SOURCE: "The Doctrine," in Drama and Religion in the English Mystery Plays: A Re-Evaluation, Stanford University Press, 1961, pp. 19-42.

In the following essay, Prosser discusses the importance of the doctrine of repentance to the medieval worldview and, hence, to understanding the mystery cycles. Prosser argues for the educational role of the performances in relation to liturgical doctrine.

In light of the history of both the Church and the theater, it is appropriate to begin a study of the mystery cycles with the doctrine of repentance. Knowledge of this doctrine is essential for an understanding of all medieval literature. Repentance was the key to salvation in a world that still believed man culpable for sin, not the pitiable pawn of social and physical necessity. Even more, then, is the doctrine important for the medieval drama, which was frankly written to show Christians the way to Redemption.

Repentance had been...