatly, that
hundreds of actors would be engaged in representations lasting over
several days, whilst the eager audiences were so large that the churches
could not contain them, and the stage had to be erected in the
market-places, and out of doors.
The direction passed more and more into the hands of the laity, who
employed jongleurs, histrions, and strolling vagabonds, whose acting
included gross buffoonery, and whose profanity completely choked the
religious growth first implanted by these miracle plays. The stages, it
should be explained, were of curious construction, being divided into
three stories, the upper one containing the heavenly characters, the
middle one being for the people upon earth, and the lowest for the
denizens of hell.
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