The incident suggested to the somewhat barren pen-men of the day a "morality" adapted from the old pagan books a stage-play in which the God of Wine should return in triumph from the East.

But it was necessary to assign motion to the sun and rest to the earth lest the shallow minds of the vulgar should be confounded, amused, and rendered obstinate and contumacious with regard to doctrines of faith. St. Jerome writes: "It is the custom for the pen-men of Scripture to deliver their judgments in many things according to the common received opinion that their times had of them."

He moved unhurt in the famous ménagerie of the castle, of which the common people were so much afraid, and let out the lions, themselves timid prisoners enough, through the streets during the fair. The incident suggested to the somewhat barren pen-men of the day a "morality" adapted from the old pagan books a stage-play in which the God of Wine should return in triumph from the East.