[1066] Grenier, 414; Rigollot, 17.

[1067] L. Maziére, Noyon Religieux in Comptes-Rendus et Mémoires of the Comité arch. et hist. de Noyon (1895), xi. 92; Grenier, 370, 413; Rigollot, 28, quoting Actum Capit. of 1497 ‘cavere a cantu carminum infamium et scandalosorum, nec non similiter carminibus indecoris et impudicis verbis in ultimo festo Innocentium per eos fetide decantatis; et si vicarii cum rege vadant ad equitatum solito, nequaquam fiet chorea et tripudia ante magnum portale, saltem ita impudice ut fieri solet.’

[1068] Grenier, 365; Rigollot, 29, quoting, I think, a ceremonial (1350) of the collegiate church of Saint-Pierre-au-Parvis. The masquers obtained permission from some canons seated on a theatre near the house called Grosse-Tête.

[1069] Grenier, 365; Rigollot, 26; Dreves, 584, quoting cathedral Actum Capit. of 19 Dec. 1403, from Grenier’s MS. Picardie, 158. Five canons said ‘quod papa fieret in ecclesia, sed nulla elevatio, et quod, qui vellet venire, in habitu saeculari honesto veniret, et quod nulla dansio ibi fieret’; but the casting-vote of the dean was against them, ‘sed extra possent facere capellani et alii quidquid vellent.’

[1070] Grenier, 370; Rigollot, 22; E. Fleury, Cinquante Ans de Laon, 16; C. Hidé, in Bull. de la Soc. académique de Laon (1863), xiii. 111.

[1071] Hidé, op. cit. 116, thinks that the Patriarch used jetons de présence, similar to those used by the Boy Bishop at Amiens and elsewhere (ch. xv). He figures some, but they may belong to the period of the confrérie.

[1072] MS. Hist. of Dom. Bugniatre (eighteenth century) quoted Fleury, op. cit. 16. I do not feel sure that the term ‘fête des ânes’ was really used at Laon.

[1073] Julleville, Les Com. 36; Rép. Com. 348; L. Paris, Remensiana, 32, Le Théâtre à Reims, 30; Coquillart, Œuvres (Bibl. Elzév.), i. cxxxv. Coquillart is said to have written verses for the Basoche on this occasion.

[1074] Rigollot, 211, from A. Hugo, La France pittoresque, ii. 226, on the authority of a register of 1570 in the cathedral archives.

[1075] It begins ‘Cantemus ad honorem, gloriam et laudem Sancti Stephani.’

[1076] L. Deschamps de Pas, in Mém. de la Soc. des Antiq. de la Morinie, xx. 104, 107, 133; O. Bled, in Bull. Hist., de la même Soc. (1887), 62.

[1077] Deschamps de Pas, op. cit. 133 ‘solitum est fieri gaude in cena ob reverentiam ipsius sancti.’

[1078] Ibid. op. cit. 107. Grenier, 414, citing Sammarthanus, Gallia Christiana, x. 1510, calls Francis de Melun ‘bishop of Terouanne.’ An earlier reform of the feast seems implied by the undated Chapter Statute in Ducange, s. v. Episcopus Fatuorum ‘quia temporibus retroactis multi defectus et plura scandala, deordinationes et mala, occasione Episcopi Fatuorum et suorum evenerint, statuimus et ordinamus quod de caetero in festo Circumcisionis Domini Vicarii caeterique chorum frequentantes et eorum Episcopus se habeant honeste, cantando et officiando sicut continetur plenius in Ordinario Ecclesiae.’

[1079] De la Fons-Melicocq, Cérémonies dramatiques et Anciens Usages dans les Eglises du Nord de la France (1850), 4. In 1445 is a payment to the ‘évêque des fous de Saint-Aldegonde’ for a ‘jeu’; in 1474, one for the chapter’s share of ‘le feste du vesque des asnes, par dessus tout ce que ly cœurz paya.’

[1080] E. Hautcœur, Hist. de l’Église collégiale de Saint-Pierre de Lille (1896-9), ii. 30; Id. Cartulaire de l’Église, &c. ii. 630, 651 (Stat. Capit. of July 7, 1323, confirmed June 23, 1328); ‘item volumus festum folorum penitus anullari.’

[1081] Hautcœur, Hist. ii. 215; De la Fons-Melicocq, Archives hist. et litt. du Nord de France (3rd series), v. 374; Flammermont, Album paléographique du Nord de la France (1896), No. 45.

[1082] Ducange, s. v. Deposuit (Stat. Capit. S. Petri Insul. July 13, 1531, ex Reg. k.) ‘Scandala et ludibria quae sub Fatuitatis praetextu per beneficiatos et habituatos dictae nostrae ecclesiae a vigilia usque ad completas octavas Epiphaniae fieri et exerceri consueverunt ... deinceps nullus nominetur, assumatur et creetur praelatus follorum, nec ludus, quem Deposuit vocant, in dicta vigilia, aut alio quocumque tempore, ludatur, exerceatur, aut fiat.’ Probably to this date belongs the very similarly worded but undated memorandum in Delobel, Collectanea, f. 76, which Hautcœur, Hist. ii. 220, 224, assigns to 1490. This adds ‘de non ... faciendo officio ... per vicarios in octava Epiphaniae.’ The municipal duties of the praelatus fell to the confrérie of the Prince des Foux, afterwards Prince d’Amour, which held revels in 1547 (Du Tilliot, 87), and still later to the ‘fou de la ville’ who led the procession of the Holy Sacrament, and flung water at the people in the eighteenth century (Leber, ix. 265).

[1083] Rigollot, 14.

[1084] Two documents are preserved, each giving a full account of the event: (a) summons of the delinquents before the Parlement, dated March 16, 149⁸⁄₉ (J. F. Foppens, Supplément (1748), to A. Miraeus, Opera Diplomatica, iv. 295). This is endorsed with some notes of further proceedings; (b) official notes of the hearing on Nov. 18, 1499 (Bibl. de l’École des Chartes, iii. 568); cf. Julleville, Rép. com. 355; Cousin, Hist. de Tournay, Bk. iv. 261. The Synod of Tournai in 1520 still found it necessary to forbid students to appear in church ‘en habits de fous, en représentant des personnages de comédie’ on St. Nicholas’ day, Innocents’ day, or ‘la fête de l’évêque’ (E. Fleury, Cinquante Ans de Laon, 54).

[1085] Rigollot, 19, 157.

[1086] Cf. ch. xix.

[1087] Martene, iii. 41 ‘[at second Vespers] Cantor ... dicit ter Deposuit baculum tenens, et si baculus capitur, Te Deum Laudamus incipietur ... [at Compline] ascendunt duo clerici super formam thesaurarii et cantant Haec est sancta dies, &c. et post Conserva Deus, et dum canitur verberant eum clerici baculis, et ante eos cantores festi et erupitores.... Post incipit cantor novus Verbum caro factum est, et hoc cantando ducunt eum in domum suam per parietes cum baculis feriendo. Si autem baculus non accipitur, nihil de iis dicitur, sed vadunt, et extinguitur luminare.’

[1088] Cf. Appendix L.

[1089] Chérest, 9, 55, quoting Acta Capit. (1453) ‘item circa festum Innocentium ordinatum est quod in ecclesia nullae fient insolenciae seu derisiones potissime tempore divini servitii et quod pulsentur matutinae non ante quartam horam. Permittimus tamen quod reverenter et in habitu ecclesiastico per Innocentes et alios iuvenes de sedibus inferioribus dictum fiat officium, saltem circa ea quae sine sacris ordinibus possunt exerceri’; (1510) ‘item turpem illum abusum festi fatuorum in nostra hactenus ecclesia, proh dolor, frequentatum quo in celebritate sanctorum Innocentium quidam sub nomine patriarchali divinum celebrant officium, penitus detestamus, abolemus et interdicimus.’

[1090] Lebeuf, Mém. concernant l’Histoire ... d’Auxerre (ed. Challe et Quantin, 1848-55), ii. 30; iv. 232 (quoting Acta Capit. partly extracted by Ducange, s.v. Kalendae); and in Leber, ix. 358, 375, 385.

[1091] ‘Cum domini nostri rex et alii regales Franciae sint valde dolorosi, propter nova armaturae factae in partibus Ungariae contra Saracenos et inimicos fidei’; cf. Bury-Gibbon, vii. 35.

[1092] ‘Ordinavit quod de caetero omnes, qui de festo fatuorum fuerint, non pulsent campanam capituli sui post prandium, dempta prima die in qua suum episcopum eligent, et etiam quod in suis sermonibus fatuis non ponant seu dicant aliqua opprobria in vituperium alicuius personae.’

[1093] Lebeuf, Hist. d’Auxerre, ii. 30.

[1094] I suppose the intended action took shape in the Quinque Conclusiones of Gerson (p. 292), in which he quotes the dictum of an Auxerre preacher that the feast of Fools was as approbatum as that of the Conception. To this there seems to be a reference in the account of the Abbot of Pontigny’s sermon in the Acta Capit. ‘praedicavit ... quod dictum festum non erat, nec unquam fuerat a Deo nec Ecclesia approbandum seu approbatum.’ Lebeuf, in Leber, ix. 385, points out that Gerson was intimate with one member of the Auxerre chapter. This was Nicolas de Clamengis, whose Opera, 151 (ed. Lydius, 1613), include a treatise De novis celebritatibus non instituendis, in which the suppression of feasts in his diocese by Michael of Auxerre is alluded to.

[1095] These were canons of inferior rank at Auxerre (Ducange, s. v. tortarius).

[1096] Canons J. Boileaue, Devisco, Pavionis, Viandi and H. Desnoes. Was Viandi the canon John Vivien who, according to Lebeuf, Hist. d’Auxerre, iv. 234, noted on his Breviary (now Bibl. Nat. Cod. Colbert. 4227) that at first Vespers on the Circumcision, Hodie Christus was sung after each Psalm, ‘quia Festum Circumcisionis vocatur in diversis ecclesiis festum Fatuorum’?

[1097] Chérest, 76; Julleville, Les Com. 234; Lebeuf, in Leber, ix. 358, 373, quoting a Cry pour l’abbé de l’église d’Ausserre et ses supposts, from the Œuvres of Roger de Collerye (1536). This resembles the productions of the confréries des fous (cf. ch. xvi) and begins,

[1098] Dunot de Charnage, Hist. de Besançon, i. 227; Rigollot, 47; Leber, ix. 434; x. 40.

[1099] The anonymous author of the Histoire de l’Église d’Autun (1774), 462, 628, gives probata from the Acta Capitularia for some, but not all of his statements. Du Tilliot, 24 and possibly Ducange, s. v. Festum Asinorum appear also to have seen at least one register kept by the rotarius which covered the period 1411 to 1416.

[1100] ‘Deliberaverunt super festo folorum quod fieri consuevit anno quolibet in festo Circumcisionis Domini, ad resecandum superfluitates et derisiones quae fieri consueverunt ... item quod amodo non adducatur asinus ad processionem dictae diei, ut fuit solitum fieri, nec dicatur cantilena quae dici solebat super dictum asinum, et supra officio quod fieri consuetum est dicta die in Ecclesia dicti Domini postea providebunt.’ Ducange says that the ass had a golden foot-cloth of which four of the principal canons held the corners. On the cantilena cf. Appendix L.

[1101] ‘Ordinaverunt quod festum folorum penitus cesset.’

[1102] ‘Concluserunt ad requestum stultorum quod hoc anno fiat festum folorum ... cum solemnitatibus in dicto festo requisitis in libris dicti festi descriptis ... qui defecerit in matutinis et aliis horis statutis comburatur in fonte.’

[1103] ‘In fine Matutinarum nonnulli larvati alii inordinate vestiti choreas, tripudia et saltus in eadem ecclesia faciunt ... [aliquos] ad fontem deferunt et ibi aqua intinguntur.’

[1104] Cf. ch. xix. A representation of the ‘Flight into Egypt’ might well come into a play of Herod. The Hist. d’Autun, 462, says that, before the reform of 1411, the ass appeared as Balaam’s ass in connexion with a Prophetae on a stage at the church door. There was a procession to church, and the Prose. The rex received a cheese from the chapter.

[1105] Cf. ch. xv.

[1106] ‘Regna Herodis et Episcopatus Innocentium, seu fatuorum festa hactenus ... fieri solita ... abolentes.’

[1107] ‘Quod vulgo dicitur Les Gaigizons ... amplius neminem balneare aut ... pignus aufferre.’ It is here only the choice of ‘bishop’ and ‘dean’ of Innocents, ‘quod festum fatuorum a nonnullis nuncupatur’ that is forbidden. Apparently ‘Herod’ had died out.

[1108] Du Tilliot, 100; Petit de Julleville, Les Com. 194. Amongst Du Tilliot’s woodcuts is one of a bâton (No. 4) bearing this date 1482. It represents a nest of fools.

[1109] Ibid. 21.

[1110] Ibid. 74 ‘Icelle cour a ordonné et ordonne, que defenses seront faites aux Choriaux et habitués de ladite Église Saint-Vincent et de toutes autres Églises de son Ressort, et dorésnavant le jour de la Fête des Innocens, et autres jours faire aucunes insolences et tumultes esdites Églises, vacquer en icelles, et courir parmi les villes avec danses et habits indécens à leur état ecclésiastique.’

[1111] Pilot de Thorey, i. 177.

[1112] Pilot de Thorey, i. 178 (Statuta, c. 40) ‘Item statuimus et ordinamus, quod ex nunc cessent abusus qui fieri consueverunt per abbatem vulgariter vocatum stultorum seu sociorum ... Item statuimus et ordinamus, cum in ecclesia Dei non deceat fieri ludibria vel inhonesta committi, quod, in festis Sanctorum Stephani, Iohannis evangelistae, Innocentium et Epiphaniae, domino de cetero officiatur et desserviatur in divinis, prout in aliis diebus infra fieri statuetur, et quod nullus, de cetero, ut quandoque factum fuisse audivimus, portetur in Rost, et quod, de nulla persona ecclesiastica vel seculari cuiuscumque status existat, inhonesti vel diffamatorii rithmi recitentur, et quod nullus pignoret aut aliena rapiat quovisimodo.’ A Vienne writer, in Leber, ix. 259, adds that the performance of the office on the three post-Nativity feasts by deacons, priests, and choir in the high stalls was continued by these Statutes, but suppressed about 1670.

[1113] Lancelot, in Hist. de l’Académie des Inscriptions (ed. 4to), vii. 255, (ed. 12mo), iv. 397; Ducange, s. v. Kalendae; Du Tilliot, 46.

[1114] ‘... Te Deum, et tunc per consocios subtollitur, et elevatur, ac super humeros ad domum, ubi caeteri pro potu sunt congregati, laetanter deportatur, atque in loco ad hoc specialiter ornato et praeparato ponitur, statuitur et collocatur. Ad eius introitum omnes debent assurgere, etiam dominus Episcopus, si fuerit praesens, ac impensa reverentia consueta per consodales et consocios electo, fructus species et vinum cum credentia ei dentur, &c. Sumpto autem potu idem Abbas vel maior succentor ex eius officio absente Abbate incipit cantando ea quae secuntur; ab ista enim parte sclafardi, clericuli ceterique de suptus chorum debent esse simulque canere, ceteri vero desuper chorum ab alia parte simul debent respondere.... Sed dum eorum cantus saepius et frequentius per partes continuando cantatu tanto amplius ascendendo elevatur in tantum quod una pars cantando, clamando, è fort cridar, vincit aliam. Tunc enim inter se ad invicem clamando, sibilando, ululando, cachinnando, deridendo ac cum manibus demonstrando, pars victrix quantum potest partem adversam deridere conatur ac superare, iocosasque trufas sine taedio breviter inferre.

A parte Abbatis. Heros.

Alter chorus. Et nolic. nolierno.

A parte Abbatis. Ad fons sancti bacon.

Alii. Kyrie Eleison.

Quo finito illico gachia ex eius officio facit praeconizationem sic dicendo: De par Mossenhor Labat è sos Cosselliers vos fam assaber que tot homs lo sequa, lay on voura anar, ea quo sus la pena de talhar lo braye. Tunc Abbas aliique domum exeunt impetum facientes. Iuniores canonici chorarii scutiferique domini Episcopi et canonicorum Abbatem comitantur per urbem, cui transeunti salutem omnes impertiunt. In istis vero visitationibus (quae usque ad vigiliam Natalis Domini quotidie vespere fiunt) Abbas debet semper deportare habitum, sive fuerit manta, sive tabardum, sive cappa una cum capputio de variis folrato.’ It is curious how the characteristic meridional love of sheer noise and of gesture comes out.

[1115] De indulgentiis dandis:

[St. Stephen’s Day]

[St. John’s Day]

[1116] ‘Deinde electus per sclafardos subtollitur et campanilla precedente portatur ad domum episcopalem, ad cuius adventum ianuae domus, absente vel praesente ipso domino Episcopo, debent totaliter aperiri, ac in una de fenestris magni tinelli debet deponi, et stans dat ibi iterum benedictionem versus villam.’

[1117] Ducange, s. v. Kalendae; Bérenger-Féraud, iv. 14.

[1118] Papon, Hist. de Provence (1784), iv. 212.

[1119] Rigollot, 125.

[1120] Bérenger-Féraud, iv. 131, quoting Mireur, Bull. hist. et philos. du Comité des Travaux hist. (1885), N^os. 3, 4.

[1121] Rigollot, 171; Fauris de Saint-Vincent, in Magasin encyclopédique (1814), i. 24. A chapter inventory mentions a ‘mitra episcopi fatuorum.’ The Council of Aix in 1585 (Labbé, xv. 1146) ordered the suppression of ‘ludibria omnia et puériles ac theatrales lusus’ on Innocent’s day.

[1122] Thiers, Traité des Jeux et des Divertissements, 449; Du Tilliot, 33, 39, quoting [Mathurin de Neuré] Querela ad Gassendum, de parum Christianis Provincialium suorum ritibus ... &c. (1645) ‘Choro cedunt omnes Therapeutae Sacerdotes, et ipse Archimandrita; in quorum omnium locos sufficiuntur Coenobii mediastini viles, quorum aliis manticae explendae cura est, aliis culina, aliis hortus colendus: Fratres Laicos vocant, qui tunc occupatis hinc et inde Initiatorum ac Mystarum sedibus, ... Sacerdotalibus nempe induuntur vestibus, sed laceris, si quae suppetant, ac praepostere aptatis, inversisque; inversos etiam tenent libros in quibus se fingunt legere, appensis ad nasum perspicillis, quibus detractum vitrum, eiusque loco mali aurati putamen insertum.... Thuricremi Sanniones in cuiusque faciem cineres exsufflarunt, et favillas ex acerris, quas per ludibrium temere iactantes, stolidis quandoque capitibus affundunt; sic autem instructi non hymnos, non Psalmos, non liturgias de more concinunt, sed confusa ac inarticula verba demurmurant, insanasque prorsus vociferationes derudunt.’ The same M. de Neuré (whose real name was Laurent Mesme) says more generally that in many towns of the province on Innocents’ day, ‘Stolidorum se Divorum celebrare festa putant, quibus stolide litandum sit, nec aliis quam stolidis illius diei sacra ceremoniis peragenda.’ He quotes (p. 72) from a Rituale a direction for the singing of the Magnificat to the tune ‘Que ne vous requinquez-vous, vielle? Que ne vous requinquez-vous donc?’

[1123] Bérenger-Féraud, iv. 17.

[1124] C. of Toledo, N^o. 38, in 1582 (Aguirre, Coll. Conc. Hisp. vi. 12); C. of Oriolana, in 1600 (Aguirre, vi. 452): cf. pp. 162, 350.

[1125] Pearson, ii. 285; C. M. Engelhardt, H. von Landsberg (1818), 104; C. Schmidt, H. von Landsberg, 40. Herrad was abbess of Hohenburg, near Strasburg, 1167-95. The MS. of her Hortus Deliciarum was destroyed at Strasburg in 1870, but Engelhardt, and from him Pearson, translated the bit about the Epiphany feasts: cf. ch. xx.

[1126] Dreves, Anal. Hymn. xx. 22 (from the Gradual, Cod. Monacens. 157, f. 231^vo); after quoting a decree against cantiones of the C. of Lyons in 1274; ‘ne igitur propter scholarium episcopum, cum quo in multis ecclesiis a iuniore clero ad specialem laudem et devotionem natalis Domini solet tripudiari, saecularia parliamenta nec non strepitus clamorque et cachitus mundanarum cantionum in nostro choro invalescant ... ego Iohannes, cognomine de Perchausen, Decanus ecclesiae Mosburgensis, antequam in decanum essem assumptus ... infra scriptas cantiones, olim ab antiquis etiam in maioribus ecclesiis cum scholarium episcopo decantatas, paucis modernis, etiam aliquibus propriis, quas olim, cum rector fuissem scholarium, pro laude nativitatis Domini et beatae Virginis composui, adiunctis, coepi in unum colligere et praesenti libro adnectere pro speciali reverentia infantiae Salvatoris, ut sibi tempore suae nativitatis his cantionibus a novellis clericulis quasi ex ore infantium et lactentium laus et hymnizans devotio postposita vulgarium lascivia possit tam decenter quam reverenter exhiberi.’

[1127] The following may all be for Jan. 1, and I do not think that there was a scholarium episcopus on any other day at Mosburg: Gregis pastor Tityrus (Dreves, op. cit. 110), Ecce novus annus est (Dreves, 131, headed in MS. ‘ad novum annum’), Nostri festi gaudium (Dreves, 131, ‘in circumcisione Domini’), Castis psallamus mentibus (Dreves, 135, 251, ‘cum episcopus eligitur’), Mos florentis venustatis (Dreves, 135 ‘dum itur extra ecclesiam ad choream’), Anni novi novitas (Dreves, 136 ‘cum infulatus et vestitus praesul inthronizatur’). Some other New Year cantiones found elsewhere by Dreves (pp. 130, 131) have no special reference to the feast.

[1128] Dreves, op. cit. 136 (beginning anni novi novitas), 250, with musical notation.

[1129] Dreves, op. cit. 110, 254, with notation.

[1130] Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexicon, s. v. Epiphany, quoting Crombach, Hist. Trium Regum (1654), 752; Galenius, de admir. Coloniae (1645), 661. The date of the Ritual is not given, but the ceremony had disappeared by 1645.

[1131] ‘Admiscent autem natalitias cantiones, non sine gestientis animi voluptate.’

[1132] Tractatus de precatione Dei, i. 302 (†1406-15), in F. Palacký, Documenta Mag. Ioannis Hus vitam illustrantia (1869), 722: ‘Quantam autem quamque manifestam licentiam in ecclesia committant, larvas induentes—sicut ipse quoque adolescens proh dolor larva fui—quis Pragae describat? Namque clericum monstrosis vestibus indutum facientes episcopum, imponunt asinae, facie ad caudam conversa, in ecclesiam eum ad missam ducunt, praeferentes lancem iusculi et cantharum vel amphoram cerevisiae; atque dum haec praetendunt, ille cibum potionemque in ecclesia capit. Vidi quoque eum aras suffientem et pedem sursum tollentem audivique magna voce clamantem: bú! Clerici autem magnas faces cereorum loco ei praeferebant, singulas aras obeunti et suffienti. Deinde vidi clericos cucullos pellicios aversa parte induentes et in ecclesia tripudiantes. Spectatores autem rident atque haec omnia religiosa et iusta esse putant; opinantur enim, hos esse in eorum rubricis, id est institutis. Praeclarum vero institutum: pravitas, foeditas!—Atque quum tenera aetate et mente essem, ipse quoque talium nugarum socius eram; sed ut primum dei auxilio adiutus sacras literas intelligere coepi, statim hanc rubricam, id est institutum huius insaniae, ex stultitia mea delevi. Ac sanctae memoriae dominus Ioannes archiepiscopus, is quidem excommunicationis poena proposita hanc licentiam ludosque fieri vetuit, idque summo iure, &c.’

[1133] The quotation given above is a translation by J. Kvíčala from the Bohemian of Huss. There seems to be a confusion between the ‘bishop’ and his steed. It was probably the latter who lifted up his leg and cried bú.

[1134] Grosseteste, Epistolae (ed. Luard, R. S.), 118 ‘vobis mandamus in virtute obedientiae firmiter iniungentes, quatenus festum stultorum cum sit vanitate plenum et voluptatibus spurcum, Deo odibile et daemonibus amabile, ne de caetero in ecclesia Lincolniensi die venerandae circumcisionis Domini nullatenus permittatis fieri.’

[1135] Ibid. op. cit. 161 ‘execrabilem etiam consuetudinem, quae consuevit in quibusdam ecclesiis observari de faciendo festo stultorum, speciali authoritate rescripti apostolici penitus inhibemus; ne de domo orationis fiat domus ludibrii, et acerbitas circumcisionis Domini Iesu Christi iocis et voluptatibus subsannetur.’ The ‘rescript’ will be Innocent III’s decretal of 1207, just republished in Gregory IX’s Decretales of 1234; cf. p. 279.

[1136] Lincoln Statutes, ii. 247 ‘quia in eadem visitacione nostra coram nobis a nonnullis fide dignis delatum extitit quod vicarii et clerici ipsius ecclesiae in die Circumcisionis Domini induti veste laicali per eorum strepitus truffas garulaciones et ludos, quos festa stultorum communiter et convenienter appellant, divinum officium multipliciter et consuete impediunt, tenore presencium. Inhibemus ne ipsi vicarii qui nunc sunt, vel erunt pro tempore, talibus uti de caetero non praesumant nec idem vicarii seu quivis alii ecclesiae ministri publicas potaciones aut insolencias alias in ecclesia, quae domus oracionis existit, contra honestatem eiusdem faciant quouismodo.’ Mr. Leach, in Furnivall Miscellany, 222, notes ‘a sarcastic vicar has written in the margin, “Harrow barrow. Here goes the Feast of Fools (hic subducitur festum stultorum).”’

[1137] What was ly ffolcfeste of which Canon John Marchall complained in Bishop Alnwick’s visitation of 1437 that he was called upon to bear the expense? Cf. Lincoln Statutes, ii. 388 ‘item dicit quod subtrahuntur ab ipso expensae per eum factae pascendo ly ffolcfeste in ultimo Natali, quod non erat in propria, nec in cursu, sed tamen rogatus fecit cum promisso sibi facto de effusione expensarum et non est sibi satisfactum.’

[1138] Statutes of Thos. abp. of York (1391) in Monasticon, vi. 1310 ‘in die etiam Circumcisionis Domini subdiaconis et clericis de secunda forma de victualibus annis singulis, secundum morem et consuetudinem ecclesiae ab antiquo usitatos, debite ministrabit [praepositus], antiqua consuetudine immo verius corruptela regis stultorum infra ecclesiam et extra hactenus usitata sublata penitus et extirpata.’

[1139] Inventory of St. Paul’s (1245) in Archaeologia, l. 472, 480 ‘Baculus stultorum est de ebore et sine cambuca, cum pomello de ebore subtus indentatus ebore et cornu: ... capa et mantella puerorum ad festum Innocentum et Stultorum sunt xxviij debiles et contritae.’

[1140] Sarum Inventory of 1222 in W. H. R. Jones, Vetus Registr. Sarisb. (R. S.), ii. 135 ‘Item baculi ii ad “Festum Folorum.”’

[1141] N^o. 27 in the list given for ch. x. Father Christmas says ‘Here comes in “The Feast of Fools.”’

[1142] Cf. the further account of these post-Nativity feasts in ch. xv.

[1143] The C. of Paris in 1212 (p. 279) forbids the Feast of Fools in religious houses. But that in the Franciscan convent at Antibes is the only actual instance I have come across.

[1144] There were canonici presbiteri, diaconi, subdiaconi and even pueri at Salisbury (W. H. Frere, Use of Sarum, i. 51).

[1145] On the nature and growth of vicars choral, cf. Cutts, 341; W. H. Frere, Use of Sarum, i. xvii; Lincoln Statutes, passim; A. R. Maddison, Vicars Choral of Lincoln (1878); H. E. Reynolds, Wells Cathedral, xxix, cvii, clxx. Vicars choral make their appearance in the eleventh century as choir substitutes for non-resident canons. At Lincoln they got benefactions from about 1190, and in the thirteenth century formed a regularly organized communitas. The vicarii were often at the same time capellani or chantry-priests. On chantries see Cutts, 438.

[1146] The Lincoln vicars chose two Provosts yearly (Maddison, op. cit.); the Wells vicars two Principals (Reynolds, op. cit. clxxi).

[1147] Reynolds, op. cit., gives numerous and interesting notices of chapter discipline from the Wells Liber Ruber.

[1148] In Leber, ix. 379, 407, is described a curious way of raising funds for choir suppers, known at Auxerre and in Auvergne, and not quite extinct in the eighteenth century. It has a certain analogy to the Deposuit. From Christmas to Epiphany the Psalm Memento was sung at Vespers, and the anthem De fructu ventris inserted in it. When this began the ruler of the choir advanced and presented a bouquet to some canon or bourgeois as a sign that the choir would sup with him. This was called ‘annonce en forme d’antienne,’ and the suppers defructus. The C. of Narbonne (1551), c. 47, forbade ‘parochis ... ne ... ad commessationes quas defructus appellant, ullo modo parochianos suos admittant, nec permittant quempiam canere ut dicunt: Memento, Domine, David sans truffe, &c. Nec alia huiusmodi ridenda, quae in contemptum divini officii ac in dedecus et probrum totius cleri et fiunt et cantantur.’

[1149] When, however, Ducange says that the feast was not called Subdiaconorum, because the sub-deacons held it, but rather as being ‘ebriorum Clericorum seu Diaconorum: id enim evincit vox Soudiacres, id est, ad litteram, Saturi Diaconi, quasi Diacres Saouls,’ we must take it for a ‘sole joke of Thucydides.’ I believe there is also a joke somewhere in Liddell and Scott.

[1150] Cf. p. 60; Gautier, Les Tropaires, i. 186; and C. of Treves in 1227 (J. F. Schannat, Conc. Germ. iii. 532) ‘praecipimus ut omnes Sacerdotes non permittant trutannos et alios vagos scolares aut goliardos cantare versus super Sanctus et Agnus Dei.’

[1151] The ‘abbot’ appears to have been sometimes charged with choir discipline throughout the year, and at Vienne and Viviers exists side by side with another dominus festi. Similarly at St. Omer there was a ‘dean’ as well as a ‘bishop.’ The vicars of Lincoln and Wells also chose two officers.

[1152] I suppose that ‘portetur in rost’ at Vienne means that the victims were roasted like the fags in Tom Brown.

[1153] Ducange, s. v. Kalendae.

[1154] Gibbon-Bury, v. 201. The Byzantine authorities are Genesius, iv. p. 49 B (Corp. Hist. Byz. xi. 2. 102); Paphlagon (Migne, P. G. cv. 527); Theophanes Continuatus, iv. 38 (Corp. Hist. Byz. xxii. 200); Symeon Magister, p. 437 D (Corp. Hist. Byz. xxii. 661), on all of whom see Bury, App. I to tom. cit.