means of testing the divinity of Jesus and of thereby making sure
whether or no another lord has been placed over them. The plan decided
upon is the Temptation. But great is Satan's downfall. 'Out, out,
harrow! alas! alas!' is the cry (one that had become very familiar to
his audience) as he hastens back to Hell, leaving the Heavenly Hero
crowned with glorious victory. This is one of several scenes chosen by
the author for the glorifying of his central character. Perhaps they
culminate in 'The Entry into Jerusalem'.

The scenes that now succeed each other, marking each stage of the
sorrowful descent to death, are notable chiefly for that quality to
which attention has already been drawn, namely, the dignity which
surrounds the character of the Hero. This dignity is not accidental. On
the contrary it would have been easy to fall into the error of exciting
so much compassion that the sufferer became a pitiably crushed victim of
misfortune. With much skill the writer places his most pathetic lines in
the mouths of the two Maries, diverts upon them the sharpest edge of our
pity, and never for a moment allows Jesus to appear overwhelmed. When a
Jew, in 'The Trial of Christ', speaks in terms of low insolence,
addressing him as 'thou, fela (_fellow_)' and striking him on the cheek,
Jesus replies:

Yf I have seyd amys,
Thereof wytnesse thou mayst bere;
And yf I have seyd but weyl in this,
Tho dost amys me to dere[13].

Again, in answer to Cayphas's outrageous scream of fury, 'Spek man,
spek! spek, thou fop!... I charge the and conjure, be the sonne and the
mone, that thou telle us and (_if_) thou be Goddys sone!', Jesus says