This matters not greatly, since it is perfectly certain that out-door performances of the Passion took place long before 1549.

Those which were given in France were extremely interesting and in regard to them we have important records.

It is established beyond doubt that near the end of the fourteenth century a company of players called the Fraternity of the Passion assisted at the festivities attendant upon the marriage of Charles VI and Isabella of Bavaria.

Thereafter they gave public performances of their version of the Passion.
[Footnote 5: "An Historical and Critical Account of the Theaters in Europe," by Lewis Riccoboni, translated from the Italian.
London, 1741.] It was too long to be performed without rest, and it was therefore divided into several days' work.

It employed eighty-seven personages and made use of elaborate machinery.