Note 310 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
Enforced contribution of crafts was common; and the cost considerable. (Gross, ii. 51; Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 3, p. 166, 225; ibid. ix. 173-5.) See Kingdon, ii. 260, 318, &c. In Coventry there were complaints in 1494 that the dyers, skinners, fishmongers, &c., were so “self-willed” that they could not be made to contribute to pageants. See Hibbert’s Inf. and Dev. of Eng. Gilds, 63. For the whole question of plays and pageants see Davidson’s Studies in Eng. Mystery Plays, printed by Yale University, 1892. The Corpus Christi processions became after the order of the Council of Vienne, 1318, exceedingly popular; the guilds of Corpus Christi, having charge of the procession, not of the plays (91-2), were probably generally composed of the upper class of people. A list of Miracle Plays and Mysteries has been made for students by F. Stoddard, California University, 1887.