‘In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God.’ Medieval biblical drama is essentially theocentric. For not only does it put God on the stage as a deus ex machina or as part of a ritual, but it portrays in most intimate and revealing detail every aspect of the history of God's relationship with man, from the creation to the incarnation and beyond to the day of judgement and the end of the world. In order to do this, the dramatists go far beyond the limits of the biblical text. With a sublime naiveté that robs their work of blasphemy, they lift the veil and show us the innermost councils of the divine Trinity.

From the earliest centuries, the church re-enacted the events of Christ's life. When the Spanish pilgrim Egeria visited Jerusalem in the third century ce, she shared in the Easter celebrations, which included the processional entry into the city on Palm Sunday. The language of these celebrations was Greek, with Syriac translations provided, but the Latin-speakers had to rely on helpful neighbours. It was not until the church, like the Roman empire – divided into the eastern Greek half centred on Constantinople and the western Roman half – became centred on Rome that a Latin liturgy developed, much influenced by the Rule of St Benedict with its pattern of the daily Office and lectionary. The eastern church never developed a liturgical drama, finding instead its ‘incarnation’ in the icons, defended in the eighth century Iconoclastic controversy by St John Damascene: ‘When God is seen clothed in flesh and conversing with men I make an image of the God of matter who became matter for my sake.’