also of supreme importance in the teaching of the Church: of all points
in the creed none has a higher place than the belief in the
Resurrection. Therefore the 'Burial' and the 'Rising again' called for
particular elaboration. One of the earliest methods of driving these
truths home to the hearts of the unlearned and unimaginative was to
bury the crucifix for the requisite three days (a rite still observed
in many churches by the removal of the cross from the altar), and then
restore it to its exalted position; the simple act being done with much
solemn prostration and creeping on hands and knees of those whose duty
it was to bear the cross to its sepulchre. This sepulchre, it may be
explained, was usually a wooden structure, painted with guardian
soldiers, large enough to contain a tall crucifix or a man hidden, and
occupying a prominent position in the church throughout the festival.
Not infrequently it was made of more solid material, like the carved
stone 'sepulchre' in Lincoln Cathedral.

A trope was next composed for antiphonal singing on Easter Monday, as
follows:

Quem quaeritis?
Jhesum Nazarenum.
Non est hic; surrexit sicut praedixerat: ite, nuntiate quia
surrexit a mortuis.
Alleluia! resurrexit Dominus.

Now let us observe how action and dialogue combine. One of the clergy is
selected to hide, as an angel, within the sepulchre. Towards it advance
three others, to represent three women, peeping here, glancing there, as
if they seek something. Presently a mysterious voice, proceeding out of
the tomb, sings the opening question, 'Whom do you seek?' Sadly the