Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction Civic Drama and Worship
- Part 1 Corpus Christi Play
- Part 2 The Selection and Organisation of the Cycle
- Part 3 Feast of Feasts
- Chapter 5 The Christmas Season
- Chapter 6 Holy Week and After
- Chapter 7 The Sacraments of the Church
- Part 4 … or Feast of Fools
- Select Bibliography
- Index of Liturgical References
- General Index
Chapter 6 - Holy Week and After
from Part 3 - Feast of Feasts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction Civic Drama and Worship
- Part 1 Corpus Christi Play
- Part 2 The Selection and Organisation of the Cycle
- Part 3 Feast of Feasts
- Chapter 5 The Christmas Season
- Chapter 6 Holy Week and After
- Chapter 7 The Sacraments of the Church
- Part 4 … or Feast of Fools
- Select Bibliography
- Index of Liturgical References
- General Index
Summary
After the long fast of Lent, Holy Week is the climax of the Church's year. It begins with Palm Sunday and Christ's entry into Jerusalem to fulfil his destiny. It contains the Last Supper from which the ritual of the Mass derives. It tells of Christ's betrayal by Judas, and of his trials before Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod, then Pilate again. It reaches its climax as it follows the way of the Cross to Mount Calvary for the Crucifixion on Good Friday, and finishes with the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, the fulfilment of Christ's covenant to humankind and the ultimate affirmation of his divinity. The season is the subject of the great Passion Plays of medieval continental Europe, and provides the greatest concentration of pageants in the York Cycle. In this chapter the focus will be primarily on those pageants which take up the narrative of the events of Holy Week that are themselves the subject of particular festive liturgical and paraliturgical treatment on Palm Sunday and over the Easter weekend. The aim is to explore how the respective treatments of the York pageants of The Entry into Jerusalem (Skinners, XXV), The Road to Calvary (Shearmen, XXXIV), The Crucifixion (Pinners, XXXV), The Death of Christ (Butchers, XXXVI), and The Resurrection (Carpenters, XXXVIII), owe debts to the elaborate celebrations of those events in the annual cycle of worship. Kept for later is discussion of the Bakers' Last Supper (XXVII), as the narrative of the institution of the Sacrament of the Altar is clearly a particular case for a dramatic project designed to celebrate Corpus Christi.
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- The York Mystery Cycle and the Worship of the City , pp. 130 - 168Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2006