This Jesuit school drama was first performed in 102. Like other Jesuit plays of the period it was written in Latin. Bidermann was a Jesuit teacher and drew his inspiration from the medieval themes of Everyman and of the terrors of the Last Judgement but he reinterpreted them in the context of self-conscious Renaissance man, the proud humanist, the thirst for knowledge, desire for worldly fame - blinding man to the urgings of his eternal soul.

Cenodoxus dies as he lived, wrapped in self-pride, believing himself a pious Christian, only to discover - and to reveal to the horrified audience - his eternal damnation.

In the introduction Dr Dyer analyses the play's structure, relates it to its antecedents and shows how it anticipated the themes and conflicts of German baroque drama in the middle of the seventeenth century.