It has been suggested by Countess Martinengo{39} that this beautiful ceremony was "the crystallization of haunting memories carried away by St. Francis from the real Bethlehem"; for he visited the east in 1219-20, and the Greccio celebration took place in 1224. St. Francis and his followers may well have helped greatly to popularize the use of the _presepio_, but it can be |107| traced back far earlier than their time. In the liturgical drama known as the "Officium Pastorum," which probably took shape in the eleventh century, we find a _praesepe_ behind the altar as the centre of the action{40}; but long before this something of the kind seems to have been in existence in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome--at one time called "Beata Maria ad praesepe." Here Pope Gregory III. (731-41) placed "a golden image of the Mother of God embracing God our Saviour, in various gems."{41} According to Usener's views this church was founded by Pope Liberius (352-66), and was intended to provide a special home for the new festival of Christmas introduced by him, while an important part of the early Christmas ritual there was the celebration of Mass over a "manger" in which the consecrated Host was laid, as once the body of the Holy Child in the crib at Bethlehem.{42} Further, an eastern homily of the late fourth century suggests that the preacher had before his eyes a representation of the Nativity. Such material representations, Usener conjectures, may have arisen from the devotions of the faithful at the supposed actual birthplace at Bethlehem, which would naturally be adorned with the sacred figures of the Holy Night.{43}