servatism necessitated by its beginnings as a renegade faith in a Pagan world, and as the rituals surrounding Christian worship grew more intricate, the interior design of churches evolved. As the churches grew in size, the altar grew more elaborate, and the people moved proportionately farther away from it; communion rails developed because it was inconvenient to have crowds rushing the ornate altars to receive the Host. These rails eventually developed into a screen of bars or wooden slats, behind which the priest would say the mass. In addition, the priest and the congregation both faced the tabernacle on the back wall, the end result being that the priest blocked the people's view of most of the mass. Over generations, the faithful began to associate the unseen elements of the service with an air of mystery.
Only when the priest lifted the consecrated wine and bread over his head in prayer -- a gesture known as the Elevation -- did the people get a clear view of the action.
In the cities people ran from church to church to see the elevated Host as often as possible, since they assumed that the more Elevations you saw, the more grace you would acquire. At the end of the twelfth century, stories began to circulate of miracles that had occurred at the moment of Elevation -- people had seen visions, the Host shone like the sun, a tiny child had appeared in the priest's hands, and so forth. In some congregations the majority of the faithful waited for the ringing of the sance-bell, which signaled the approaching consecration, before they even deigned to enter the church, and then, as soon as the Elevation was concluded rushed out again as quickly as they had come in. People started lawsuits to ensure that they obtained pews which provided a favourable view of the altar, and some priests even took bribes to protract the Elevation. (Harris 75)To address this growing problem, in 1264, Pope Urban IV suggested a new religious celebration that would bring the consecrated host out into the streets so that those who wished to gaze and meditate upon it could have their fill without disrupting the other business of the mass. This joyful celebration, which began to establish itself about 50 years later, served as an important counterpoint to the medieval obsession with the sinful state of fallen humanity; it was an opportunity for the "good Christian" to reflect upon the promises of Christ, not merely upon the consequences of human sin. The Mass, in Urban's words, should be a "glorious act of remembrance, which fills the minds of the faithful with joy at their salvation and mingles their tears with an outburst of reverend jubilation."
Medieval drama served as a religious outlet; and, in an age when most people were illiterate, took an important place alongside stained glass windows and statues in spreading the Christian message to the general public. For instance, the play depicting the birth of Christ includes a long monologue delivered by a learned man directly to the audience-- it is a sermon explaining the significance of Old Testament prophecies that point to the Nativity. The speaker ensures that the audience understands everything they need to know in order to appreciate more fully the significance of the events that the actors are about to portray. The actors then, become living icons, windows into the spiritual realm, which never seemed very far off to the medieval mind.
During the early part of the Corpus Christi period, the Corpus Christi plays were part of a larger celebration on the feast of Corpus Christi. The community leaders, including the religious authorities, the elected town officials, and the masters of the guild, assembled for a pre-dawn torchlight procession in honor of the Body of Christ-- a consecrated host was carried at the head of the procession. The play wagons would follow behind.
The York pageant was completely interwoven into society. Throughout the year, the elected officials -- known as the City Fathers -- used the York play as a way for the local government to regulate business. For instance, when