 the merchant guild imported leather, impinging on the tanners' livelihood, the merchants were ordered by the city officials to pay a fine; half of the fine went to the city, and the other half went to pay the tanners' expenses for mounting the next year's pageant. Similarly, if a guild defaulted on a play, caused delays or disorder in the procession, or if a clergyman or burgher failed to show up to take his part in the procession, fines for these infractions went to the next year's production.
In the York plays the past is a direct continuation of the present: Moses swears by the cross; Pilate calls his soldiers knights; everyone wears medieval garb. No attempt was made to hide this anachronism because nobody minded -- medieval people did not think of the world of the Bible as different from their own.
Because each play was produced by a guild, there was a competition among the guilds to produce the best play. The guilds were economic, social and often religious groups, tied together in that unique medieval way. Within the plays are obvious and more subtle mercantile messages. For instance, the play of the construction of Noah's ark was produced by the wainwrights, or shipbuilders; Noah was probably played by a well-known shipbuilder, employing his craft with talent on loan from God. In the play put on by the cloth dyers, Jesus is dressed in white, which one of the mockers calls the color of fools -- suggesting, in essence, the audience members are fools unless they pay to have their clothing dyed. The winesellers did the (now lost) Wedding Feast of Cana, the Bakers did the Last Supper, and the Chaundlers -- who made candles and chandeliers -- did the play with the Star of Bethlehem.
The Mercer's wagon for the play "Doomsday" included special effects -- a pulley-operated platform that Christ rides up and down from heaven; smoke for a gaping hell mouth, into which the sinners were thrown; miniature angels that seemed to run around the heavens in a circle; and of course, costumes, music, and a choir of voices.
Although scholars used to think that all of society revolved around the guilds, the guild structure was largely undeveloped before the Black Death (14c). Modern Marxists imagined the guilds were labor organizations, developed by the rising working class to protect their economic and political rights. More recent research suggests that the guilds were formed by the city officials in order to organize and control various conflicting business interests. They were run not by workers but by the bosses -- master guildsmen who controlled who was hired and who got training; these masters aspired to be landlords and city officials, and moved freely in these circles. For the few at the top of the guild structure, the York Play might have been part of a class struggle being waged in the city. The working class did have its own organizations, called "Fraternities." These were similar to the modern JayCees, Knights of Columbus or Shriners; they were attached to a specific parish and focusing on charity -- an enormous amount of which was needed in the days before large-scale government social programs.
To modern Christians, the term "religious theater" tends to conjure up images of terrified but cute kids wearing dishtowels on their heads at Christmas time, or silly-looking adults playing guitars and singing with puppets. Because the feast being celebrated is named for the body of Christ, the York plays emphasize the importance of that body, dwelling on its actions, its symbolic significance, and, of course, its death and resurrection. Many Protestants will be uncomfortable with the play's presentation of Christ's suffering, as well as the implied and direct significance of "the body of Christ" and its relationship to the bread and wine offered during Christian worship.
A colleague of mine recently rolled his eyes and moaned in mimicry of traditional paintings of Christ's passion, calling such images "offensive" to an Evangelical Protestant mindset. During the Reformation, all artistic reminders of the medieval church, and the p