This set of orders suggests that the celebrations on Corpus Christi day had become an opportunity for trouble-making by rowdier elements, or a venue for bringing rivalries to a violent head. Such problems were not easy to resolve; we hear again, in 1419, that while participating in the Corpus Christi procession the skinners were assaulted by members of the carpenters' and tawyers' gilds. Further evidence from the next decade indicates that the Corpus Christi festival was far from being a solemn religious ceremony, but was an excuse – at least among some elements of the city populace, as well as some of the visitors from outside – for general raucous behaviour.

The orders also reflect the continual difficulty with keeping the large number of presentations sequenced in an orderly fashion that adhered to a schedule and specific locations for performance. A simulation of the sequencing/timing of performances at the different stations has estimated that it would have required 20 hours to complete the entire cycle of 48 presentations at each of the 12 stations, assuming everything ran smoothly and there were no unscheduled stops (as there evidently were), with each wagon taking about 3 hours to complete the route. This estimation is based upon assumptions regarding the lengths of each performance and the speed and coordination with which wagons moved from station to station, and the assumption that all pageants were presented each year; all of which historians debate. That the different pageants varied considerably in length – performance time ranging between 5 and 30 minutes – must have made smooth transitions near to impossible: some stations would have been without any performances for periods, while other stations would have the next wagon waiting for the previous to finish. Even though the daylight hours were relatively long in northern England at this time of year, the last pageants must have been performing in twilight or the dark (as some complaints attest).

In addition we see a concern for the quality of the presentations. Craftsmen were not necessarily good actors (as Shakespeare reflected through Bottom's troupe in A Midsummer Night's Dream). A later ordinance (1476) required four of the most capable actors in the city to ensure the quality of production of the pageants, including auditioning performers and discharging any not up to the demands of theatrical performance. At the same time, it was prohibited for any performer to undertake more than two roles (again Bottom is recalled), suggesting either that the more capable gildsmen were being over-used or perhaps even that professionals were being employed by some of the gilds.