[1234] Grenoble: Pilot de Thorey, Usages, Fêtes et Coutumes en Dauphiné, i. 181.

[1235] C. of Cognac (1260), c. 2 (Mansi, xxiii. 1033) ‘cum in balleatione quae in festo SS. Innocentium in quibusdam Ecclesiis fieri inolevit, multae rixae, contentiones et turbationes, tam in divinis officiis quam aliis consueverint provenire, praedictas balleationes ulterius sub intimatione anathematis fieri prohibemus; nec non et Episcopos in praedicto festo creari; cum hoc in ecclesia Dei ridiculum existat, et hoc dignitatis episcopalis ludibrio fiat.’ C. of Salzburg (1274), c. 17 (Labbé, xi. 1004) ‘ludi noxii quos vulgaris elocutio Eptus puor. appellat’; CC. of Chartres (1526 and 1575; Bochellus, Decr. Eccl. Gall. iv. 7. 46; Du Tilliot, 66) ‘stultum aut ridiculum in ecclesia’ on days of SS. Nicholas and Catharine, and the Innocents; C. of Toledo (1565), ii. 21 (Labbé, xv. 764) ‘ficta illa et puerilis episcopatus electio’; C. of Rouen (1581; Hardouin, Concilia, x. 1217) ‘in festivitate SS. Innocentium theatralia.’

[1236] There are traces of it in the eighteenth century at Lyons (Martene, iii. 40) and Rheims (Barthélemy, v. 334); at Sens, in the nineteenth, the choir-boys still play at being bishops on Innocents’ day, and name the ‘archbishop’ âne (Chérest, 81).

[1237] Grenier, 358, quoting Le Vasseur, Epistolae, Cent. ii. Epist. 68; cf. on the Noyon feast, Leach, 135; Du Tilliot, 17; Rigollot, 27; L. Mazière, Noyon religieux, in Comptes-Rendus et Mémoires, xi. 91, of The Comité arch. et hist. de Noyon. Le Vasseur, an ex-Rector of the University of Paris, writes to François Geuffrin ‘ecce ludunt etiam ante ipsas aras; internecionem detestamur, execramur carnificem. Ludunt et placet iste ludus ecclesiae.... Tam grandis est natu ritus iste, quem viguisse deprehendo iam ante quadringentos annos in hac aede, magno totius orbis ordinum et aetatum plausu fructuque.... O miserum saeculum! ... solo gestu externoque habitu spectabiles, sola barba et pallio philosophi, caetera pecudes!’

[1238] Chronicon Montis Sereni in Pertz, Scriptores, xxiii. 144.

[1239] Monum. Boic. xiii. 214, quoted by Specht, 228 ‘in festo nativitatis Dominicae annuatim sibi ludendo constituentes episcopum.’

[1240] Vitus Arnpekius, Chron. Baioariorum, v. 53, cited by Martene, iii. 40.

[1241] Specht, 228.

[1242] Ibid. 225; Creizenach, i. 391; both quoting E. Meyer, Gesch. des hamburgischen Schul-und Unterrichtswesens im Mittelalter, 197 ‘praeterea scholares nunquam, sive in electione sive extra, aliquos rhythmos faciant, tam in latino, quam in teutonico, qui famam alicuius valeant maculare.’ In the thirteenth century a child-abbot was chosen in Hamburg on St. Andrew’s day (Nov. 30). On St. Nicholas’ day (Dec. 6) he gave way to a child-bishop, who remained in office until Dec. 28 (Tille, D. W. 31, citing Beneke, Hamburgische Geschichte und Sagen, 90).

[1243] Specht, 229.

[1244] Ibid. 228.

[1245] Cf. p. 319.

[1246] Tille, D. W. 31.

[1247] Ibid. 299.

[1248] Dürr, 67, quoting a Ritual of the cathedral (‘tempore Alberti’).

[1249] It began:

[1250] Tille, D. W. 31, citing Nork, Festkalender, 783. Dürr’s tract was published at Mainz in 1755.

[1251] Wetzer und Welte, s. v. Feste ‘consuetudo seu potius detestabilis corruptela, qua pueri a die S. Nicolai usque ad festum SS. Innocentium personatum Episcopum colunt ... ea puerilibus levitatibus et ineptiis plena coeperit esse multumque gravitatis et decoris divinis detrahat officiis ... ne clerus se pueris die SS. Inn. submittat ac eorum locum occupet, aut illis functiones aliquas in divinis officiis permittat, neque praesentes aliquis Episcopus benedictiones faciat, aliique pueri in cantandis horariis precibus lectionibus et collectis Sacerdotum, Diaconorum aut Subdiaconorum officia quaedam usurpent; multo minus convenit ut Canonici aut Vicarii ex collegarum suorum numero aliquem designent Episcopum qui reliquos omnes magnis impendiis liberali convivio excipiat.’

[1252] W. H. R. Jones, Vetus Registr. Sarisb. (R. S.), ii. 128; Wordsworth, Proc. 170 ‘Item, annulus unus aureus ad Festum Puerorum.’

[1253] Constitutiones, § 45 (Jones and Dayman, Sarum Statutes, 75; cf. Jones, Fasti, 295) ‘Electus puer chorista in episcopum modo solito puerili officium in ecclesia, prout fieri consuevit, licenter exequatur, convivium aliquod de caetero, vel visitationem exterius seu interius nullatenus faciendo, sed in domo communi cum sociis conversetur, nisi cum ut choristam ad domum canonici causa solatii ad mensam contigerit evocari, ecclesiam et scholas cum caeteris choristis statim post festum Innocentium frequentando. Et quia in processione quam ad altare Sanctae Trinitatis faciunt annuatim pueri supradicti per concurrentium pressuras et alias dissolutiones multiplices nonnulla damna personis et ecclesiae gravia intelleximus priscis temporibus pervenisse, ex parte Dei omnipotentis et sub poena maioris excommunicationis, quam contravenientes utpote libertates dictae ecclesiae nostrae infringentes et illius pacem et quietem temerarie perturbantes declaramus incurrere ipso facto, inhibemus ne quis pueros illos in praefata processione vel alias in suo ministerio premat vel impediat quoquomodo, quominus pacifice valeant facere et exequi quod illis imminet faciendum; sed qui eidem processioni devotionis causa voluerint interesse, ita modo maturo se habeant et honeste sicut et in aliis processionibus dictae ecclesiae se habent qui ad honorem Dei frequentant quando que ecclesiam supradictam.’

[1254] Appendix M.

[1255] Jones, Fasti, 299.

[1256] Wordsworth, Proc. 259. The oblationes vary from lvis. viiid. in 1448 to as much as lxxxixs. xid. in 1456.

[1257] Jones, Fasti, 300; Rimbault, xxviii; Planché, in Journal of Brit. Archaeol. Assoc. xv. 123. Gregory, 93, gives a cut of the statue.

[1258] Ordinale secundum Usum Exon. (ed. H. E. Reynolds), f. 30.

[1259] Archaeologia, l. 446, 472 sqq. (Invent. of 1245) ‘mitra alia alba addubbata aurifrigio, plana est; quam dedit J. Belemains episcopo innocentum.... Mitra episcopi innocentum, nullius precii.... Capa et mantella puerorum ad festum Innocentum et Stultorum [cf. p. 323] sunt xxviij debiles et contritae.’ In 1402 there were two little staves for the Boy Bishop (Simpson, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Old City Life, 40).

[1260] Statutes, bk. i, pars vi. c. 9, De officio puerorum in festo Sanctorum Innocencium (W. S. Simpson, Registrum Statutorum et Consuetudinum Ecclesiae Cathedralis Sancti Pauli Londinensis, 91).

[1261] ‘Memorandum, quod Anno Domini Millesimo cc lxiij. tempore G. de fferring, Decani, ordinatum fuit de officio Puerorum die Sanctorum Innocencium, prout sequitur. Provida fuit ab antiquis patribus predecessoribus nostris deliberacione statutum, ut in sollennitate Sanctorum Innocencium, qui pro Innocente Christo sanguinem suum fuderunt, innocens puer Presulatus officio fungeretur, ut sic puer pueris preesset, et innocens innocentibus imperaret, illius tipum tenens in Ecclesia, quem sequuntur iuvenes, quocumque ierit. Cum igitur quod ad laudem lactencium fuit adinventum, conversum sit in dedecus, et in derisum decoris Domus Dei, propter insolenciam effrenatae multitudinis subsequentis eundem, et affluentis improborum turbae pacem Praesulis exturbantis, statuendum duximus ut praedicti pueri, tam in eligendo suo Pontifice et personis dignitatum Decani, Archidiaconorum, et aliorum, necnon et Stacionariorum, antiquum suum ritum observent, tabulam suam faciant, et legant in Capitulo. Hoc tamen adhibito moderamine, ut nullum decetero de Canonicis Maioribus vel Minoribus ad candelabra, vel turribulum, vel ad aliqua obsequia eiusdem Ecclesiae, vel ipsius Pontificis deputent in futurum, set suos eligant ministeriales de illis qui sunt in secunda forma vel in tercia. Processionem suam habeant honestam, tam in incessu, quam habitu et cantu, competenti; ita vero se gerant in omnibus in Ecclesia, quod clerus et populus illos habeant recommendatos.’

[1262] ‘Die vero solemnitatis post prandium ad mandatum personae Decani convenient omnes in atrio Ecclesiae, ibidem equos ascendant ituri ad populum benedicendum. Tenetur autem Decanus Presuli presentare equum, et quilibet Stacionarius sua personae in equo providere.’

[1263] Statutes, bk. i, pars vii. c. 6 (Simpson, op. cit. 129), a statute made in the time of Dean Ralph de Diceto (1181-†1204) ‘Debet eciam novus Residenciarius post cenam die Sanctorum Innocencium ducere puerum suum cum daunsa et chorea et torchiis ad Elemosinariam, et ibi cum torticiis potum et species singulis ministrare, et liberatam vini cervisiae et specierum et candellarum facere, et ibidem ministri sui expectare, quousque alius puer Canonici senioris veniat. Et secundam cenam in octavis Innocencium tenebit, Episcopum cum pueris et eorum comitiva pascendo, et in recessu dona dando, et, si diu expectat adventum illorum nocte illa, ad matutinos non teneatur venire.’

[1264] Rimbault, xxxii.

[1265] Printed in Rimbault, 1. Duff, Handlists, ii. 5, notes also a Sermo pro episcopo puerorum by J. Alcock, printed in the fifteenth century by R. Pynson.

[1266] Concio de puero Iesu pronunciata a puero in nova schola Iohannis Coleti per eum instituta Londini in qua praesidet imago Pueri Iesu docentis specie (Erasmi Opera (1704), v. 599). The English version was printed by W. Redman (Lupton, Life of Colet, 176). It is not clear that this Concio was preached by a boy bishop, for Colet’s school (cf. next note) attended the ‘bishop’ of St. Paul’s song-school.

[1267] Lupton, op. cit. 175 ‘Alle these Chyldren shall every Chyldremasse day come to paulis Church and here the Chylde Bisshoppis sermon, and after be at the hye masse, and eche of them offre a 1^d. to the Childe Bisshopp; and with theme the Maisters and surveyours of the scole.’

[1268] Lincoln Statutes, ii. 98 ‘Inveniet [thesaurarius] Stellas cum omnibus ad illas pertinentibus, preter cirpos, quos inveniet Episcopus Puerorum futurorum [?fatuorum], vnam in nocte Natalis Domini pro pastoribus et ·ij^as in nocte Epiphanie, si debeat fieri presentacio ·iij^um regum.’

[1269] Warton, iv. 224 ‘Ioannes de Quixly confirmatur Episcopus Puerorum, et Capitulum ordinavit, quod electio Episcopi Puerorum in ecclesia Eboracensi de cetero fieret de eo, qui diutius et magis in dicta ecclesia laboraverit, et magis idoneus repertus fuerit, dum tamen competenter sit corpore formosus, et quod aliter facta electio non valebit.’

[1270] Warton, iv. 237 ‘nisi habuerit claram vocem puerilem.’

[1271] Warton, iv. 224.

[1272] Appendix M. Cf. Rimbault, xi, for further elucidations of the Computus.

[1273] Percy, North. H. B. 340.

[1274] York Missal, i. 23. The rubric at the beginning of Mass is ‘Omnibus pueris in Capis, Praecentor illorum incipiat.’ There are some responds for the ‘Praecentor’ and the ‘turba puerorum.’ After the Kyrie, ‘omnibus pueris in medio Chori stantibus et ibi omnia cantantibus, Episcopo eorum interim in cathedra sedente; et si Dominica fuerit, dicitur ab Episcopo stante in cathedra Gloria in excelsis Deo: aliter non.’ The Sequentia for the day is

[1275] Rimbault, xvi. The dates are between 1416 and 1537.

[1276] Raine, Fabric Rolls of York Minster (Surtees Soc.), 213 sqq. (†1500, the additions in brackets being †1510) ‘una mitra parva cum petris pro episcopo puerorum ... [unus annulus pro episcopo puerorum et duo owchys, unus in medio ad modum crucis cum lapidibus in circumferenciis cum alio parvo cum uno lapide in medio vocato turchas].... Capae Rubiae.... Una capa de tyssue pro Episcopo puerili ... [duae capae veteres olim pro Episcopo puerorum].’ Leach, 132, says ‘At York, in 1321, the Master of the Works gave “a gold ring with a great stone for the Bishop of the Innocents.” In 1491 the Boy Bishop’s pontifical was mended with silver-gilt.’

[1277] Lincoln Statutes, i. 290 (Black Book, †1300); ii. ccxxxi.

[1278] Archaeologia, liii. 25, 50; Monasticon, viii. 1282 ‘Item, a coope of Rede velvett w^t Rolles & clowdes ordenyd for the barne busshop w^t this scriptur “the hye wey ys best”.’ The entry is repeated in a later inventory of 1548.

[1279] Hereford, Consuetudines of thirteenth century (Lincoln Statutes, ii. 67) ‘Thesaurarius debet invenire ... in festo Innocencium pueris candelas et ·ij^os cereos coram parvo Episcopo.’

[1280] Lichfield—J. C. Cox, Sports in Churches, in W. Andrews, Curious Church Customs, 3, quoting inventories of 1345 and of the fifteenth century. The latter uses the term ‘Nicholas Bishop.’

[1281] Gloucester—Rimbault, 14, prints from Cotton MSS. Vesp. A. xxv, f. 173, a Sermon of the Child Bishop, Pronownysed by John Stubs, Querester, on Childermas Day, at Gloceter, 1558.

[1282] Norwich—a fourteenth-century antiphonal of Sarum Use, probably of Norwich provenance (Lansd. MS. 463, f. 16^v), provides for the giving of the baculus to the Episcopus Puerorum at Vespers on St. John’s Day.

[1283] Beverley—the fifth earl of Northumberland about 1522 gave xxs. at Christmas to the ‘Barne Bishop’ of Beverley, as well as to him of York (Percy, North. H. B. 340); cf. p. 357.

[1284] Wordsworth, Proc. 52; cf. Appendix M (1).

[1285] Ottery—Statutes of Bishop Grandisson (1337), quoted by Warton, ii. 229 ‘Item statuimus, quod nullus canonicus, vicarius, vel secundarius, pueros choristas in festo sanctorum Innocentium extra parochiam de Otery trahant, aut eis licentiam vagandi concedant.’

[1286] Magdalen—see Appendix E.

[1287] All Souls—An inventory has ‘j chem. j cap et mitra pro Episcopo Nicholao’ (Rock, iii. 2. 217).

[1288] In 1299 Edward I heard vespers said ‘de Sancto Nicholao ... in Capella sua apud Heton iuxta Novum Castrum super Tynam’ (Wardrobe Account, ed. Soc. of Antiq., 25). In 1306 a Boy Bishop officiated before Edward II on St. Nicholas’ Day in the king’s chapel at Scroby (Wardrobe Account in Archaeologia, xxvi. 342). In 1339 Edward III gave a gift ‘Episcopo puerorum ecclesiae de Andeworp cantanti coram domino rege in camera sua in festo sanctorum Innocentium’ (Warton, ii. 229). There was a yearly payment of £1 to the Boy Bishop at St. Stephen’s, Westminster, in 1382 (Devon, Issues of Exchequer, 222), and about 1528-32 (Brewer, iv. 1939).

[1289] The fifth earl of Northumberland (†1512) was wont to ‘gyfe yerly upon Saynt Nicolas-Even if he kepe Chapell for Saynt Nicolas to the Master of his Childeren of his Chapell for one of the Childeren of his Chapell yerely vj^s. viij^d. And if Saynt Nicolas com owt of the Towne wher my Lord lyeth and my Lord kepe no Chapell than to have yerely iij^s. iiij^d.’ (Percy, North. H. B. 343). An elaborate Contenta de Ornamentis Ep., puer., of uncertain provenance, is printed by Percy, op. cit. 439.

[1290] St. Mary at Hill (Brand, i. 233); St. Mary de Prees (Monasticon, iii. 360); St. Peter Cheap (Journal of Brit. Arch. Ass. xxiv. 156); Hospital of St. Katharine by the Tower (Reliquary, iv. 153); Lambeth (Lysons, Environs of London, i. 310); cf. p. 367.

[1291] Louth (E. Hewlett, Boy Bishops, in W. Andrews, Curious Church Gleanings, 241)—the payments for the Chyld Bishop include some for ‘making his See’ (sedes); Nottingham (Archaeologia, xxvi. 342); Sandwich (Boys, Hist. of S. 376); New Romney (Hist. MSS. v. 517-28), Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Somersetshire (J. C. Cox, Sports in Churches, in W. Andrews, Curious Church Customs); Bristol—L. T. Smith, Ricart’s Kalendar, 80 (1479-1506, Camden Soc.). On Nov. 24, the Mayor, Sheriff, and ‘worshipfull men’ are to ‘receyue at theire dores Seynt Kateryn’s pleyers, making them to drynk at their dores and rewardyng theym for theire playes.’ On Dec. 5 they are ‘to walke to Seynt Nicholas churche, there to hire theire even-song: and on the morowe to hire theire masse, and offre, and hire the bishop’s sermon, and have his blissyng.’ After dinner they are to play dice at the mayor’s counter, ‘and when the Bishope is come thedir, his chapell there to synge, and the bishope to geve them his blissyng, and then he and all his chapell to be serued there with brede and wyne.’ And so to even-song in St. Nicholas’ church.

[1292] L. T. Accounts, i. ccxlvi record annual payments by James IV (†1473-98) to Boy Bishops from Holyrood Abbey and St. Giles’s, Edinburgh.

[1293] Wilkins, ii. 38 ‘Puerilia autem solemnia, quae in festo solent fieri Innocentum post vesperas S. Iohannis, tantum inchoari permittimus, et in crastino in ipsa die Innocentum totaliter terminentur.’

[1294] Archaeologia, lii. 221 sqq.

[1295] Transactions of London and Middlesex Arch. Soc. vols. iv, v.

[1296] Athenæum (1900), ii. 655, 692 ‘data Pueris de Elemosinaria ludentibus coram Domino apud Westmonasterium, iij^s. iiij^d.’ Dr. E. J. L. Scott and Dr. Rutherford found in this entry a proof of the existence of the Westminster Latin play at ‘a period anterior to the foundation of Eton’!

[1297] Rimbault, xviii; Finchale Priory (Surtees Soc.), ccccxxviii; Durham Accounts (Surtees Soc.), iii. xliii, and passim.

[1298] Hist. MSS. xiv. 8. 124, 157.

[1299] Computi of Cellarer (Warton, ii. 232, iii. 300) ‘1397, pro epulis Pueri celebrantis in festo S. Nicholai ... 1490, in larvis et aliis indumentis Puerorum visentium Dominum apud Wulsey, et Constabularium Castri Winton, in apparatu suo, necnon subintrantium omnia monasteria civitatis Winton, in festo sancti Nicholai.’

[1300] G. W. Kitchin, Computus Rolls of St. Swithin’s (Hampshire Rec. Soc.), passim; G. W. Kitchin and F. T. Madge, Winchester Chapter Documents (H. R. Soc.), 24.

[1301] Warton, ii. 231 ‘1441, pro pueris Eleemosynariae una cum pueris Capellae sanctae Elizabethae, ornatis more puellarum, et saltantibus, cantantibus, et ludentibus, coram domina Abbatissa et monialibus Abbathiae beatae Mariae virginis, in aula ibidem in die sanctorum Innocentium.’

[1302] Harpsfield, Hist. Eccl. Angl. (1622), 441, citing Peckham’s Register. He says the mandate was in French.

[1303] Visitations of Diocese of Norwich (Camden Soc.), 209 ‘Domina Iohanna Botulphe dicit ... quod ... habent in festo Natalis Domini iuniorem monialem in abbatissam assumptam, vocandi [? iocandi] gratia; cuius occasione ipsa consumere et dissipare cogitur quae vel elemosina vel aliorum amicorum largitione acquisierit ... Iniunctum est ... quod de cetero non observetur assumptio abbatissae vocandi causa.’

[1304] Gregory of Tours, x. 16 (M. G. H. Script. Rerum Meroving. i. 427), mentions among the complaints laid before the visitors of the convent of St. Radegund in Poitou, that the abbess ‘vittam de auro exornatam idem neptae suae superflue fecerit, barbaturias intus eo quod celebraverit.’ Ducange, s. v. Barbatoriae, finds here a reference to some kind of masquing, and Peter of Blois, Epist. 14, certainly uses barbatores as a synonym for mimi. The M. G. H. editors of Gregory, however, explain ‘barbatoria’ as ‘primam barbam ponere’ the sense borne by the term in Petronius, Sat. lxxiii. 6. The abbess’s niece had probably no beard, but may not the reference be to the cutting of the hair of a novice when she takes the vows?

[1305] Ducange, s. v. Kalendae (‘de monialibus Villae-Arcelli’), ‘Item inhibemus ne de caetero in festis Innocentum et B. M. Magdalenae ludibria exerceatis consueta, induendo vos scilicet vestibus saecularium aut inter vos seu cum secularibus choreas ducendo’; and again ‘in festo S. Iohannis et Innocentium mimia iocositate et scurrilibus cantibus utebantur, ut pote farsis, conductis, motulis; praecepimus quod honestius et cum maiori devotione alias se haberent’; Gasté, 36 (on Caen) ‘iuniores in festo Innocentium cantant lectiones suas cum farsis. Hoc inhibuimus.’ In 1423, the real abbess gave place to the little abbess at the Deposuit. Gasté, 44, describes a survival of the election of an ‘abbess’ from amongst the pensionnaires on the days of St. Catherine and the Innocents in the Abbaye aux Bois, Faubourg St. Germain, from the Mémoires of Hélène Massalska. This was about 1773.

[1306] Howlett, Monumenta Franciscana (R. S.), ii. 93 ‘Caveant fratres in festo Sancti Nicolai seu Innocentium, vel quibuscunque aliis festis vestes extraneas religiosas seu seculares aut clericales vel muliebres sub specie devotionis induere; nec habitus fratrum secularibus pro ludis faciendis accommodentur sub poena amotionis confusibilis de conventu.’

[1307] Denifle, i. 532. It was forbidden ‘in eisdem festis vel aliis paramenta nec coreas duci in vico de die nec de nocte cum torticiis vel sine.’ But it was on Innocents’ Day that the béjaunes or ‘freshmen’ of the Sorbonne were subjected to rites bearing a close analogy to the feast of fools; cf. Rigollot, 172 ‘1476 ... condemnatus fuit in crastino Innocentium capellanus abbas beiannorum ad octo solidos parisienses, eo quod non explevisset officium suum die Innocentium post prandium, in mundationem beiannorum per aspersionem aquae ut moris est, quanquam solemniter incoepisset exercere suum officium ante prandium inducendo beiannos per vicum super asinum.’

[1308] Denifle, iii. 166.

[1309] ‘Verbis nedum gallicis sed eciam latinis, ut ipsi qui de partibus alienis oriundi linguam gallicam nequaquam intelligebant plenarie.’

[1310] S. F. Hulton, Rixae Oxonienses, 68. There had been many earlier brawls.

[1311] Statute xxix (T. F. Kirby, Annals of Winchester College, 503) ‘Permittimus tamen quod in festo Innocencium pueri vesperas matutinas et alia divina officia legenda et cantanda dicere et exsequi valeant secundum usum et consuetudinem ecclesiae Sarum.’ The same formula is used in New College Statute xlii (Statutes of the Colleges of Oxford, vol. i).

[1312] Cf. Appendix E. Kirby, op. cit. 90, quotes an inventory of 1406 ‘Baculus pastoralis de cupro deaurato pro Epõ puerorum in die Innocencium ... Mitra de panno aureo ex dono Dñi. Fundatoris hernesiat (mounted) cum argento deaurato ex dono unius socii coll. [Robert Heete] pro Epõ puerorum.’

[1313] The Charter of King’s College (1443), c. 42 (Documents relating to the Univ. of Camb. ii. 569; Heywood and Wright, Ancient Laws of the Fifteenth Century for King’s Coll. Camb. and Eton Coll. 112), closely follows Wykeham’s formula: ‘excepto festo S^ti Nicholai praedicto, in quo festo et nullatenus in festo Innocentium, permittimus quod pueri ... secundum usum in dicto Regali Collegio hactenus usitatum.’ The Eton formula (c. 31) in 1444 is slightly different (Heywood and Wright op. cit. 560) ‘excepto in festo Sancti Nicholai, in quo, et nullatenus in festo Sanctorum Innocentium, divina officia praeter missae secreta exequi et dici permittimus per episcopum puerorum scholarium, ad hoc de eisdem annis singulis eligendum.’

[1314] Warton, ii. 228; Leach, 133. The passage from the Consuetudinarium is given from Harl. MS. 7044 f. 167 (apparently a transcript from a C. C. C. C. MS.) by Heywood and Wright, op. cit. 632; E. S. Creasy, Eminent Etonians, 91 ‘in die S^ti Hugonis pontificis solebat Aetonae fieri electio Episcopi Nihilensis, sed consuetudo obsolevit. Olim episcopus ille puerorum habebatur nobilis, in cuius electione et literata et laudatissima exercitatio, ad ingeniorum vires et motus excitandos, Aetonae celebris erat.’

[1315] Eton Audit Book, 1507-8, quoted by H. C. Maxwell-Lyte, Hist. of Eton (ed. 1899), 149 ‘Pro reparatione le rochet pro episcopo puerorum, xj^d.’ An inventory of Henry VIII’s reign says that this rochet was given by James Denton (K. S. 1486) for use at St. Nicholas’ time.

[1316] Maxwell-Lyte, op. cit. 450.

[1317] Hearne, Liber Niger Scaccarii, 674 ‘Item, unam Mitram de Cloth of goold habentem 2 knoppes arḡ. enameld, dat. ad occupand. per Barnebishop.’

[1318] John Stone, a monk of Canterbury, records in his De Obitibus et aliis Memorabilibus sui Coenobii (MS. C. C. C. C., Q. 8, quoted Warton, ii. 230) ‘Hoc anno, 1464, in festo Sancti Nicolai non erat episcopus puerorum in schola grammatica in civitate Cantuariae ex defectu Magistrorum, viz. I. Sidney et T. Hikson.’

[1319] J. Stuart, Extracts from Council Registers of Aberdeen (Spalding Club), i. 186. The council ordered on Nov. 27, 1542, ‘that the maister of thair grammar scuyll sell haf iiij^s Scottis, of the sobirest persoun that resauis him and the bischop at Sanct Nicolace day.’ This is to be held a legal fee, ‘he hes na uder fee to leif on.’

[1320] Wilkins, Concilia, iii. 860 ‘And whereas heretofore dyverse and many superstitious and childysshe observations have been usid, and yet to this day are observed and kept in many and sondry parties of this realm, as upon sainte Nicolas, sainte Catheryne, sainte Clement, the holye Innocentes, and such like; children be strangelye decked and apparelid to counterfaite priestes, bysshopps, and women; and so ledde with songes and daunces from house to house, bleasing the people, and gatherynge of monye; and boyes doo singe masse, and preache in the pulpitt, with suche other unfittinge and inconvenyent usages, rather to the derision than to any true glory of God, or honour of his saints; the kyng’s majestie therefore mynding nothing so moche, as to avaunce the true glorye of God without vayne superstition, willith and commaundeth, that from henceforth all suche superstitions be loste and clyerlye extinguisshed throughowte all this his realmes and dominions, forasmoche as the same doo resemble rather the unlawfull superstition of gentilitie, than the pure and sincere religion of Christe.’ Brand, i. 236, suggests that there was an earlier proclamation of July 22, 1540, to the same effect. Johan Bale in his Yet a Course at the Romyshe Foxe (1542), says that if Bonner’s censure of those who lay aside certain ‘auncyent rytes’ is justified, ‘then ought my Lorde also to suffer the same selfe ponnyshment, for not goynge abought with Saynt Nycolas clarkes.’ Thomas Becon, Catechism, 320 (ed. Parker Soc.), compares a bishop who does not preach, a ‘dumb dog,’ to a ‘Nicholas bishop.’ The Articles put to bishop Gardiner in 1550 required him to declare ‘that the counterfeiting St. Nicholas, St. Clement, St. Catherine and St. Edmund, by children, heretofore brought into the church, was a mockery and foolishness’ (Froude, iv. 550).

[1321] Machyn’s Diary, 75 ‘The xij day of November [1554] was commondyd by the bysshope of London to all clarkes in the dyoses of London for to have Sant Necolas and to go a-brod, as mony as wold have ytt ... [the v day of December, the which was Saint Nicholas’ eve, at even-song time, came a commandment that St. Nicholas should not go abroad, nor about. But, notwithstanding, there went about these Saint Nicholases in divers parishes, as St. Andrew’s, Holborn, and St.] Nicolas Olyffe in Bredstret.’ Warton, iv. 237, says that during Mary’s reign Hugh Rhodes, a gentleman or musician of the Chapel royal, printed in black letter quarto a poem of thirty-six octave stanzas, entitled The Song of the Chyldbysshop, as it was songe before the queenes maiestie in her privie chamber at her manour of saynt James in the Feeldes on Saynt Nicholas day and Innocents day this yeare nowe present, by the chylde bysshope of Poules churche with his company.’ Warton apparently saw the poem, for he describes it as ‘a fulsome panegyric on the queen’s devotion, in which she is compared to Judith, Esther, the Queen of Sheba, and the Virgin Mary,’ but no copy of it is now known; cf. F. J. Furnivall, The Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), lxxxv.

[1322] Machyn’s Diary, 121 ‘The v day of Desember [1556] was Sant Necolas evyn, and Sant Necolas whentt a-brod in most partt in London syngyng after the old fassyon, and was reseyvyd with mony good pepulle in-to ther howses, and had myche good chere as ever they had, in mony plasses.’ Foxe, Acts and Monuments, viii. 726, celebrates the wit of a ‘godly matron,’ Mrs. Gertrude Crockhay, who shut ‘the foolish popish Saint Nicholas’ out of her house in this year, and told her brother-in-law, Dr. Mallet, when he remonstrated, that she had heard of men robbed by ‘Saint Nicholas’s clerks.’ This was a slang term for thieves, of whom, as of children, St. Nicholas was the patron; for the reason of which cf. Golden Legend, ii. 119. Another procession forbidden by the proclamation of 1541 was also revived in 1556; cf. Machyn’s Diary, 119 ‘[The xxiv day of November, being the eve of Saint Katharine, at six of the clock at night] sant Katheryn(’s) lyght [went about the battlements of Saint Paul’s with singing,] and Sant Katheryn gohying a prossessyon.’