festival in its present form can only date from the reign of James I,
but the Pope used to be burned in bonfires as early as 1570 upon the
accession day of Elizabeth, Nov. 17 (Dyer, 422).
[889] Dyer, 389 (Sussex).
[890] Brand, i. 210, 215 (Buchan, Perthshire, Aberdeenshire, North
Wales).
[891] Pfannenschmidt, 207; Jahn, 240.
[892] Ashton, 47 (Isle of Man, where the day is called ‘Fingan’s Eve’).
[893] Jahn, 253.
[894] _F. L._ xii. 349; W. Gregor, _Brit. Ass. Rept._ (1896), 620
(Minnigaff, Galloway; bones being saved up for this fire); Gomme,
_Brit. Ass. Rept._ (1896), 633 (Biggar, Lanarkshire).
[895] Brand, i. 14; Dyer, 22 (Gloucestershire, Herefordshire). Twelve
small fires and one large one are made out in the wheat-fields.
[896] Dyer, 507; Ashton, 218; Simpson, 205; Gomme, _Brit. Ass. Rept._
(1896), 631; _F. L. J._ vii. 12; _Trans. Soc. Antiq. Scot._ x. 649.
[897] Simpson, 205, quoting Gordon Cumming, _From the Hebrides to the
Himalayas_, i. 245.
[898] Bede, _D. T. R._ c. 17: cf. the A.-S. passage quoted by
Pfannenschmidt, 495; Jahn, 252. Other Germanic names for the winter
months are ‘Schlachtmonat,’ ‘Gormânaða’: cf. Weinhold, _Die deutschen
Monatsnamen_, 54.
[899] Jahn, 229; Tille, _Y. and C._ 28, 65; Pfannenschmidt, 206, 217,
228.
[900] Dyer, 456, 470, 474, 477; Ashton, 171; Karl Blind, _The Boar’s
Head Dinner at Oxford and an Old Teutonic Sun-God_, in _Saga Book_ of
Viking Club for 1895.
[901] Dyer, 473.
[902] Hampson, i. 82.
[903] Gummere, _G. O._ 433.
[904] Tacitus, _Germ._ 45, of the Aestii, ‘matrem deum venerantur.
insigne superstitionis formas aprorum gestant: id pro armis omnique
tutela securum deae cultorem etiam inter hostis praestat.’
[905] Dyer, 439.
[906] Dyer, 492; Ashton, 204; Grimm, iv. 1816.
[907] Dyer, 481; N. W. Thomas, in _F. L._ xi. 250. Cf. ch. xvii for the
hunt of a cat and a fox at the ‘grand Christmas’ of the Inner Temple.
[908] Dyer, 494, 497; Frazer, ii. 442; Northall, 229.
[909] Ashton, 114 (Reculver); Dyer, 472 (Ramsgate); Ditchfield, 27
(Walmer), 28 (Cheshire: All Souls’ day).
[910] Dyer, 486.
[911] Ditchfield, 28.
[912] Bertrand, 314; Arbois de Jubainville, _Cycl. myth._ 385; Rhys,
_C. H._ 77.
[913] Tille, _D. W._ 109.
[914] C. de Berger (1723), _Commentatio de personis vulgo larvis
seu mascharis_, 218 ‘Vecolo aut cervolo facere; hoc est sub forma
vitulae aut cervuli per plateas discurrere, ut apud nos in festis
Bacchanalibus vulgo dicitur _correr la tora_’; J. Ihre (†1769), _Gloss.
Suio-Gothicum_, s. v. Jul. ‘Julbock est ludicrum, quo tempore hoc
pellem et formam arietis induunt adolescentuli et ita adstantibus
incursant. Credo idem hoc esse quod exteri scriptores cervulum
appellant.’ In the _Life of Bishop Arni_ (nat. 1237) it is recorded
how in his youth he once joined in a _scinnleic_ or ‘hide-play’ (_C.
P. B._ ii. 385). Frazer, ii. 447, describes the New Year custom of
_colluinn_ in Scotland and St. Kilda. A man clad in a cowhide is driven
_deasil_ round each house to bless it. Bits of hide are also burnt for
amulets. Probably the favourite Christmas game of Blind Man’s Buff was
originally a _scinnleic_ (N. W. Thomas, in _F. L._ xi. 262).
[915] Brand, i. 210, 217; Jackson and Burne, 381, 392, 407; Ashton,
178; Jahn, 487, 500; Müller, 487, 500. Scandinavian countries bake
the Christmas ‘Yule-boar.’ Often this is made from the last sheaf and
the crumbs mixed with the seed-corn (Frazer, ii. 29). Germany has its
_Martinshörner_ (Jahn, 250; Pfannenschmidt, 215).
[916] Dyer, 501; Ashton, 214.
[917] Brand, i. 19; Dyer, 21, 447; Ashton, 86, 233. Brand, i. 210,
describes a Hallow-e’en custom in the Isle of Lewis of pouring a cup of
ale in the sea to ‘Shony,’ a sea god.
[918] Brand, i. 14; Dyer, 22, 448; Northall, 187. A cake with a hole in
the middle is hung on the horn of the leading ox.
[919] Grimm, iv. 1808. Hens are fed on New Year’s day with mixed corn
to make them lay well.
[920] Gregory, _Posthuma_, 113 ‘It hath been a Custom, and yet is
elsewhere, to whip up the Children upon Innocents-Day morning, that
the memory of this Murther might stick the closer, and in a moderate
proportion to act over the cruelty again in kind.’ In Germany, adults
are beaten (Grimm, iv. 1820). In mediaeval France ‘innocenter,’ ‘donner
les innocents,’ was a custom exactly parallel to the Easter _prisio_
(Rigollot, 138, 173).
[921] Dyer, 24; Cortet, 32; Frazer, iii. 143; Deslyons, _Traités contre
le Paganisme du Roi boit_ (2nd ed. 1670). The accounts of Edward II
record a gift to the _rex fabae_ on January 1, 1316 (_Archaeologia_,
xxvi. 342). Payments to the ‘King of Bene’ and ‘for furnissing his
graith’ were made by James IV of Scotland between 1490 and 1503 (_L.
H. T. Accounts_, 1. ccxliii; 11. xxiv, xxxi, &c.). The familiar mode
of choosing the king is thus described at Mont St. Michel ‘In vigilia
Epyphaniae ad prandium habeant fratres gastellos et ponatur faba in
uno; et frater qui inveniet fabam, vocabitur rex et sedebit ad magnam
mensam, et scilicet sedebit ad vesperas ad matutinam et ad magnam
missam in cathedra parata’ (Gasté, 53). The pre-eminence of the bean,
largest of cereals, in the mixed cereal cake (cf. ch. vi) presents no
great difficulty; on the religious significance attached to it in South
Europe, cf. W. W. Fowler, 94, 110, 130. Lady Jane Grey was scornfully
dubbed a Twelfth-day queen by Noailles (Froude, v. 206), just as the
Bruce’s wife held her lord a summer king (ch. viii).
[922] _Accts. of St. Michael’s, Bath_, s. ann. 1487, 1490, 1492
(_Somerset Arch. Soc. Trans._ 1878, 1879, 1883). One entry is ‘pro
corona conducta Regi Attumnali.’ The learned editor explains this as ‘a
quest conducted by the King’s Attorney’!
[923] Ashton, 119; Dyer, 388, 423, 427.
[924] Brand, i. 261, prints from Leland, _Itinerary_ (ed. 1769), iv.
182, a description of the proclamation of Youle by the sheriffs at the
‘Youle-Girth’ and throughout the city. In Davies, 270, is a letter from
Archbp. Grindal and other ecclesiastical commissioners to the Lord
Mayor, dated November 13, 1572, blaming ‘a very rude and barbarouse
custome maynteyned in this citie and in no other citie or towne of
this realme to our knowledge, that yerely upon St. Thomas day before
Christmas twoo disguysed persons, called Yule and Yule’s wife, shoulde
ryde throughe the citie very undecently and uncomely....’ Hereupon the
council suppressed the riding. Drake, _Eboracum_ (1736), 217, says that
originally a friar rode backwards and ‘painted like a Jew.’ He gives an
historical legend to account for the origin of the custom. Religious
interludes were played on the same day: cf. _Representations_. The
‘Yule’ of York was perhaps less a ‘king’ than a symbolical personage
like the modern ‘Old Father Christmas.’
[925] Ramsay, _Y. and L._ ii. 52; Blomefield, _Hist. of Norfolk_,
iii. 149. The riot was against the Abbot of St. Benet’s Holm, and the
monks declared that one John Gladman was set up as a king, an act of
treason against Henry VI. The city was fined 1,000 marks. In 1448 they
set forth their wrongs in a ‘Bill’ and explained that Gladman ‘who
was ever, and at thys our is, a man of sad disposition, and trewe and
feythfull to God and to the Kyng, of disporte as hath ben acustomed
in ony cite or burgh thorowe alle this realme, on Tuesday in the last
ende of Cristemesse, viz. Fastyngonge Tuesday, made a disport with
hys neyghbours, havyng his hors trappyd with tynnsoyle and other nyse
disgisy things, coronned as kyng of Crestemesse, in tokyn that seson
should end with the twelve monethes of the yere, aforn hym yche moneth
disguysed after the seson requiryd, and Lenton clad in whyte and red
heryngs skinns, and his hors trapped with oystyr-shells after him, in
token that sadnesse shuld folowe, and an holy tyme, and so rode in
diverse stretis of the cite, with other people, with hym disguysed
makyng myrth, disportes and plays.’
[926] Jevons, _Plutarch’s Romane Questions_, 86. The Ides (Jan. 9) must
have practically been included in the Kalends festival. The Agonium,
probably a sacrifice to Janus, was on that day (W. W. Fowler, 282).
[927] Appendix N, Nos. ix, xi, xiv, xvii, xviii, xxviii, xxxvi.
[928] G. L. Gomme, in _Brit. Ass. Rep._ (1896), 616 sqq.; Tille, _D.
W._ 11, _Y. and C._ 90; Jahn, 253; Dyer, 446, 466; Ashton, 76, 219;
Grimm, iv. 1793, 1798, 1812, 1826, 1839, 1841; Bertrand, 111, 404;
Müller, 478.
[929] Tille, _Y. and C._ 95.
[930] Dyer, 456; Ashton, 125, 188. A Lombard _Capitulary_ (App. N,
No. xxxviii) forbids a Christmas candle to be burnt beneath the
kneading-trough.
[931] Müller, 236; Dyer, 430; Ashton, 54; Rigollot, 173; _Records of
Aberdeen_ (Spalding Club), ii. 39, 45, 66. In Belgium the household
keys are entrusted to the youngest child on Innocents’ day (Durr, 73).
[932] Saupe, 9; Tille, _Y. and C._ 118; Duchesne, 267. A custom of
feasting on the tombs of the dead on the day of St. Peter de Cathedra
(Feb. 22) is condemned by the _Council of Tours_ (567), c. 23 (Maassen,
i. 133) ‘sunt etiam qui in festivitate cathedrae domui Petri apostoli
cibos mortuis offerunt, et post missas redeuntes ad domos proprias, ad
gentilium revertuntur errores, et post corpus Domini, sacratas daemoni
escas accipiunt.’ I do not doubt that the Germano-Keltic tribes had
their spring _Todtenfest_, but the date Feb. 22 seems determined by the
Roman _Parentalia_ extending from Feb. 13 to either Feb. 21 (_Feralia_)
or Feb. 22 (_Cara Cognatio_): cf. Fowler, 306. The ‘cibi’ mentioned
by the council of Tours seem to have been offered in the house, like
the winter offerings described below; but there is also evidence for
similar Germano-Keltic offerings on the tomb or howe itself; and these
were often accompanied by _dadsisas_ or dirges; cf. Saupe, _Indiculus_,
5-9. Saupe considers the _spurcalia in Februario_, explained above (p.
114) as a ploughing rite, to be funereal.
[933] Pfannenschmidt, 123, 165, 435; Saupe, 9; Golther, 586; _C. P. B._
i. 43; Jahn, 251. The chronicler Widukind, _Res gestae Sax._ (Pertz,
_Mon. SS._ iii. 423), describes a Saxon three-days’ feast in honour
of a victory over the Thuringi in 534. He adds ‘acta sunt autem haec
omnia, ut maiorum memoria prodit, die Kal. Octobris, qui dies erroris,
religiosorum sanctione virorum mutati sunt in ieiunia et orationes,
oblationes quoque omnium nos praecedentium christianorum.’ This is
probably a myth to account for the harvest _Todtenfest_, which may more
naturally be thought of as transferred with the agricultural rites from
November. For the mediaeval _Gemeinwoche_, beginning on the Sunday
after Michaelmas, was common to Germany, and not confined to Saxony.
Michaelmas, the feast of angels, known at Rome in the sixth century,
and in Germany by the ninth, also adapts itself to the notion of a
_Todtenfest_.
[934] Pfannenschmidt, 168, 443.
[935] Mogk, in Paul, iii. 260; Tille, _Y. and C._ 107.
[936] Cf. p. 231.
[937] Appendix N, Nos. xii, xvii, xxvii, xxxiii, xxxv, xxxix.
[938] Appendix N, No. xlii.
[939] Martin of Amberg, _Gewissensspiegel_ (thirteenth century, quoted
Jahn, 282), the food and drink are left for ‘Percht mit der eisnen
nasen.’
[940] _Thes. Paup._ s. v. Superstitio (fifteenth century, quoted
Jahn, 282) ‘multi credunt sacris noctibus inter natalem diem Christi
et noctem Epiphaniae evenire ad domos suas quasdam mulieres, quibus
praeest domina Perchta ... multi in domibus in noctibus praedictis
post coenam dimittunt panem et caseum, lac, carnes, ova, vinum, et
aquam et huiusmodi super mensas et coclearea, discos, ciphos, cultellos
et similia propter visitationem Perhtae cum cohorte sua, ut eis
complaceant ... ut inde sint eis propitii ad prosperitatem domus et
negotiorum rerum temporalium.’
[941] Usener, ii. 84 ‘Qui preparant mensam dominae Perthae’ (fifteenth
century). Schmeller, _Bairisch. Wörterb._ i. 270, gives other
references for Perchte in this connexion.
[942] Usener, ii. 58.
[943] _Dives and Pauper_ (Pynson, 1493) ‘Alle that ... use nyce
observances in the ... new yere, as setting of mete or drynke,
by nighte on the benche, to fede Atholde or Gobelyn.’ In English
folk-custom, food is left for the house-spirit or ‘brownie’ on ordinary
as well as festal days; cf. my ‘Warwick’ edition of _Midsummer Night’s
Dream_, 145.
[944] Jahn, 283; Brand, i. 18; Bertrand, 405; Cortet, 33, 45.
[945] Appendix N, No. xxiii. If the words ‘in foco’ are not part of the
text, ‘youling’ (cf. pp. 142, 260) may be intended.
[946] Bertrand, 111, 404.
[947] Jahn, 120, 244, 269: the _Gertruden-minnes_ on St. Gertrude’s
day (March 17) perhaps preserve another fragment of the spring
_Todtenfest_, St. Gertrude here replacing the mother-goddess; cf.
Grimm, iii. xxxviii.
[948] Grimm, i. 268, 273, 281; Mogk, in Paul, iii. 279. The especial
day of Frau Perchte is Epiphany.
[949] Mogk, in Paul, iii. 260; Tille, _D. W._ 173.
[950] Grimm, iv. 1798.
[951] Ibid. iv. 1814.
[952] Tille, _D. W._ 163; Grimm, iv. 1782.
[953] Ashton, 104.
[954] Müller, 496.
[955] _Hamlet_, i. 1. 158. I do not know where Shakespeare got the
idea, of which I find no confirmation; but its origin is probably an
ecclesiastical attempt to parry folk-belief. Other Kalends notions have
taken on a Christian colouring. The miraculous events of Christmas
night are rooted in the conception that the Kalends must abound in all
good things, in order that the coming year may do so. But allusions to
Christian legend have been worked into and have transformed them. On
Christmas night bees sing (Brand, i. 3), and water is turned into wine
(Grimm, iv. 1779, 1809). While the genealogy is sung at the midnight
mass, hidden treasures are revealed (Grimm, iv. 1840). Similarly, the
cattle of heathen masters naturally shared in the Kalends good cheer;
whence a Christian notion that they, and in particular the ox and the
ass, witnesses of the Nativity, can speak on that night, and bear
testimony to the good or ill-treatment of the farmers (Grimm, iv. 1809,
1840); cf. the _Speculum Perfectionis_, c. 114, ed. Sabatier, 225 ‘quod
volebat [S. Franciscus] suadere imperatori ut faceret specialem legem
quod in Nativitate Domini homines bene providerent avibus et bovi et
asino et pauperibus’: also p. 250, n. 1.--Ten minutes after writing
the above note, I have come on the following passage in Tolstoi,
_Résurrection_ (trad. franç.), i. 297 ‘Un proverbe dit que les coqs
chantent de bonne heure dans les nuits joyeuses.’
[956] Müller, 272.
[957] Pfannenschmidt, 207.
[958] Müller, 235, 239, 248.
[959] Tille, _D. W._ 107; _Y. and C._ 116; Saupe, 28; Io. Iac. Reiske,
_Comm. ad Const. Porph., de Caeremoniis_, ii. 357 (_Corp. Script. Byz._
1830) ‘Vidi puerulus et horrui robustos iuvenes pelliceis indutos,
cornutos in fronte, vultus fuligine atratos, intra dentes carbones
vivos tenentes, quos reciprocato spiritu animabant, et scintillis
quaquaversum sparsis ignem quasi vomebant, cum saccis cursitantes,
in quos abdere puerulos occursantes minitabantur, appensis cymbalis
et insano clamore frementes.’ He calls them ‘die Knecht Ruperte,’
and says that they performed in the Twelve nights. The _sacci_ are
interesting, for English nurses frighten children with a threat that
the chimney-sweep (here as in the May-game inheriting the tradition on
account of his black face) will put them in his sack. The _beneficent_
Christmas wanderers use the sack to bring presents in; cf. the
development of the sack in the Mummers’ play (p. 215).
[960] Müller, 235, 248.
[961] A mince-pie eaten in a different house on each night of the
Twelves (_not_ twelve mince-pies eaten _before_ Christmas) ensures
twelve lucky months. The weather of each day in the Twelves determines
that of a month (Harland, 99; Jackson and Burne, 408). I have heard of
a custom of leaping over twelve lighted candles on New Year’s eve. Each
that goes out means ill-luck in a corresponding month.
[962] Caesarius; Boniface (App. N, Nos. xvii, xviii, xxxiii); Alsso,
in Usener, ii. 65; _F. L._ iii. 253; Jackson and Burne, 400; Ashton,
111; _Brit. Ass. Report_ (1896), 620. In some of the cases quoted under
the last reference and elsewhere, _nothing_ may be taken out of the
house on New Year’s Day. Ashes and other refuse which would naturally
be taken out in the morning were removed the night before. Ashes, of
course, share the sanctity of the fire. Cf. the maskers’ threat (p.
217).
[963] Boniface (App. N, No. xxxiii); cf. the Kloster Scheyern (Usener,
ii. 84) condemnation of those ‘qui vomerem ponunt sub mensa tempore
nativitatis Christi.’ For other uses of iron as a potent agricultural
charm, cf. Grimm, iv. 1795, 1798, 1807, 1816; Burne-Jackson, 164.
[964] Cf. Burchardus (App. N, No. xlii); Grimm, iv. 1793, with many
other superstitions in the same appendix to Grimm; Brand, i. 9; Ashton,
222; Jackson and Burne, 403. The practical outcome is to begin jobs for
form’s sake and then stop. The same is done on Saint Distaff’s day,
January 7; cf. Brand, i. 15.
[965] Harland, 117; Jackson and Burne, 314; _Brit. Ass. Rep._ (1896),
620; Dyer, 483; Ashton, 112, 119, 224. There is a long discussion in
_F. L._ iii. 78, 253. I am tempted to find a very early notice of the
‘first foot’ in the prohibition ‘pedem observare’ of Martin of Braga
(App. N, No. xxiii).
[966] _F. L._ iii. 253.
[967] _Kloster Scheyern MS._ (fifteenth century) in Usener, ii. 84 ‘Qui
credunt, quando masculi primi intrant domum in die nativitatis, quod
omnes vaccae generent masculos et e converso.’
[968] Müller, 269 (Italy). Grimm, iv. 1784, notes ‘If the first person
you meet in the morning be a virgin or a priest, ’tis a sign of bad
luck; if a harlot, of good’: cf. Caspari, _Hom. de Sacrilegiis_,
§ 11 ‘qui clericum vel monachum de mane aut quacumque hora videns
aut o[b]vians, abominosum sibi esse credet, iste non solum paganus,
sed demoniacus est, qui christi militem abominatur.’ These German
examples have no special relation to the New Year, and the ‘first
foot’ superstition is indeed only the ordinary belief in the ominous
character of the first thing seen on leaving the house, intensified by
the critical season.
[969] Tille, _D. W._ 189; _Y. and C._ 84, 95, 104.
[970] Cf. p. 238.
[971] Brand, i. 3, 209, 226, 257; Spence, _Shetland Folk-Lore_, 189;
Grimm, iv. 1777-1848 _passim_; Jackson and Burne, 176, 380, &c., &c.
Burchardus (App. N, No. xlii) mentions that the Germans took New Year
omens sitting girt with a sword on the housetop or upon a [sacrificial]
skin at the crossways. This was called _liodorsâza_, a term which a
_glossator_ also uses for the kindred custom of _cervulus_ (Tille, _Y.
and C._ 96). Is the man in _Hom. de Sacr._ (App. N, No. xxxix) ‘qui
arma in campo ostendit’ taking omens like the man on the housetop, or
is he conducting a sword-dance?
[972] Burchardus (App. N, No. xlii).
[973] Brand, i. 209.
[974] Grimm, iv. 1781, 1797, 1818.
[975] Quoted Pfannenschmidt, 489 ‘quod autem obscoena carmina finguntur
a daemonibus et perditorum mentibus immittuntur, quidam daemon
nequissimus, qui in Nivella urbe Brabantiae puellam nobilem anno domini
1216 prosequebatur, manifeste populis audientibus dixit: cantum hunc
celebrem de Martino ego cum collega meo composui et per diversas terras
Galliae et Theutoniae promulgavi. Erat autem cantus ille turpissimus
et plenus luxuriosis plausibus.’ On _Martinslieder_ in general cf.
Pfannenschmidt, 468, 613.
[976] T. Gascoigne, _Loci e Libro Veritatum_ (1403-58), ed. Rogers, 144.
[977] Aubrey, _Gentilisme and Judaisme_ (_F. L. S._), 1.
[978] Tille, _D. W._ 55; K. Simrock, _Deutsche Weihnachtslieder_
(1854); Cortet, 246; Grove, _Dict. of Music_, s. v. Noël; Julian,
_Dict. of Hymn._ s. v. Carol; A. H. Bullen, _Carols and Poems_,
1885; Helmore, _Carols for Christmastide_. The cry ‘Noël’ appears in
the fifteenth century both in France and England as one of general
rejoicing without relation to Christmas. It greeted Henry V in London
in 1415 and the Marquis of Suffolk in Rouen in 1446 (Ramsay, _Lancaster
and York_, i. 226; ii. 60).
[979] Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, _de Caeremoniis Aulae Byzantinae_,
Bk. i. c. 83 (ed. Reiske, in _Corp. Script. Hist. Byz._ i. 381); cf.
Bury-Gibbon, vi. 516; Kögel, i. 34; D. Bieliaiev, _Byzantina_, vol. ii:
Haupt’s _Zeitschrift_, i., 368; C. Kraus, _Gotisches Weihnachtsspiel_,
in _Beitr. z. Gesch. d. deutschen Sprache und Litteratur_, xx (1895),
223.
[980] Fouquier-Cholet, _Hist. des Comtes de Vermandois_, 159, says
that Heribert IV (ob. †1081) persuaded the clergy of the Vermandois to
suppress the _fête de l’âne_. This would have been a century before
Belethus wrote. But he does not give his _probatum_, and I suspect he
misread it.
[981] Belethus, c. 72 ‘Festum hypodiaconorum, quod vocamus stultorum, a
quibusdam perficitur in Circumcisione, a quibusdam vero in Epiphania,
vel in eius octavis. Fiunt autem quatuor tripudia post Nativitatem
Domini in Ecclesia, levitarum scilicet, sacerdotum, puerorum, id est
minorum aetate et ordine, et hypodiaconorum, qui ordo incertus est.
Unde fit ut ille quandoque annumeretur inter sacros ordines, quandoque
non, quod expresse ex eo intelligitur quod certum tempus non habeat, et
officio celebretur confuso.’ Cf. ch. xv on the three other _tripudia_.
[982] Lebeuf, _Hist. de Paris_ (1741), ii. 277; Grenier, 365:
_Ad amicum venturum ad festum Baculi._
Festa dies aliis Baculus venit et novus annus,
Qua venies, veniet haec mihi festa dies.
Leonius is named as canon of N.-D. in the _Obituary_ of the church
Guérard, _Cartulaire de N.-D._ in (_Doc. inédits sur l’Hist. de
France_, iv. 34), but unfortunately the year of his death is not given.
[983] During the fifteenth century the _Chantre_ of N.-D. ‘porta le
baston’ at the chief feasts as ruler of the choir (F. L. Chartier,
_L’ancien Chapitre de N.-D. de Paris_ (1897), 176). This _baculus_ must
be distinguished from the _baculus pastoralis_ or _episcopi_.
[984] Guérard, _Cartulaire de N.-D._ (_Doc. inéd. sur l’Hist. de
France_), i. 73; also printed by Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_; _P. L._
ccxii. 70. The _charta_, dated 1198, runs in the names of ‘Odo [de
Soliaco] episcopus, H. decanus, R. cantor, Mauricius, Heimericus et
Odo archidiaconi, Galo, succentor, magister Petrus cancellarius, et
magister Petrus de Corbolio, canonicus Parisiensis.’ Possibly the real
moving spirit in the reform was the dean H[ugo Clemens], to whom the
Paris _Obituary_ (Guérard, _loc. cit._ iv. 61) assigns a similar reform
of the feast of St. John the Evangelist. Petrus de Corbolio we shall
meet again. Eudes de Sully was bishop 1196-1208. His _Constitutions_
(_P. L._ ccxii. 66) contain a prohibition of ‘choreae ... in ecclesiis,
in coemeteriis et in processionibus.’ In a second decree of 1199 (_P.
L._ ccxii. 72) he provided a _solatium_ for the loss of the Feast of
Fools in a payment of three _deniers_ to each clerk below the degree
of canon, and two _deniers_ to each boy present at Matins on the
Circumcision. Should the abuses recur, the payment was to lapse. This
donation was confirmed in 1208 by his successor Petrus de Nemore (_P.
L._ ccxii. 92).
[985] A ‘hearse’ was a framework of wood or iron bearing spikes for
tapers (Wordsworth, _Mediaeval Services_, 156). The _penna_ was also a
stand for candles (Ducange, s.v.).
[986] A _prosa_ is a term given in French liturgies to an additional
chant inserted on festal occasions as a gloss upon or interpolation in
the text of the office or mass. It covers nearly, though not quite,
the same ground as _Sequentia_, and comes under the general head of
_Tropus_ (ch. xviii). For a more exact differentiation cf. Frere,
_Winchester Troper_, ix. _Laetemur gaudiis_ is a prose ascribed to
Notker Balbulus of St. Gall.
[987] _cum farsia_: a _farsia_, _farsa_, or _farsura_ (Lat.
_farcire_, ‘to stuff’), is a _Tropus_ interpolated into the text of
certain portions of the office or mass, especially the _Kyrie_, the
_Lectiones_ and the _Epistola_. Such farces were generally in Latin,
but occasionally, especially in the Epistle, in the vernacular (Frere,
_Winchester Troper_, ix, xvi).
[988] _Laetabundus_: i. e. St. Bernard’s prose beginning _Laetabundus
exultet fidelis chorus; Alleluia_ (Daniel, _Thesaurus Hymnologicus_,
ii. 61), which was widely used in the feasts of the Christmas season.
[989] The document is too long to quote in full. These are the
essential passages. The legate says: The Church of Paris is famous,
therefore diligence must be used ‘ad exstirpandum penitus quod ibidem
sub praetextu pravae consuetudinis inolevit ... Didicimus quod in
festo Circumcisionis Dominicae ... tot consueverunt enormitates et
opera flagitiosa committi, quod locum sanctum ... non solum foeditate
verborum, verum etiam sanguinis effusione plerumque contingit
inquinari, et ... ut sacratissima dies ... festum fatuorum nec
immerito generaliter consueverit appellari.’ Odo and the rest order:
‘In vigilia festivitatis ad Vesperas campanae ordinate sicut in duplo
simplici pulsabuntur. Cantor faciet matriculam (the roll of clergy for
the day’s services) in omnibus ordinate; rimos, personas, luminaria
herciarum nisi tantum in rotis ferreis, et in penna, si tamen voluerit
ille qui capam redditurus est, fieri prohibemus; statuimus etiam ne
dominus festi cum processione vel cantu ad ecclesiam adducatur, vel ad
domum suam ab ecclesia reducatur. In choro autem induet capam suam,
assistentibus ei duobus canonicis subdiaconis, et tenens baculum
cantoris, antequam incipiantur Vesperae, incipiet prosam _Laetemur
gaudiis_: qua finita episcopus, si praesens fuerit ... incipiet
Vesperas ordinate et solemniter celebrandas; ... a quatuor subdiaconis
indutis capis sericis Responsorium cantabitur.... Missa similiter cum
horis ordinate celebrabitur ab aliquo praedictorum, hoc addito quod
Epistola cum farsia dicetur a duobus in capis sericis, et postmodum a
subdiacono ... Vesperae sequentes sicut priores a _Laetemur gaudiis_
habebunt initium: et cantabitur _Laetabundus_, loco hymni. _Deposuit_
quinquies ad plus dicetur loco suo; et si captus fuerit baculus,
finito _Te Deum laudamus_, consummabuntur Vesperae ab eo quo fuerint
inchoatae.... Per totum festum in omnibus horis canonici et clerici in
stallis suis ordinate et regulariter se habebunt.’
[990] The feast lasted from Vespers on the vigil to Vespers on the day
of the Circumcision. The _Hauptmoment_ was evidently the _Magnificat_
in the second Vespers. But what exactly took place then? Did the
cathedral precentor hand over the _baculus_ to the _dominus festi_,
or was it last year’s _dominus festi_, who now handed it over to his
newly-chosen successor? Probably the latter. The _dominus festi_ is
called at first Vespers ‘capam redditurus’: doubtless the cope and
_baculus_ went together. The _dominus festi_ may have, as elsewhere,
exercised disciplinary and representative functions amongst the
inferior clergy during the year. His title I take to have been, as
at Sens, _precentor stultorum_. The order says, ‘si captus fuerit
baculus’; probably it was left to the chapter to decide whether the
formal installation of the _precentor_ in church should take place in
any particular year.
[991] _P. L._ ccxv. 1070 ‘Interdum ludi fiunt in eisdem ecclesiis
theatrales, et non solum ad ludibriorum spectacula introducuntur in
eas monstra larvarum, verum etiam in tribus anni festivitatibus, quae
continue Natalem Christi sequuntur, diaconi, presbiteri ac subdiaconi
vicissim insaniae suae ludibria exercentes, per gesticulationum
suarum debacchationes obscoenas in conspectu populi decus faciunt
clericale vilescere.... Fraternitati vestrae ... mandamus,
quatenus ... praelibatam vero ludibriorum consuetudinem vel potius
corruptelam curetis e vestris ecclesiis ... exstirpare.’ As to the
scope of this decretal and the glosses of the canonists upon it, cf.
the account of miracle plays (ch. xx).
[992] _Decretales Greg. IX_, lib. iii. tit. i. cap. 12 (_C. I. Can._
ed. Friedberg, ii. 452). I cannot verify an alleged confirmation of the
decretal by Innocent IV in 1246.
[993] _C. of Paris_ (1212), pars iv. c. 16 (Mansi, xxii. 842) ‘A festis
vero follorum, ubi baculus accipitur, omnino abstineatur. Idem fortius
monachis et monialibus prohibemus.’ Can. 18 is a prohibition against
‘choreae,’ similar to that of Eudes de Sully already referred to. Such
general prohibitions are as common during the mediaeval period as
during that of the conversion (cf. ch. viii), and probably covered the
Feast of Fools. See e.g. _C. of Avignon_ (1209), c. 17 (Mansi, xxii.
791), _C. of Rouen_ (1231), c. 14 (Mansi, xxiii. 216), _C. of Bayeux_
(1300), c. 31 (Mansi, xxv. 66).
[994] _Codex Senonen._ 46 A. There are two copies in the _Bibl. Nat._,
(i) _Cod. Parisin._ 10520 B, containing the text only, dated 1667; (ii)
_Cod. Parisin._ 1351 C, containing text and music, made for Baluze
(1630-1718). The _Officium_ has been printed by F. Bourquelot in
_Bulletin de la Soc. arch. de Sens_ (1858), vi. 79, and by Clément, 125
sqq. The metrical portions are also in Dreves, _Analecta Hymnica Medii
Aevi_, xx. 217, who cites other _Quellen_ for many of them. See further
on the MS., Dreves, _Stimmen aus Maria-Laach_, xlvii. 575; Desjardins,
126; Chérest, 14; A. L. Millin, _Monuments antiques inédits_
(1802-6), ii. 336; Du Tilliot, 13; J. A. Dulaure, _Environs de Paris_
(1825), vii. 576; Nisard, in _Archives des Missions scientifiques et
littéraires_ (1851), 187; Leber, ix. 344 (l’Abbé Lebeuf). Before the
_Officium_ proper, on f. 1^{vo} of the MS. a fifteenth-century hand
(Chérest, 18) has written the following quatrain:
‘Festum stultorum de consuetudine morum
omnibus urbs Senonis festivat nobilis annis,
quo gaudet precentor, sed tamen omnis honor
sit Christo circumciso nunc semper et almo’:
and the following couplet:
‘Tartara Bacchorum non pocula sunt fatuorum,
tartara vincentes sic fiunt ut sapientes.’
Millin, _loc. cit._ 344, cites a MS. dissertation of one Père Laire,
which ascribes these lines to one Lubin, an official at Chartres. The
last eight pages of the MS. contain epistles for the feasts of St.
Stephen, St. John the Evangelist, and the Innocents.
[995] Chérest, 14; Millin, _op. cit._ ii. 336 (plates), and _Voyage
dans le Midi_, i. 60 (plates); Clément, 122, 162; Bourquelot, _op.
cit._ vi. 79 (plates); A. de Montaiglon, in _Gazette des Beaux-arts_
(1880), i. 24 (plates); E. Molinier, _Hist. générale des Arts
appliqués_, i; _Les Ivoires_ (1896), 47 (plate); A. M. Cust, _Ivory
Workers of the Middle Ages_ (1902), 34. This last writer says that
the diptych is now in the Bibl. Nationale. The leaves of the diptych
represent a Triumph of Bacchus, and a Triumph of Artemis or Aphrodite.
It has nothing to do with the Feast of Fools, and is of sixth-century
workmanship.
[996] Dreves, 575, thinks the MS. was ‘für eine Geckenbruderschaft,’ as
the chants are not in the contemporary Missals, Breviaries, Graduais,
and Antiphonals of the church. But if they were, a separate _Officium_
book would be superfluous. Such special _festorum libri_ were in use
elsewhere, e.g. at Amiens. Nisard, _op. cit._, thinks the _Officium_
was an imitation one written by ‘notaires’ to amuse the choir-boys,
and cites a paper of M. Carlier, canon of Sens, before the Historic
Congress held at Sens in 1850 in support of this view. Doubtless the
_goliardi_ wrote such imitations (cf. the _missa lusorum_ in Schmeller,
_Carmina Burana_, 248; the _missa de potatoribus_ in Wright-Halliwell,
_Reliquiae Antiquae_, ii. 208; and the _missa potatorum_ in F.
Novati, _La Parodia sacra nelle Letterature moderne_ (_Studi critici
e letterari_, 289)); but this is too long to be one, and is not a
burlesque at all.
[997] Cf. the chapter decree of 1524 ‘festum Circumcisionis a
defuncto Corbolio institutum,’ which is doubtless the authority for
the statements of Taveau, _Hist. archiep. Senonen_. (1608), 94;
Saint-Marthe, _Gallia Christiana_ (1770), xii. 60; Baluze, note in _B.
N. Cod. Parisin_. 1351 C. (quoted Nisard, _op. cit._).
[998] Dreves, 575; Chérest, 15, who quotes an elaborate opinion of M.
Quantin, ‘archiviste de l’Yonne.’ M. Quantin believes that the hand
is that of a charter of Pierre de Corbeil, dated 1201, in the Yonne
archives. On the other hand Nisard, _op. cit._, and Danjou, _Revue
de musique religieuse_ (1847), 287, think that the MS. is of the
fourteenth century.
[999] Chérest, 35; Dreves, 576.
[1000] Liturgically a _conductus_ is a form of _Cantio_, that is, an
interpolation in the mass or office, which stands as an independent
unit, and not, like the Tropes, Proses and Sequences, as an extension
of the proper liturgical texts. The _Cantiones_ are, however, only a
further step in the process which began with Tropes (Nisard, _op. cit._
191; Dreves, _Anal. Hymn._ xx. 6). From the point of view of musical
science H. E. Wooldridge, _Oxford Hist. of Music_, i. 308, defines a
_conductus_ as ‘a composition of equally free and flowing melodies in
all the parts, in which the words are metrical and given to the lower
voice only.’ The term is several times used in the _Officium_. Clément,
163, falls foul of Dulaure for taking it as an adjective throughout,
with _asinus_ understood.
[1001] Wordsworth, _Mediaeval Services_, 289; Clément, 126, 163.
Dulaure seems to have taken the _tabula_ for the altar. The English
name for the _tabula_ was _wax-brede_. An example (†1500) is printed by
H. E. Reynolds, _Use of Exeter Cathedral_, 73.
[1002] Appendix L; where the various versions of the ‘Prose’ are
collated.
[1003] There are many hymns beginning _Salve, festa dies_. The model
is a couplet of Venantius Fortunatus, _Carmina_, iii. 9, _Ad Felicem
episcopum de Pascha_, 39 (M. G. H. _Auct. Antiquiss_. iv. 1. 60):
‘Salve, festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo,
qua Deus infernum vicit et astra tenet.’
[1004] Clément, 127, correcting an error of Lebeuf. A still more
curious slip is that of M. Bourquelot, who found in the word _euouae_,
which occurs frequently in the _Officium_, an echo of the Bacchic cry
_évohé_. Now _euouae_ represents the vowels of the words _Seculorum
amen_, and is noted at the ends of antiphons in most choir-books to
give the tone for the following psalm (Clément, 164).
[1005] Clément, 138, reads _Conductus ad Ludos_, and inserts before _In
Laudibus_ the word _Ludarius_. Dreves, _Anal. Hymn._ xx. 221, reads
_Conductus ad Laudes_. The section _In Laudibus_, not being metrical,
is not printed by him, so I do not know what he makes of _Ludarius_. If
Clément is right, I suppose a secular revel divided Matins and Lauds,
which seems unlikely.
[1006] I follow Dreves, _Anal. Hymn._ xx. 228. Clément, 151, has again
_Ludarium_.
[1007] Prudentius, _Cathemerinon_, iii.
[1008] _Egerton MS._ 2615 (_Catalogue of Additions to MSS. in B. M._
1882-87, p. 336). On the last page is written ‘Iste liber est beati
petri beluacensis.’ On ff. 78, 110^v are book-plates of the chapter of
Beauvais, the former signed ‘Vollet f[ecit].’ The MS. was bought by the
British Museum in 1883, and formerly belonged to Signor Pachiarotti
of Padua. It was described and a facsimile of the harmonized Prose
of the Ass given in _Annales archéologiques_ (1856), xvi. 259, 300.
Dreves, _Anal. Hymn._ xx. 230 (1895), speaks of it as ‘vielleicht noch
in Italien in Privatbesitz.’ This, and not the MS. used by Ducange’s
editors, is the MS. whose description Desjardins, 127, 168, gives from
a 1464 Beauvais inventory: ‘N^o. 76. Item ung petit volume entre deux
ais sans cuir l’ung d’icelx ais rompu à demy contenant plusieurs proses
antiennes et commencemens des messes avec oraisons commençant au ii^e
feuillet _Belle bouche_ et au pénultième _coopertum stolla candida_.’
The broken board was mended, after 420 years, by the British Museum in
1884.
[1009] _B. M. Catalogue_, _loc. cit._, ‘Written in the xiii^{th} cent.,
probably during the pontificate of Gregory IX (1227-41) and before the
marriage of Louis IX to Marguerite of Provence in 1234.’ There are
prayers for Gregorius Papa and Ludovicus Rex on ff. 42, 42^v, but none
for any queen of France.
[1010] Between ff. 40^{vo} and 41.
[1011] So _B. M. Catalogue_, _loc. cit._ To me it reads like ‘Conductus
asi ... adducitur.’
[1012] F. 43.
[1013] Cf. ch. xix.
[1014] Louis VII married Adèle de Champagne in 1160 and died in 1180.
[1015] Pierre Louvet, _Hist. du Dioc. de Beauvais_ (1635), ii. 299,
quoted by Desjardins, 124. I am sorry not to have been able to get hold
of the original. Nor can I find E. Charvet, _Rech. sur les anciens
théâtres de Beauvais_ (1881).
[1016] Grenier, 362. He says the ‘cérémonial’ is ‘tiré d’un ms. de
la cathédrale de Beauvais,’ and gives the footnote ‘Preuv. part
1, n^o. .’ On the prose _Kalendas Ianuarias_ and the censing his
footnotes refer to Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_. The ‘Preuves’ for his
history are scattered through the _MSS. Picardie_ in the _Bibl. Nat._
No doubt the reference here is to MSS. 14 and 158 which are copies of
the Beauvais office (Dreves, in _Stimmen aus Maria-Laach_, xlvii. 575).
These, or parts of them, are printed by F. Bourquelot, in _Bulletin de
la Soc. arch. de Sens_ (1854), vi. 171 (which also, unfortunately, I
have not seen), and chants from them are in Dreves, _Anal. Hymn._ xx.
229. But here Dreves seems to speak of them as copies of Pacchiarotti’s
MS. (_Egerton MS._ 2615). And Desjardins, 124, says that Grenier
and Bourquelot used extracts from eighteenth-century copies of
Pacchiarotti’s MS. in the library of M. Borel de Brétizel. Are these
writers mistaken, or did Grenier only see the copies, and take his
description from Louvet? And what has become of the twelfth-century MS.?
[1017] Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_, ‘MS. codice Bellovac. ann. circiter
500, ubi 1^a haec occurrit rubrica _Dominus ... ianuae_. Et alibi
_Hac ... saucita_.’
[1018] Ducange, s. v. _Festum Asinorum_. Desjardins and other writers
give the date of the ‘codex’ as twelfth century. But 500 years from
1733-6 only bring it to the thirteenth century. The mistake is due to
the fact that the _first_ edition of Ducange, in which the ‘codex’ is
not mentioned, is of 1678. Clément, 158, appears to have no knowledge
of the MS. but what he read in Ducange; and it is not quite clear what
he means when he says that it ‘d’après nos renseignements, ne renferme
pas un office, mais une sorte de _mystère_ postérieur d’un siècle au
moins à l’office de Sens, et n’ayant aucune autorité historique et
encore bien moins religieuse.’ The MS. was contemporary with the Sens
_Officium_, and although certainly influenced by the religious drama
was still liturgic (cf. ch. xx).
[1019] Cf. Appendix L, on an _Officium_ (1553) for Jan. 1 without
_stulti_ or _asinus_, from Puy.
[1020] Leber, ix. 238. This is a note by J. B. Salques to the reprint
of D’Artigny’s memoir on the _Fête des Fous_. The writer calls the
ceremony the ‘fête des apôtres,’ and says that it was held at the same
time as the ‘fête de l’âne.’ He describes a Rabelaisian _contretemps_,
which is said to have put an end to the procession in 1634. No
authority is given for this account, which I believe to be the source
of all later notices. I may add that Ducange gives the name _Festum
Apostolorum_ to the feast of St. Philip and St. James on May 1.
[1021] _Cod. Senonens_. G. 133, printed by Chérest, 47; Quantin,
_Recueil de pièces pour faire suite au Cartulaire général de l’Yonne_
(1873), 235 (N^o. 504) ‘mandamus, quatenus illa festorum antiqua
ludibria, quae in contemptum Dei, opprobrium cleri, et derisum
populi non est dubium exerceri, videlicet, in festis Sancti Ioannis
Evangelistae, Innocentium, et Circumcisionis Domini, iuxta pristinum
modum nullatenus faciatis aut fieri permittatis, sed iuxta formam
et cultum aliarum festivitatum quae per anni circulum celebrantur,
ita volumus et praecipimus celebrari. Ita quod ipso facto sententiam
suspensionis incurrat quicumque in mutatione habitus aut in sertis de
floribus seu aliis dissolutionibus iuxta praedictum ritum reprobatum
adeo in praedictis festivitatibus seu aliis a modo praesumpserit se
habere.’
[1022] L. Deschamps de Pas, _Les Cérémonies religieuses dans la
Collégiale de Saint-Omer au xiii^e Siècle_ (_Mém. de la Soc. de la
Morinie_, xx. 147). The directions for Jan. 1 are fragmentary: ‘In
quo vicarii ceterique clerici chorum frequentantes et eorum episcopus
se habeant in cantando et officiando sicut superius dictum est in
festo Sanctorum Innocentium (cf. p. 370), hoc tamen excepto quod omnia
quae ista die fiunt officiando quando est festum fatuorum pro posse
fiunt et etiam ullulando ... domino decano fatuorum ferunt incensum
sed prepostere ut dictum est.’ _Ululatus_ is, however, sometimes a
technical term in church music; cf. vol. ii. p. 7.
[1023] _R. de Renard_, xii. 469 (ed. Martin, vol. ii. 14):
‘Dan prestre, il est la feste as fox.
Si fera len demein des chox
Et grant departie a Baieus:
Ales i, si verres les jeus.’
Branch xii of the _Roman_ is the composition of Richart de Lison,
who, according to Martin, suppl. 72, wrote in Normandy †1200. The
phrase ‘faire les choux’ = ‘get drunk,’ cabbages being regarded as
prophylactic of the ill effects of liquor.
[1024] _Hist. de l’Église d’Autun_ (1774), 469, 631 ‘Item innovamus,
quod ille qui de caetero capiet baculum anni novi nihil penitus habebit
de bursa Capituli’ (_Registr. Capit._ s. a. 1230).
[1025] Martene and Durand, _Thesaurus Anecdotorum_, iv. 1070 ‘in
festo stultorum, scilicet Innocentium et anni novi ... multa fiunt
inhonesta ... ne talia festa irrisoria de cetero facere praesumant.’
[1026] Ducange, s. v. _abbas esclaffardorum_, quoting _Hist. Delphin._
i. 132; J. J. A. Pilot de Thorey, _Usages, Fêtes et Coutumes en
Dauphiné_, i. 182. The latter writer says that there was also an
_episcopus_, who was not suppressed, that the canons did reverence to
him, and that the singing of the _Magnificat_ was part of the feast.
[1027] C. Hidé, _Bull. de la Soc. acad. de Laon_ (1863), xiii. 115.
[1028] Grenier, 361 ‘Si hoc dicitur festum stultorum a subdiaconis
fiat, et dominica eveniat, ab ipsis fiat festum in cappis sericis,
sicut in libris festorum continetur.’ These _libri_ possibly resembled
those of Sens and Beauvais.
[1029] _Summa Gulielmi Autissiodorensis de Off. Eccles._ (quoted by
Chérest, 44, from _Bibl. Nat. MS._ 1411) ‘Quaeritur quare in hac die
fit festum stultorum.... Ante adventum Domini celebrabant festa quae
vocabant Parentalia; et in illa die spem ponebant credentes quod si in
illa die bene eis accideret, quod similiter in toto anno. Hoc festum
voluit removere Ecclesia quod contra fidem est. Et quia extirpare
omnino non potuit, festum illud permittit et celebrat illud festum
celeberrimum ut aliud demittatur: et ideo in matutinali officio
leguntur lectiones quae dehortantur ab huiusmodi quae sunt contra
fidem (cf. p. 245). Et si ista die ab ecclesia quaedam fiunt praeter
fidem, nulla tamen contra fidem. Et ideo ludos qui sunt contra fidem
permutavit in ludos qui non sunt contra fidem.’ There is clearly
a confusion here between the Roman _Parentalia_ (Feb. 13-22) and
_Kalendae_ (Jan. 1). On William of Auxerre, whose work remains in MS.,
cf. Lebeuf, in P. Desmolets, _Mémoires_, iii. 339; _Nouvelle Biographie
universelle_, s. n. He was bishop of Auxerre, translated to Paris
in 1220, ob. 1223. He must be distinguished from another William of
Auxerre, who was archdeacon of Beauvais (†1230), and wrote a comment on
Petrus Lombardus, printed at Paris in 1500 (Gröber, _Grundriss der röm.
Philologie_, ii. 1. 239).
[1030] Gulielmus Durandus, _Rationale Div. Off._ (Antwerp, 1614), vi.
15, _de Circumcisione_, ‘In quibusdam ecclesiis subdiaconi fortes
et iuvenes faciunt hodie festum ad significandum quod in octava
resurgentium, quae significatur per octavam diem, qua circumcisio
fiebat, nulla erit debilis aetas, non senectus, non senium, non
impotens pueritia ... &c.’ A reference to the heathen Kalends
follows; cf. also vii. 42, _de festis SS. Stephani, Ioannis Evang.
et Innocentium_, ‘... subdiaconi vero faciunt festum in quibusdam
ecclesiis in festo circumcisionis, ut ibi dictum est: in aliis in
Epiphania et etiam in aliis in octava Epiphaniae, quod vocant festum
stultorum. Quia enim ordo ille antiquitus incertus erat, nam in
canonibus antiquis (extra de aetate et qualitate) multis quandoque
vocatur sacer et quandoque non, ideo subdiaconi certum ad festandum non
habent diem, et eorum festum officio celebratur confuso.’ On Durandus
cf. the translation of his work by C. Barthélemy (1854). He was born at
Puymisson in the diocese of Béziers (1230), finished the _Rationale_
(1284), became bishop of Mende (1285), and ob. (1296).
[1031] A. Lecoy de la Marche, _La Chaire française au M. A._ 368,
citing _Bibl. Nat. MSS. fr._ 13314, f. 18; 16481, N^o. 93. The latter
MS., which is analysed by Echard, _Script. Ord. Predicatorum_, i. 269,
contains Dominican sermons delivered in Paris, 1272-3.
[1032] Chérest, 49 sqq., from Sens _Chapter Accounts_ in _Archives de
l’Yonne_, at Auxerre. The _Compotus Camerarii_ begins in 1295-6. The
_Chapter Register_ is missing before 1662: some of Baluze’s extracts
from it are in _Bibl. Nat. Cod. Parisin._ 1351.
[1033] Chérest, 55 ‘pro servitio faciendo die dicti festi quatenus
tangit canonicos subdiaconos in ecclesia.’
[1034] Towards the end of this period the accounts are in French: ‘le
précentre de la feste aux fols.’
[1035] _Epistola de Reformatione Theologiae_ (Gerson, _Opera Omnia_,
i. 121), from Bruges, 1st Jan. 1400 ‘ex sacrilegis paganorum
idololatrarumque ritibus reliquiae,’ &c.; _Solemnis oratio ex parte
Universitatis Paris. in praesentia Regis Caroli Sexti_ (1405, _Opera_
iv. 620; cf. French version in _Bibl. Nat. anc. f. fr._ 7275, described
P. Paris, _Manus. franç. de la Bibl. du Roi_, vii. 266) ‘hic commendari
potest bona Regis fides et vestrum omnium Dominorum variis modis
religiosorum, ... in hoc quod iam dudum litteras dedistis contra
abominabiles maledictiones et quasi idolatrias, quae in Francorum fiunt
ecclesiis sub umbra Festi fatuorum. Fatui sunt ipsi, et perniciosi
fatui, nec sustinendi, opus est executione’; _Rememoratio quorumdam
quae per Praelatum quemlibet pro parte sua nunc agenda viderentur_
(1407-8, _Opera_, ii. 109) ‘sciatur quomodo ritus ille impiissimus
et insanus qui regnat per totam Franciam poterit evelli aut saltem
temperari. De hoc scilicet quod ecclesiastici faciunt, vel in die
Innocentium, vel in die Circumcisionis, vel in Epiphania Domini, vel in
Carnisprivio per Ecclesias suas, ubi fit irrisio detestabilis Servitii
Domini et Sacramentorum: ubi plura fiunt impudenter et execrabiliter
quam fieri deberent, in tabernis vel prostibulis, vel apud Saracenos et
Iudaeos; sciunt qui viderunt, quod non sufficit censura Ecclesiastica;
quaeratur auxilium potestatis Regiae per edicta sua vehementer
urgentia’; _Quinque conclusiones super ludo stultorum communiter fieri
solito_ (_Opera_ iii. 309) ‘qui per Regnum Franciae in diversis fiunt
Ecclesiis et Abbatiis monachorum et monialium ... hae enim insolentiae
non dicerentur cocis in eorum culina absque dedecore aut reprehensione,
quae ibi fiunt in Ecclesiis Sacrosanctis, in loco orationis, in
praesentia Sancti Sacramenti Altaris, dum divinum cantatur servitium,
toto populo Christiano spectante et interdum Iudaeis ... adhuc
peius est dicere, festum hoc adeo approbatum esse sicut festum
Conceptionis Virginis Mariae, quod paulo ante asseruit quidam in urbe
Altissiodorensi secundum quod dicitur et narrari solet, &c.’
[1036] _Council of Langres_ (1404) ‘prohibemus clericis ... ne
intersint ... in ludis illis inhonestis quae solent fieri in aliquibus
Ecclesiis in festo Fatuorum quod faciunt in festivitatibus Natalis
Domini.’
[1037] _Council of Nantes_ (1431), c. 13 (J. Maan, _Sancta et Metrop.
Eccl. Turonensis_, ii. 101) ‘quia in talibus Ecclesiis Provinciae
Turonensis inolevit et servatur usus, ... quod festis Nativitatis
Domini, Sanctorum Stephani, Ioannis et Innocentium, nonnulli
Papam, nonnulli Episcopum, alii Ducem vel Comitem aut Principem in
suis Ecclesiis ex novitiis praecipuis faciunt et ordinant ... Et
talia ... vulgari eloquio festum stultorum nuncupatur, quod de residuis
Kalendis Ianuariis a multo tempore ortum fuisse credatur.’
[1038] _Council of Basle_, sessio xxi (June 9, 1435), can. xi (Mansi,
xxix. 108) ‘Turpem etiam illum abusum in quibusdam frequentatum
Ecclesiis, quo certis anni celebritatibus nonnullis cum mitra, baculo
ac vestibus pontificalibus more episcoporum benedicunt, alii ut reges
ac duces induti quod festum Fatuorum, vel Innocentum seu Puerorum in
quibusdam regionibus nuncupatur, alii larvales et theatrales iocos,
alii choreas et tripudia marium et mulierum facientes homines ad
spectacula et cachinnationes movent, alii comessationes et convivia
ibidem praeparant.’
[1039] _Council of Bourges_, July 7, 1438 (_Ordonnances des Rois de
France de la Troisième Race_, xiii. 287) ‘Item. Acceptat Decretum de
spectaculis in Ecclesia non faciendis, quod incipit: _Turpem_, &c.’
[1040] F. Aubert, _Le Parlement de Paris, sa Compétence, ses
Attributions_, 1314-1422 (1890), 182; _Hist. du Parlement de Paris_,
1250-1515 (1894), i. 163.
[1041] _Epistola et xiv. conclusiones facultatis theologiae Parisiensis
ad ecclesiarum praelatos contra festum fatuorum in Octavis Nativitatis
Domini vel prima Ianuarii in quibusdam Ecclesiis celebratum_ (H.
Denifle, _Chartularium Univ. Paris_. iv. 652; _P. L._ ccvii. 1169). The
document is too long and too scholastic to quote in full. The date is
March 12, 144⁴⁄₅.
[1042] ‘Quis, quaeso, Christianorum sensatus non diceret malos illos
sacerdotes et clericos, quos divini officii tempore videret larvatos,
monstruosis vultibus, aut in vestibus mulierum, aut lenonum, vel
histrionum choreas ducere in choro, cantilenas inhonestas cantare,
offas pingues supra cornu altaris iuxta celebrantem missam comedere,
ludum taxillorum ibidem exercere, thurificare de fumo fetido ex
corio veterum sotularium, et per totam ecclesiam currere, saltare,
turpitudinem suam non erubescere, ac deinde per villam et theatra
in curribus et vehiculis sordidis duci ad infamia spectacula, pro
risu astantium et concurrentium turpes gesticulationes sui corporis
faciendo, et verba impudicissima ac scurrilia proferendo?’
[1043] ‘Concludimus, quod a vobis praelatis pendet continuatio vel
abolitio huius pestiferi ritus; nam ipsos ecclesiasticos ita dementes
esse et obstinatos in hac furia non est verisimile, quod si faciem
praelati reperirent rigidam et nullatenus flexibilem a punitione cum
assistentia inquisitorum fidei, et auxilio brachii saecularis, quam
illico cederent aut frangerentur. Timerent namque carceres, timerent
perdere beneficia, perdere famam et ab altaribus sacris repelli.’
[1044] T. Boutiot, _Hist. de la Ville de Troyes_ (1870-80), ii. 264;
iii. 19. A chapter decree of 1437 lays down that a vicar who has served
as ‘archbishop’ and has subsequently left the cathedral and returned
again, need not serve a second time. It was doubtless an expensive
dignity.
[1045] Boutiot, _op. cit._ iii. 20; A. de Jubainville, _Inventaire
sommaire des Archives départementales de l’Aube_, i. 244 (G. 1275); P.
de Julleville, _Les Com._ 35, _Rép. Com._ 330; A. Vallet de Viriville,
in _Bibl. de l’École des Chartes_, iii. 448. The letter of Jean Leguisé
to Louis de Melun is printed in _Annales archéologiques_, iv. 209;
_Revue des Soc. Savantes_ (2nd series), vi. 94; _Journal de Verdun_,
Oct. 1751, and partly by Rigollot, 153. It is dated only Jan. 23, but
clearly refers to the events of 1444-5. The _Ordonnance_ of Charles
VII is in Martene and Durand, _Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum_, i. 1804;
H. Denifle, _Chartularium Univ. Paris_, iv. 657. Extracts are given
by Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_. The king speaks of the Troyes affair
as leading to the Theological Faculty’s letter. It is permissible to
conjecture that he was moved, no doubt by the abstract rights and
wrongs of the case, but also by a rumour spread at Troyes that he had
revoked the Pragmatic Sanction. For, as a matter of fact, Peter of
Brescia, the papal legate, was trying hard to get him to revoke it.
[1046] Boutiot, _op. cit._ i. 494, iii. 20. The chapters of St.
Stephen’s and St. Urban’s and the abbey of St. Loup all continued to
make payments for their feasts after 1445. They may have been pruned of
abuses. In the sixteenth century the Comte of Champagne pays five sous
to the ‘archevesque des Saulx’ at St. Stephen’s, and this appears to be
the _droit_ charged upon the royal demesne up to 1789.
[1047] Chérest, 66, from _Acta Capitularia_ (Dec. 4, 1444) in _Bibl.
Nat. Cod. Paris._ 1014 and 1351 ‘De servitio dominicae circumcisionis,
viso super hoc statuto per quemdam legatum edito, et consideratis
aliis circa hoc considerandis, et ad evitandum scandala, quae super
hoc possent exoriri, ordinatum fuit unanimiter et concorditer, nemine
discrepante, quod de caetero dictum servitium fiet, prout iacet
in libro ipsius servitii, devote et cum reverentia; absque aliqua
derisione, tumultu aut turpitudine, prout fiunt alia servitia in
aliis festis, in habitibus per dictum statutum ordinatis, et non
alias, et voce modulosa, absque dissonantia, et assistant in huiusmodi
servitio omnes qui tenentur in eo interesse, et faciant debitum suum
absque discursu aut turbatione servitii, potissime in ecclesia; nec
proiiciatur aqua in vesperis super praecentorem stultorum ultra
quantitatem trium sitularum ad plus; nec adducantur nudi in crastino
festi dominicae nativitatis, sine brachis verenda tegentibus, nec etiam
adducantur in ecclesia, sed ducantur ad puteum claustri, non hora
servitii sed alia, et ibi rigentur sola situla aquae sine lesione.
Qui contrarium fecerit occurrit ipso facto suspensionis censuram per
dictum statutum latam; attamen extra ecclesiam permissum est quod
stulti faciant alias ceremonias sine damno aut iniuria cuiusquam.’ The
proceedings on the day after the Nativity are probably explained by
the election of the precentor on that day (after Vespers). The victims
ducked may have failed to be present at the election; but cf. the
Easter _prisio_ (ch. vii).
[1048] Saint-Marthe, _Gallia Christiana_, xii. 96, partly quoted by
Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_. The bishop describes the feast almost in the
_ipsissima verba_ of the Paris Theologians, but in one passage (‘nudos
homines sine verendorum tegmine inverecunde ducendo per villam et
theatra in curribus et vehiculis sordidis, &c.’) he adds a trait from
the Sens chapter act just quoted.
[1049] Chérest, 68. The councils of Sens in 1460 and 1485 (p. 300) are
for the province. That of 1528 (sometimes called of Sens, but properly
of Paris) is national. They are not evidence for the feast at Sens
itself.
[1050] Ibid. 72 ‘Insolentias, tam de die quam de nocte, faciendo
tondere barbam parte, ut fieri consuevit, in theatro ... ac ludere
personagia, die scilicet circumcisionis Domini.’ The shaven face was
characteristic of the mediaeval fool, minstrel, or actor (cf. ch. ii).
Dreves, 586, adds that Tallinus Bissart, the precentor of this year,
was threatened with excommunication.
[1051] Ibid. 75.
[1052] Ibid. 76 ‘prohibitum vicariis ne attentent, ultima die anni,
in theatro tabulato ante valvas ecclesiae aut alibi in civitate
Senonensi, publice barbam illius qui se praecentorem fatuorum nominat,
aut alterius, radere, radifacere, permittere, aut procurare; et ne ad
electionem dicti praecentoris die festo Sancti Iohannis Evangelistae
sub poenis excommunicationis.’
[1053] Ibid. 77 ‘honeste, ac devote, sine laternis, sine precentore,
sine delatione baculi domini precentoris, nec poterunt facere rasuram
in theatro ante ecclesiam.’
[1054] Ibid. 78.
[1055] Dreves, 586.
[1056] _Prov. C. of Rouen_ (1445), c. 11 (Labbé, xiii. 1304) ‘prohibet
haec sancta synodus ludos qui fatuorum vulgariter nuncupantur
cum larvatis faciebus et alias inhoneste fieri in ecclesiis aut
cemeteriis’; _Prov. C. of Sens_ (1485, repeats decrees of earlier
council of 1460), c. 3 (Labbé, xiii. 1728), quoting and adopting Basle
decree, with careful exception for _consuetudines_ of Nativity and
Resurrection; cf. ch. xx; _Dioc. C. of Chartres_ (1526, apparently
repeated 1550, tit. 16; cf. Du Tilliot, 62) quoted Bochellus, iv. 7.
46 ‘denique ab Ecclesia eiiciantur vestes fatuorum personas scenicas
agentium’; _Nat. C. of Paris_ (1528, held by Abp. of Sens as primate),
_Decr. Morum_, c. 16 (Labbé, xiv. 471) ‘prohibemus ne fiat deinceps
festum fatuorum aut innocentium, neque erigatur decanatus patellae.’
The _Prov. C. of Rheims_ (1456, held at Soissons) in Labbé, xiii. 1397,
mentions only ‘larvales et theatrales ioci,’ ‘choreae,’ ‘tripudia,’ but
refers explicitly to the Pragmatic Sanction. This, it may be observed,
was suspended for a while in 1461 and finally annulled in 1516. Still
more general are the terms of the _C. of Orleans_ (1525, repeated 1587;
Du Tilliot, 61); _C. of Narbonne_ (1551), c. 46 (Labbé, xv. 26); _C.
of Beauvais_ (1554; E. Fleury, _Cinquante Ans de Laon_, 53); _C. of
Cambrai_ (1565), vi. 11 (Labbé, xv. 160); _C. of Rheims_ (1583), c. 5
(Labbé, xv. 889); _C. of Tours_ (1583, quoted Bochellus, iv. 7. 40).
See also the councils quoted as to the Boy Bishop, in ch. xv. Finally,
the _C. of Trent_, although in its 22nd session (1562) it renewed the
decrees of popes and councils ‘de choreis, aleis, lusibus’ (_Decr. de
Reformatione_, c. 1), made no specific mention of ‘fatui’ (_Can. et
Decr. Sacros. Oec. Conc. Tridentini_, (Romae, 1845), 127). Probably the
range of the feast was by this time insignificant.
[1057] Cf. ch. xvi.
[1058] But there was another revel on Aug. 28. F. L. Chartier,
_L’ancien Chapitre de N.-D. de Paris_, 175, quotes _Archives
Nationales_, LL. 288, p. 219 ‘iniunctum est clericis matutinalibus, ne
in festo S. Augustini faciant dissolutiones quas facere assueverant
annis praeteritis.’
[1059] Dulaure, _Hist. de Paris_, iii. 81; Grenier, 370. A ‘cardinal’
was chosen on Jan. 13, and took part in the office.
[1060] Grenier, 362. A model account form has the heading ‘in die
Circumcisionis, si fiat festum stultorum.’ The ‘rubriques du luminaire’
provide for a distribution of wax to the sub-deacons and choir-clerks.
[1061] Martonne, 49, giving no authority.
[1062] Grenier, 361; Dreves, 583; Rigollot, 15, quoting _Actum Capit._
Leave was given to John Cornet, of St. Michael’s, John de Nœux of St.
Maurice’s, rectors, and Everard Duirech, _capellanus_ of the cathedral,
‘pridem electi, instituti et assumpti in papatum stultorum villae
Ambianensis ... quod dictus Cornet ... et sui praedecessores in ipso
papatu ordinati superstites die circumcisionis Domini ... facerent
prandium in quo beneficiati ipsius villae convocarentur ... ut
inibi eligere instituere et ordinare valerent papam ac papatum
relevarent absque tamen praeiudicio in aliquo tangendo servitium
divinum ... faciendum.’ Apparently the parochial clergy of Amiens
joined with the cathedral vicars and chaplains in the feast.
[1063] Grenier, 362; Rigollot, 15 ‘Servitium divinum facient honeste
in choro ecclesiae solemne, absque faciendo insolentias aut aliquas
irrisiones, nec deferendo aliquas campanas in dicta ecclesia, aut
alibi, et si dicti vicarii facere voluerint aliqua convivia, erit eorum
sumptibus et non sumptibus Dominorum canonicorum.’
[1064] Rigollot, 16 ‘inhibuerunt capellanis et vicariis ... facere
recreationes solitas in pascha annotino, etiam facere electionem de
Papa Stultorum.’ Later in the year the ‘iocalia Papae, videlicet
annulus aureus, tassara (_sic_) argentea et sigillum’ were put in
charge of the ‘canonicus vicarialis.’
[1065] Rigollot, 17 ‘licentiam dederunt ... ludere die dominica proxima
brioris.’ Rigollot and Leber think that ‘brioris’ may be for ‘burarum,’
the feast of ‘buras’ or ‘brandons’ on the first Sunday in Lent. Can it
be the same as the ‘fête des Braies’ of Laon?
[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,
‘Sortez, saillez, venez de toutes parts,
Sottes et sots plus prompts que liépars.’
[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]
De par Mossenhor l’Evesque,
Que Dieus vos donne gran mal al bescle,
Avec una plena balasta de pardos
E dos das de raycha de sot lo mento.
[St. John’s Day]
Mossenhor ques ayssi presenz
Vos dona xx balastas de mal de dens,
Et à vos autras donas atressi
Dona 1^a coa de rossi.
[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.
[1155] _C. of Constantinople_ (869-70), c. 16 (Mansi, xvi. 169,
_ex versione Latina, abest in Graeca_) ‘fuisse quosdam laicos, qui
secundum diversam imperatoriam dignitatem videbantur capillorum comam
circumplexam involvere atque reponere, et gradum quasi sacerdotalem
per quaedam inducia et vestimenta sacerdotalia sumere, et, ut
putabatur, episcopos constituere, superhumeralibus, id est, palliis,
circumamictos, et omnem aliam Pontificalem indutos stolam, qui
etiam proprium patriarcham adscribentes eum qui in adinventionibus
risum moventibus praelatus et princeps erat, et insultabant et
illudebant quibusque divinis, modo quidem electiones, promotiones et
consecrationes, modo autem acute calumnias, damnationes et depositiones
episcoporum quasi ab invicem et per invicem miserabiliter et
praevaricatorie agentes et patientes. Talis autem actio nec apud gentes
a saeculo unquam audita est.’
[1156] Cedrenus, _Historiarum Compendium_, p. 639 B (ed. Bekker, in
_Corp. Hist. Byz._ xxiv. 2. 333), follows verbatim the still unprinted
eleventh-century John Scylitzes (Gibbon-Bury, v. 508). Theophylactus
was Patriarch from 933 to 956.
[1157] Theodorus Balsamon, _In Can. lxii Conc. in Trullo_ (_P. G._
cxxxvii. 727) Σημείωσαι τὸν παρόντα κανόνα, καὶ ζήτησον διόρθωσιν ἐπὶ
τοῖς γινομένοις παρὰ τῶν κληρικῶν εἰς τήν ἑορτὴν ἐπὶ τῆς γεννήσεως τοῦ
Χριστοῦ, καὶ τὴν ἑορτὴν τῶν Φώτων [Luminarium, Candlemas] ὑπεναντίως
τούτῳ· καὶ μᾶλλον εἰς τὴν ἁγιωτάτην Μεγάλην ἐκκλησίαν ... ἀλλὰ καί
τινες κληρικοὶ κατά τινας ἑορτὰς πρὸς διάφορα μετασχηματίζονται
προσωπεῖα. καὶ ποτὲ μὲν ξιφήρεις ἐν τῷ μεσονάω τῆς ἐκκλησίας μετὰ
στρατιωτικῶν ἀμφίων εἰσέρχονται, ποτὲ δὲ καὶ ὡς μοναχοὶ προοδεύουσιν, ἢ
καὶ ὡς ζῶα τετράποδα. ἐρωτήσας οὖν ὅπως ταῦτα παρεχωρήθησαν γίνεσθαι,
οὐδέν τε ἕτερον ἤκουσα ἀλλ’ ἢ ἐκ μακρᾶς συνθείας ταῦτα τελεῖσθαι.
τοιαῦτά εἰσιν, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, καὶ τὰ παρά τινων δομεστικευόντων ἐν
κλήρῳ γινόμενα, τὸν ἀέρα τοῖς δακτύλοις κατὰ ἡνιόχους τυπτόντων,
καὶ φύκη ταῖς γνάθοις δῆθεν περιτιθεμένων καὶ ὑπορρινομένων ἔργα
τινὰ γυναικεῖα, καὶ ἕτερα ἀπρεπῆ, ἵνα πρὸς γελωτα τοὺς βλέποντας
μετακινήσωσι. τὸ δὲ γελᾶν τοὺς ἀγρότας ἐγχεομένους τοῦ οἴνου τοῖς
πίθοις, ὡσεί τι παρεπόμενον ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἐστὶ τοῖς ληνοβατοισιν· εἰ μήτις
εἴπη τὴν σατανικὴν ταύτην ἐργασίαν καταργεῖσθαι διὰ τοῦ λέγειν τοὺς
ἀγρότας συχνότερον ἐφ’ ἑκάστῳ μέτρῳ σχεδὸν τό, Κύριε ἐλέησον. τὰ μέντοι
ποτὲ γινόμενα ἀπρεπῆ παρὰ τῶν νοταρίων παιδοδιδασκάλων κατὰ τὴν ἑορτὴν
τῶν ἁγίων νοταρίων, μετὰ προσωπείων σκηνικῶν διερχομένων τὴν ἀγοράν,
πρὸ χρόνων τινῶν κατηργήθησαν, καθ’ ὁρισμὸν τοῦ ἁγιωτάτου ἐκείνου
πατριάρχου κυρίου Λουκᾶ.
[1158] Belethus, c. 120, compares the ecclesiastical ball-play at
Easter to the _libertas Decembrica_. He is not speaking here of the
Feast of Fools.
[1159] e.g. Du Tilliot, 2.
[1160] S. R. Maitland, _The Dark Ages_, 141, tilts at the Protestant
historian Robertson’s _History of Charles V_, as do F. Clément,
159, and A. Walter, _Das Eselsfest_ in _Caecilien-Kalender_ (1885),
75, at Dulaure, _Hist. des Environs de Paris_, iii. 509, and other
‘Voltairiens.’
[1161] Chérest, 81.
[1162] J. Bujeaud, _Chants et Chansons populaires des Provinces de
l’Ouest_, i. 63. The _ronde_ is known in Poitou, Aunis, Angoumois. P.
Tarbé, _Romancero de Champagne_ (2^e partie), 257, gives a variant.
Bujeaud, i. 61, gives another _ronde_, the _Testament de l’Âne_, in
which the ass has fallen into a ditch, and amongst other legacies
leaves his tail to the _curé_ for an _aspersoir_. This is known in
Poitou, Angoumois, Franche-Comté. He also says that he has heard
children of Poitou and Angoumois go through a mock catechism, giving an
ecclesiastical significance to each part of the ass. The tail is the
_goupillon_, and so forth. Fournier-Verneuil, _Paris, Tableau moral et
philosophique_ (1826), 522, with the Beauvais _Officium_ in his mind,
says ‘Voulez-vous qu’au lieu de dire, _Ite, missa est_, le prêtre se
mette à braire trois fois de toute sa force, et que le peuple réponde
en chœur, comme je l’ai vu faire en 1788, dans l’église de Bellaigues,
en Périgord?’
[1163] Cf. ch. xx. Gasté, 20, considers the Rouen _Festum Asinorum_
‘l’origine de toutes les Fêtes de l’Âne qui se célébraient dans
d’autres diocèses’: but the Rouen MS. in which it occurs is only of
the fourteenth century, and the Balaam episode does not occur at all
in the more primitive forms of the _Prophetae_, while the Sens Feast
of Fools is called the _festa asinaria_ in the _Officium_ of the early
thirteenth century.
[1164] Tille, _D. W._ 31. In Madrid an ass was led in procession on
Jan. 17, with anthems on the Balaam legend (Clément, 181).
[1165] Clément, 182; Didron, _Annales archéologiques_, xv. 384.
[1166] Dulaure, _Hist. des Environs de Paris_, iii. 509, quotes a
legend to the effect that the very ass ridden by Christ came ultimately
to Verona, died there, was buried in a wooden effigy at S^{ta}-Maria in
Organo, and honoured by a yearly procession. He guesses at this as the
origin of the Beauvais and other _fêtes_. Didron, _Annales arch._ xv.
377, xvi. 33, found that nothing was known of this legend at Verona,
though such a statue group as is described above apparently existed
in the church named. Dulaure gives as his authorities F. M. Misson,
_Nouveau Voyage d’ Italie_ (1731), i. 164; _Dict. de l’ Italie_, i.
56. Misson’s visit to Verona was in 1687, although the passage was not
printed in the first edition (1691) of his book. It is in the English
translation of 1714 (i. 198). _His_ authority was a French merchant
(M. Montel) living in Verona, who had often seen the procession. In
_Cenni intorno all’ origine e descrizione della Festa che annualmente
si celebra in Verona l’ ultimo Venerdì del Carnovale, comunamente
denominata Gnoccolare_ (1818), 75, is a mention of the ‘asinello
del vecchio padre Sileno’ which served as a mount for the ‘Capo de’
Maccheroni.’ This is probably Misson’s procession, but there is no
mention of the legend in any of the eighteenth-century accounts quoted
in the pamphlet. Rienzi was likened to an ‘Abbate Asinino’ (Gibbon,
vii. 269).
[1167] Ducange, s. v. _Festum Asinorum_; cf. Leber, ix. 270; Molanus,
_de Hist. SS. Imaginum et Picturarum_ (1594), iv. 18.
[1168] T. Naogeorgus (Kirchmeyer), _The Popish Kingdom_, iv. 443
(1553, transl. Barnabe Googe, 1570, in New Shakspere Society edition
of Stubbes, _Anatomy of Abuses_, i. 332); cf. _Beehive of the Roman
Church_, 199. The earliest notice is in Gerardus, _Leben St. Ulrichs
von Augsburg_ (ob. 973), c. 4. E. Bishop, in _Dublin Review_, cxxiii.
405, traces the custom in a Prague fourteenth-century _Missal_ and
sixteenth-century _Breviary_; also in the modern Greek Church at Moscow
where until recently the Czar held the bridle. But there is no ass, as
he says, in the Palm Sunday ceremony described in the _Peregrinatio
Silviae_ (Duchesne, 486).
[1169] A peeress of the realm lately stated that this custom had been
introduced in recent years into the Anglican church. Denials were to
hand, and an amazing conflict of evidence resulted. Is there any proof
that the _Palmesel_ was ever an English ceremony at all? The Hereford
riding of 1706 (cf. _Representations_) was not in the church. Brand,
i. 73, quotes _A Dialogue: the Pilgremage of Pure Devotyon_ (1551?),
‘Upon Palme Sondaye they play the foles sadely, drawynge after them
an Asse in a rope, when they be not moche distante from the Woden
Asse that they drawe.’ Clearly this, like Googe’s translation of
Naogeorgus, is a description of contemporary continental Papistry.
W. Fulke, _The Text of the New Testament_ (ed. 1633), 76 (_ad Marc._
xi. 8) quotes a note of the Rheims translation to the effect that in
memory of the entry into Jerusalem is a procession on Palm Sunday
‘with the blessed Sacrament reverently carried as it were Christ upon
the Asse,’ and comments, ‘But it is pretty sport, that you make the
Priest that carrieth the idoll, to supply the roome of the Asse on
which Christ did ride.... Thus you turn the holy mysterie of Christ’s
riding to Jerusalem to a May-game and Pageant-play.’ Fulke, who lived
1538-89, is evidently unaware that there was an ass, as well as the
priest, in the procession, from which I infer that the custom was not
known in England. Not that this consideration would weigh with the
mediaevally-minded curate, who is as a rule only too ready to make up
by the ceremonial inaccuracy of his mummeries for the offence which
they cause to his congregation.
[1170] Marquardt-Mommsen, vi. 191; Jevons, _Plutarch’s Romane
Questions_, 134; Fowler, 304, 322; Ovid, _Fasti_, ii. 531:
‘stultaque pars populi, quae sit sua curia, nescit;
sed facit extrema sacra relata die.’
[1171] Fowler, 306.
[1172] Schaff, iii. 131.
[1173] Belethus, c. 70 ‘Debent ergo vesperae Natalis primo integre
celebrari, ac postea conveniunt diaconi quasi in tripudio, cantantque
_Magnificat_ cum antiphona de S. Stephano, sed sacerdos recitat
collectam. Nocturnos et universum officium crastinum celebrant
diaconi, quod Stephanus fuerit diaconus, et ad lectiones concedunt
benedictiones, ita tamen, ut eius diei missam celebret hebdomarius,
hoc est ille cuius tum vices fuerint eam exsequi. Sic eodem modo
omne officium perficient sacerdotes ipso die B. Ioannis, quod hic
sacerdos fuerit, et pueri in ipso festo Innocentium, quia innocentes
pro Christo occisi sunt, ... in festo itaque Innocentium penitus
subticentur cantica laetitiae, quoniam ii ad inferos descenderunt.’
Cf. also c. 72, quoted on p. 275. Durandus, _Rat. Div. Off._ (1284),
vii. 42, _De festis SS. Stephani, Ioannis Evang. et Innocentium_, gives
a similar account. At Vespers on Christmas Day, he says, the deacons
‘in tripudio convenientes cantant antiphonam de sancto Stephano, et
sacerdos collectam. Nocturnos autem et officium in crastinum celebrant
et benedictiones super lectiones dant: quod tamen facere non debent.’
So too for the priests and boys on the following days.
[1174] Honorius Augustodunensis, _Gemma Animae_, iii. 12 (_P. L._
clxxii. 646).
[1175] Ioannes Abrincensis (bishop of Rouen †1070), _de Eccl. Offic._
(_P. L._ cxlvii. 41), with fairly full account of the ‘officia.’
[1176] Ekkehardus IV, _de Casibus S. Galli_, c. 14 (ed. G. Meyer von
Knonau, in _Mittheilungen zur vaterländischen Gesch._ of the Hist.
Verein in St. Gallen, N. F., v.; _M. G. H. Scriptores_, ii. 84)
‘longum est dicere, quibus iocunditatibus dies exegerit et noctes,
maxime in processione infantum; quibus poma in medio ecclesiae
pavimento antesterni iubens, cum nec unum parvissimorum moveri nec ad
ea adtendere vidisset, miratus est disciplinam.’ Ekkehart was master
of the song-school, and von Knonau mentions some _cantiones_ written
by him and others for the feast, e.g. one beginning ‘Salve lacteolo
decoratum sanguine festum.’ He has another story (c. 26) of how Solomon
who was abbot of the monastery, as well as bishop of Constance, looking
into the song-school on the ‘dies scolarium,’ when the boys had a
‘ius ... ut hospites intrantes capiant, captos, usque dum se redimant,
teneant,’ was duly made prisoner, and set on the master’s seat. ‘Si in
magistri solio sedeo,’ cried the witty bishop, ‘iure eius uti habeo.
Omnes exuimini.’ After his jest, he paid his footing like a man. The
‘Schulabt’ of St. Gall is said to have survived until the council of
Trent.
[1177] Frere, _Winch. Troper_, 6, 8, 10. The deacons sang ‘Eia,
conlevitae in protomartyris Stephani natalicio ex persona ipsius
cum psalmista ouantes concinnamus’; the priests, ‘Hodie candidati
sacerdotum chori centeni et milleni coniubilent Christo dilectoque suo
Iohanni’; the boys, ‘Psallite nunc Christo pueri, dicente propheta.’
[1178] Rock, iii. 2. 214; Clément, 118; Grenier, 353; Martene, iii.
38. These writers add several references for the _triduum_ or one
or other of its feasts to those here given: e.g. Martene quotes on
St. Stephen’s feast _Ordinarium of Langres_, ‘finitis vesperis fiunt
tripudia’; _Ordinarium of Limoges_, ‘vadunt omnes ad capitulum, ubi
Episcopus, sive praesens, sive absens fuerit, dat eis potum ex tribus
vinis’; _Ordinarium of Strasburg_ (†1364), ‘propinatur in refectorio,
sicut in vigilia nativitatis.’
[1179] Martene, iii. 38 ‘tria festa, quae sequuntur, fiunt cum magna
solemnitate et tripudio. Primum faciunt diaconi, secundum presbiteri,
tertium pueri.’
[1180] Grenier, 353 ‘si festa [S. Stephani] fiant, ut consuetum est, a
diaconis in cappis sericis ... fit statio in medio choro, et ab ipsis
regitur chorus ... et fiant festa sicut docent libri’; and so for the
two other feasts.
[1181] Martene, iii. 38 ‘cum in primis vesperis [in festo S. Stephani]
ad illum cantici _Magnificat_ versiculum _Deposuit potentes_ perventum
erat, cantor baculum locumque suum diacono, qui pro eo chorum regeret,
cedebat’; and so on the other feasts.
[1182] Cf. p. 315.
[1183] Durr, 77. Here the sub-deacons shared in the deacons’ feast.
[1184] The _Consuetudinarium_ of †1210 (Frere, _Use of Sarum_, i. 124,
223) mentions the procession of deacons after Vespers on Christmas
day, but says nothing of the share of the priests and boys in those
of the following days. The _Sarum Breviary_ gives all three (Fasc. i.
cols. cxcv, ccxiii, ccxxix), and has a note (col. clxxvi) ‘nunquam enim
dicitur Prosa ad Matutinas per totum annum, sed ad Vesperas, et ad
Processionem, excepto die sancti Stephani, cuius servitium committitur
voluntati Diaconorum; et excepto die sancti Iohannis, cuius servitium
committitur voluntati Sacerdotum; et excepto die sanctorum Innocentium,
cuius servitium committitur voluntati Puerorum.’
[1185] _York Missal_, i. 20, 22, 23 (from fifteenth-century MS. _D_
used in the Minster) ‘_In die S. Steph._ ... finita processione,
si Dominica fuerit, ut in Processionali continetur, Diaconis
et Subdiaconis in choro ordinatim astantibus, unus Diaconus,
cui Praecentor imposuerit, incipiat Officium.... _In die S.
Ioann._ ... omnibus Personis et Presbyteris civitatis ex antiqua
consuetudine ad Ecclesiam Cathedralem convenientibus, et omnibus
ordinate ex utraque parte Chori in Capis sericis astantibus, Praecentor
incipiat Officium.... _In die SS. Innoc._ ... omnibus pueris in Capis,
Praecentor illorum incipiat.’ There are responds for the ‘turba
diaconorum,’ ‘presbyterorum’ or ‘puerorum.’
[1186] _Lincoln Statutes_, i. 290; ii. ccxxx, 552.
[1187] Gasquet, _Old English Bible_, 250.
[1188] Martene, iii. 40.
[1189] Ibid. iii. 39.
[1190] In his second decree of 1199 as to the feast of the Circumcision
at Paris (cf. p. 276), Bishop Eudes de Sully says (_P. L._ ccxii.
73) ‘quoniam festivitas beati protomartyris Stephani eiusdem fere
subiacebat dissolutionis et temeritatis incommodo, nec ita solemniter,
sicut decebat et martyris merita requirebant, in Ecclesia Parisiensi
consueverat celebrari, nos, qui eidem martyri sumus specialiter
debitores, quoniam in Ecclesia Bituricensi patronum habuerimus,
in cuius gremio ab ineunte aetate fuimus nutriti; de voluntate et
assensu dilectorum nostrorum Hugonis decani et capituli Parisiensis,
festivitatem ipsam ad statum reducere regularem, eumque magnis
Ecclesiae solemnitatibus adnumerare decrevimus; statuentes ut in ipso
festo tantum celebritatis agatur, quantum in ceteris festis annualibus
fieri consuevit.’ Eudes de Sully made a donative to the canons and
clerks present at Matins on the feast, which his successor Petrus
de Nemore confirmed in 1208 (_P. L._ ccxii. 91). Dean Hugo Clemens
instigated a similar reform of St. John’s day (see p. 276).
[1191] Martene, iii. 40; Grenier, 353, 412. The _Ritual_ of Bishop
Nivelon, at the end of the twelfth century, orders St. Stephen’s to be
kept as a triple feast, ‘exclusa antiqua consuetudine diaconorum et
ludorum.’
[1192] Schannat, iv. 258 (1316) ‘illud, quod ... causa devotionis
ordinatum fuerat ... ut Sacerdotes singulis annis in festivitate Beati
Iohannis Evangelistae unum ex se eligant, qui more episcopi illa die
Missam gloriose celebret et festive, nunc in ludibrium vertitur, et in
ecclesia ludi fiunt theatrales, et non solum in ecclesia introducuntur
monstra larvarum, verum etiam Presbyteri, Diaconi et Subdiaconi
insaniae suae ludibria exercere praesumunt, facientes prandia
sumptuosa, et cum tympanis et cymbalis ducentes choreas per domos et
plateas civitatis.’
[1193] At Rouen in 1445 the feast of St. John, held by the _capellani_,
was alone in question. The chapter ordered (Gasté, 46) ‘ut faciant die
festi sancti euangelistae Iohannis servicium divinum bene et honeste,
sine derisionibus et fatuitatibus; et inhibitum fuit eisdem ne habeant
vestes difformes, insuper quod fiat mensa et ponantur boni cantores,
qui bene sciant cantare, omnibus derisionibus cessantibus.’ But in 1446
the feast of St. Stephen needed reforming, as well as that of St. John
(A. Chéruel, _Hist. de Rouen sous la Domination anglaise_, 206); and in
1451 all three (Gasté, 47) ‘praefati Domini capitulantes ordinaverunt
quod in festis solemnitatis Nativitatis Domini nostri Ihesu Christi
proxime futuris, omnes indecencie et inhonestates consuete fieri in
dedecus ecclesie, tam per presbyteros dyaconos quam pueros chori et
basse forme, cessent omnino, nec sit aliquis puer in habitu episcopi,
sed fiat servicium devote et honorifice prout in aliis festis similis
gradus.’
[1194] _C. of Toledo_ (1473), c. 19 (Labbé, xiii. 1460) ‘Quia vero
quaedam tam in Metropolitains quam in Cathedralibus et aliis Ecclesiis
nostrae provinciae consuetudo inolevit ut videlicet in festis
Nativitatis Domini nostri Iesu Christi et sanctorum Stephani, Ioannis
et Innocentium aliisque certis diebus festivis, etiam in solemnitatibus
Missarum novarum dum divina aguntur, ludi theatrales, larvae,
monstra, spectacula, necnon quamplurima inhonesta et diversa figmenta
in Ecclesiis introducuntur ... huiusmodi larvas, ludos, monstra,
spectacula, figmenta et tumultuationes fieri ... prohibemus....
Per hoc tam honestas repraesentationes et devotas, quae populum ad
devotionem movent, tam in praefatis diebus quam in aliis non intendimus
prohibere’; _C. of Lyons_ (1566 and 1577), c. 15 (Du Tilliot, 63) ‘Es
jours de Fête des Innocens et autres, l’on ne doit souffrir ès Églises
jouer jeux, tragédies, farces, &c.’; cf. the Cologne statutes (1662)
quoted on p. 352.
[1195] H. E. Reynolds, _Wells Cathedral_, 75 ‘_Quod non sint ludi
contra honestatem Ecclesiae Wellensis_. Item a festo Nativitatis Domini
usque ad octavas Innocentium quod Clerici Subdiaconi Diaconi Presbiteri
etiam huius ecclesiae vicarii ludos faciant theatrales in ecclesia
Wellensi et monstra larvarum introducentes, in ea insaniae suae
ludibria exercere praesumunt contra honestatem clericalem et sacrorum
prohibitionem canonum divinum officium multipliciter impediendo; quod
de cetero in ecclesia Wellensi et sub pena canonica fieri prohibentes
volumus quod divinum officium in festo dictorum sanctorum Innocentium
sicuti in festis sanctorum consimilibus quiete ac pacifice absque
quocunque tumultu et ludibrio cum devotione debita celebretur.’