Beginning of Essay
As The Norton Anthology of English Literature says, "By far the larger proportion of surviving literature in Middle as in Old English is religious" (7). This shouldn't be surprising since we know education had a religious affiliation; men were educated, went to "u ....

Middle of Essay
.... church knew that the stories and ideas of the Bible could effectively be passed on through sermons and mystery and morality plays. Although they both have the primary mission of conveying biblical messages, mystery and morality plays have considerable differences. The "mystery" in mystery plays refers to "the spiritual mystery of Christ's redemption of humankind" (308). Mystery plays were typically written in "cycles" (a series) that would begin with the Creation, chronicle the major events of the Old Testament through the New Testament and the Last Judgment. The mystery plays "endeavored to make the Christian religion more real to the unlearned by ....