182 FROM THE ART OF BUILDING TO THE ART OF THINKING
was first religious and that it emerged almost imperceptibly from the
liturgy. Starting in some Benedictine abbeys in the ninth century, vari-
ous episodes from the Passion and Christ's Resurrection were staged in
order to more effectively instruct and edify an illiterate populace. The
art of stone completed the work of the theater—the theater of the mys-
tery plays was reflected in and finalized by the cathedral—and from this
the word mystery was born. Etymologically, it summoned up antiquity
and the most widespread and deeply rooted rites of ancient times.
The gospel was first transposed into a spectacle by putting to work
the magnificent and evocative dramatic resources held in this scripture.
This made it possible to present on the stage all the biblical characters
who theologians of the time considered to be forerunners of Christ.
Through these extensions, the mystery became more and more popular
in nature while at the same time recalling the liturgy closest to it.
It is not out of the question that craftsmen, whose brotherhoods
and corporations multiplied the mysteries, began to cull from the spec-
tacle both an exoteric meaning—the Passion, literally speaking—and an
esoteric meaning related to the trade's initiation rites and their connec-
tion to Christ's Passion through the themes of purification, death and
resurrection, and the recollection and remnants of the ancient mysteries.
In England these developments took place with the support and
instruction of the priesthood and allow us to presume a certain
Christianization of a tradition. There were "miracle theaters" that were
staged every year by crafts corporations in several cities: Coventry,
Chester (1327), York (1350), and Newcastle. We can recall, however,
that in France the Parliament of Paris and the Church banned the mys-
teries during the sixteenth century. While they had been very popular
and imbued with faith during earlier centuries, it was determined that
they had become incomprehensible and were debasing their original
models.
When we turn our discussion to esotericism, however, we shall see
that this philosophy, rather than involving impious or hidden secrets or
meanings, concerns instead a symbolism that was accepted as pure and
perfectly orthodox during the Middle Ages, when it was even even pro-
fessed by the Church.
The proof of the transmission of these rites in their iniatory and