Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/55

 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 43 was that pictures were the books of the illiterate. Hence the religious dramas, mystery plays, &c, in which the whole story of the redemption of the world is repre- sented ; and the so-called ' Bibles of the Poor,' which were often produced in frescoes, bas-reliefs, and painted windows. The ' Dance of Death ' frescoed on cemetery walls, and the ' Stations of the Cross ' erected, with indulgences attached to the devotion, may be also traced to the same cause. Especially in the latter part of the fifteenth century we find this picture teaching in vogue. The Cardinal Nicolaus of Cusa seems to have attached great importance to it, for we find that in his constant visitations through all parts of Germany he was in the habit of erecting tablets with the Commandments, the Creed, and portions of the Scriptures engraved on them. ' Such articles of faith as are essential to man, writes Geiler von Kaisersberg, ' may be learned by the common people through contemplation of the pictures and stories which are painted everywhere in the churches. These are the Scriptures of the lower classes.' In his translation of Gerson's popular three-volume work ' On the Ten Commandments, Confession, and the Art of Dying Well,' the same author says : ' Priests, parents, schoolmasters, and hospital superintendents should have the lessons contained in this little book represented in pictures and hung up in churches, schools, hospitals, and public places, for it was written with a special view to the instruction and benefit of the unlearned, who may never have an opportunity of listening to sermons. . . . Ajid above all it is intended for children and young people, who from their infancy should be well instructed in the general principles and the more important points