The clergy provided another allegory of a purely religious
kind. Idolatry and Faith stood on two lofty pillars, and after Faith,
represented by a beautiful girl, had uttered her welcome, the other
column fell to pieces with the lay figure upon it. Further on, Borso
was met by a Caesar with seven beautiful women, who were presented to
him as the Virtues which he was exhorted to pursue. At last the
Cathedral was reached, but after the service the Duke again took his
seat on a lofty golden throne, and a second time received the homage of
some of the masks already mentioned. To conclude all, three angels flew
down from an adjacent building, and, amid songs of joy, delivered to
him palm branches, as symbols of peace.
Let us now give a glance at those festivals the chief feature of which
was the procession itself.
There is no doubt that from an early period of the Middle Ages the
religious processions gave rise to the use of masks. Little angels
accompanied the sacrament or the sacred pictures and relics on their
way through the streets; or characters in the Passion--such as Christ
with the cross, the thieves and the soldiers, or the faithful women--
were represented for public edification. But the great feasts of the
Church were from an early time accompanied by a civic procession, and
the _naivete _of the Middle Ages found nothing unfitting in the many
secular elements which it contained.
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