The kernel of the whole thing is, of course, the old St. Gall trope, itself a free adaptation from the text of the Vulgate, and the few examples in which this does not occur must be regarded as quite exceptional[102]. The earliest additions were taken from anthems, which already had their place in the Easter services, and which in some manuscripts of the Gregorian _Antiphonarium_ are grouped together as suitable for insertion wherever may be desired[103]. So far the text keeps fairly close to the words of Scripture, and even where the limits of the antiphonary are passed, the same rule holds good. In time, however, a freer dramatic handling partly establishes itself. Proses, and even metrical hymns, beginning as choral introductions, gradually usurp a place in the dialogue, and in the latest versions the metrical character is very marked. By far the most important of these insertions is the famous prose or sequence _Victimae paschali_, the composition of which by the monk Wipo of St. Gall can be pretty safely dated in the second quarter of the eleventh century[104]. It goes as follows: ‘Victimae paschali laudes immolant Christiani. agnus redemit oves, Christus innocens patri reconciliavit peccatores. mors et vita duello conflixere mirando, dux vitae mortuus regnat vivus. dic nobis, Maria, quid vidisti in via? sepulchrum Christi viventis et gloriam vidi resurgentis; angelicos testes, sudarium et vestes. surrexit Christus, spes mea, praecedet suos in Galilaeam. credendum est magis soli Mariae veraci, quam Iudaeorum turbae fallaci. scimus Christum surrexisse a mortuis vere: tu nobis, victor, rex, miserere.’ Originally written as an _Alleluia_ trope or sequence proper, a place which it still occupies in the reformed Tridentine liturgy[105], the _Victimae paschali_ cannot be shown to have made its way into the _Quem quaeritis_ until the thirteenth century[106]. But it occurs in about a third of the extant versions, sometimes as a whole, sometimes with the omission of the first three sentences, which obviously do not lend themselves as well as the rest to dramatic treatment. When introduced, these three sentences are sung either by the choir or by the Maries: the other six fall naturally into dialogue.