P015 Preliminary.

P015 Preliminary.

4. Means of learning scriptural truth before the time of the first printed English Testament. For many years there was but little opportunity of learning the contents of the Bible save by the instruction of the priests.

Manuscript translations were of necessity costly, and could not be read save by those who understood Latin. As early as the sixth century Saxon monks made copies of the Latin Scriptures. In 1229 the Council of Toulouse prohibited the laity reading the Scriptures,(1) and this prohibition was repeated by subsequent Councils.

When, in the latter part of the thirteenth century, paper began to be used for manuscripts, the expense was reduced, but was still very large, and the masses of the people were sunk in ignorance. The religious dramas of the Middle Ages were one means by which the common people obtained crude notions of Bible history and doctrine. Their origin is not definitely known, but they flourished extensively from the eleventh century to the fifteenth.(2)

They were known, at different periods, by the names of "Mysteries," "Miracle Plays," and "Moralities." Priests and laymen alike engaged as actors, and immense crowds attended the representations. The Biblia Pauperum, or "Bible of the Poor," was at one time a very popular means of religious instruction.

Some writers claim for it an origin as early as the ninth century.

All copies of it were in manuscript until the early part of the fifteenth century, when editions were issued printed from wooden blocks.

Even after the invention of printing by movable types this work continued to be printed in its old form.

It consists of pictures representing scenes in Bible history or narrative, with explanations in Latin. The text needed a teacher, but the pictures spoke for themselves to the common mind.

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(FN1)Dr. Townley translates the prohibition as follows: "We also forbid the laity to possess any of the books of the Old or New Testaments, except perhaps some one, out of devotion, wishes to have the Psalter or Breviary for the divine offices, or the Hours of the Blessed Virgin. But we strictly forbid them having any of these books translated into the vulgar tongue."—Illustrations, vol. i, p. 352.

(FN2)They have, indeed, continued quite down to our own times, as witness the celebrated "Passion Play," performed once in every ten years, at Ober-Ammergau, in Bavaria.

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