From this passage I am induced to suspect that the Jesus Scholasticus, and the tragedy De Passione Christi, which are named in the list of his works, have been erroneously ascribed to him. No date of time or place is affixed to either, by the biographers. After his judicious declaration concerning such subjects it cannot be thought he would have written these tragedies; nor that if he had written them before he seriously considered the question of their propriety, he would afterwards have allowed them to appear. It is more probable that they were published without an author's name, and ascribed to him, because of his reputation. No inference can be drawn from their not appearing in the two volumes of his plays; because that collection is entitled _Omnes Georgii Macropedii Fabulæ_ COMICÆ, and though it contains pieces which are deeply serious, that title would certainly preclude the insertion of a tragedy. But a piece upon the story of Susanna which the biographers have also ascribed to him is not in the collection;[1] the book was printed after his retirement to Bois-le-duc, when from his age and infirmities he was most unlikely to have composed it, and therefore I conclude, that like the tragedies, it is not his work. [Footnote 1: This must be a comic drama.—R. S.] Macropedius was careful to guard against anything which might give offence and therefore he apologizes for speaking of the _fable_ of his Nama: _Mirabitur fortasse vestrûm quispiam, Quod fabulam rem sacrosanctam dixerim. Verum sibi is persuasum habebit, omne quod Tragico artificio comicovè scribitur, Dici poetis fabulam; quod utique non Tam historia veri texitur, quod proprium est, Quam imago veri fingitur, quod artis est. Nam comicus non propria personis solet, Sed apta tribuere atque verisimilia, ut Quæ pro loco vel tempore potuere agi Vel dicier._ For a very different reason he withdrew from one of these dramas certain passages, by the advice of his friends, he says, _qui rem seriam fabulosius tractandum dissuaserunt._ These it seems related to the first chapter of St. Luke, but contained circumstances derived not from that Gospel, but from the legends engrafted upon it, and therefore he rejects them as _citra scripturæ authoritatem_. From the scrupulousness with which Macropedius in this instance distinguishes between the facts of the Gospel history, and the fables of man's invention, it may be suspected that he was not averse at heart to those hopes of a reformation in the church which were at that time entertained. This is still further indicated in the drama called Hecastus (_ἕκαστος_,—Every one,) in which he represents a sinner as saved by faith in Christ and repentance. He found it necessary to protest against the suspicion which he had thus incurred, and to declare that he held works of repentance, and the sacraments appointed by the Church necessary for salvation.[2]