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The Mystery Plays, also called Miracle Plays, represent short episodes from the Bible, such as Noah's building of the Arch or the sacrifice of Abraham, expanded by comic as well as serious scenes of the authors' invention. In the fourteenth century there developed in some towns the practice of putting those plays together to cycles that could be performed sequentially outdoors by members of the trade guilds, e.g. as part of the celebrations for the Feast of Corpus Christi or at Whitsuntide. The four surviving complete cycles we have today are the N-Town (Ludus Coventriae), the York, Towneley and Chester Cycle. They were played on wagons which served as movable stages on the street, following a prefixed route in a town and stopping at predetermined 'stations', at each of which some parts of the cycle were enacted. The action of the play took place on the 'pageant wagon' and a free space in front of it, called 'platea'. The wagons were wooden, flat-topped carts, probably pushed and pulled by men and adorned only with a minimal scenery.

The term 'mystery play' was adapted from the French 'mystère, mistère' in the 18th century. The medieval English word was 'miracle'. (The Cambridge Companion says: "Mysteries take their name from the 'mestier' (métier or trade) of their performers; they were previously called 'Miracle Plays', which, strictly, are enactments of the miracles performed by the saints.")

Mystery plays were not only didactic drama delivering a moral message, but occasions for popular entertainment, and the expression of craft honour and local unity. The supposed blasphemy of men playing God aroused the condemnation of the Mystery Plays by the New Protestant Church in the 16th century.