Exactly what was the influence of the liturgical drama, and how did it show itself? A continuous tradition from the Latin church plays through the vernacular religious plays of the later middle ages has been generally recognized since the middle of the nineteenth century, and especially since the publication of Chambers' Mediaeval Stage. The only basic attack upon the accepted historical explanation is too insubstantial to be at all convincing; and our knowledge of the liturgical plays and of their relation to individual vernacular plays or groups of plays has been much increased of late, through Professor Young's presentation of the corpus of the liturgical drama, and through many special studies of French and German texts. At the same time, we must reckon with the cumulatively impressive evidence, offered by such scholars as Emile Roy, Grace Frank, Frances A. Foster, and G. R. Owst, of the use of vernacular narrative and homiletic sources in the vernacular religious plays of the middle ages. With our present fuller knowledge both of the liturgical drama and of the rich non-dramatic material which was utilized in the later plays, we need to distinguish and redefine the specifically dramatic tradition which sprang from the liturgical plays, and the manner in which it persisted.