the mass to a freer locality. As long as it was part of the mass, develop-
ment was inhibited, for you can't be perpetually interrupting the central
rite of the Church for side issues. A little extra singing is all right for a
special feast like Easter, but not the introduction of long ceremonies.

So many tropes were moved, including the quem quaeritis. A half
century or so later we meet it as part of the monastic service of the
hours. St. Benedict had divided the time of his followers among work,
rest, and prayer. The prayer had been organized into services at regular
intervals during the day. The first of these, matins, preceded daybreak, and
was divided into three nocturnes, each containing antiphons, verses,
prayers, and lessons and responsories. It is here, often at the end of the
third lesson, that we begin to find the quem quaeritis trope.

This was a good location for it. It was free to develop. The time of
its presentation, early Easter morning, was symbolically appropriate.
Moreover, its development was in the hands of perhaps the strongest social
community of the age, the monastery, which held moreover almost all
the learning and more than a moderate share of the intelligence of the
age.

And here it developed into a real play.

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