THE BOY BISHOP, OR NICHOLAS BISHOP
In all the representations of St. Nicholas, painting or image,
except those pictures dealing with his childhood, he appears with
the robes and insignia of a bishop. St. Nicholas is preëminently the
bishop-saint. Concerning his boyhood elevation to the episcopal rank,
legend has an interesting story to relate. Once more let us turn to the
Golden Legend, which relates the story as follows:
After this the bishop of Mirea died and other bishops assembled for
to purvey to this church a bishop. And there was, among the others,
a bishop of great authority, and all the election was in him. And
when he had warned all for to be in fastings and in prayers, this
bishop heard that night a voice which said to him that, at the
hour of matins, he should take heed to the doors of the church,
and him that should come first to the church, and have the name of
Nicholas they should sacre him bishop. And he showed this to the
other bishops and admonished them for to be all in prayers; and he
kept the doors. And this was a marvelous thing, for at the hour of
matins, like as he had been sent from God, Nicholas arose tofore
all other. And the bishop took him when he was come and demanded
of him his name. And he, which was simple as a dove, inclined his
head, and said: I have to name Nicholas. Then the bishop said to
him: Nicholas, Servant and friend of God, for your holiness ye
shall be bishop of this place. And sith they brought him to the
church, howbeit that he refused it strongly, yet they set him in
the chair. And he followed, as he did tofore in all things, in
humility and honesty of manners. He woke in prayer and made his
body lean, he eschewed company of women, he was humble in receiving
all things, profitable in speaking, joyous in admonishing, and
cruel in correcting.
This episode is the most celebrated in the life of St. Nicholas. It
is represented in a number of Italian paintings. The early morning
appearance of the boy Nicholas at the church and his surprise as he
learns of his election are presented in particularly lively manner in
one of the scenes from his life by Lorenzetti preserved at Florence.[54]
Interesting in itself, the story of the elevation of the boy Nicholas
to the rank of bishop also possesses interest because associated with
some of the most interesting of early church customs, those centering
about the personage of the Boy Bishop, or Nicholas Bishop as he was
sometimes called. The explanation of this interesting personage and the
customs associated with him, like that of Santa Claus, is a complex
one. In the case of the Boy Bishop customs once more we have probably
to do with the survival of pre-Christian customs with which the Church
associated new names and new meaning.
The spirit that dominated the Christian December celebration and many
details of the external form of celebration are to be found in the
Roman pagan customs of December and early January. The early winter
season in Roman times was a period of general relaxation and merry
making. In the week beginning December 17th and ending December 23d,
the ancient god Saturn resumed once more, for a limited period, the
benign rule of which he had been deprived by his more strenuous, shall
we say more efficient, son Jove. The week of the rule of Saturn, the
_Saturnalia_, was a time of revelry and riot. The serious was barred.
No business was allowed; drinking and games and noise prevailed. All
men were to be equal, rich and poor, slave and free. There was chosen
a mock king who could impose forfeits. The Roman New Year’s feast had
a similar character. As at the _Saturnalia_, masters drank and gambled
with slaves.[55] In the words of the Greek sophist, Libanius: “From the
minds of young people it (the New Year’s feast) removes two kinds
of dread: the dread of the schoolmaster and the dread of the stern
pedagogue.”
[Illustration: A. Lorenzetti. The Boy Nicholas Indicated as the Divine
Choice for Bishop.
Alinari]
The attitude of the Christian church toward pagan custom is well known.
Since it could not hope to extirpate old practice, it endeavored to
adapt it to Christian use, giving to it Christian meaning and, as far
as possible, Christian character. It aimed to make the birth of Christ,
and the associated events, the dominating idea in its celebration at
the beginning of winter. In spite of this intention, in the popular
customs of the Christmas season, even in the ceremonies of the Church,
there is apparent a survival of many features of pagan practice.
Especially in the practice of the week following Christmas, there
is to be observed the leveling or inversion of rank, the election
of a mock ruler, and the general relaxation of discipline that were
features of the pagan celebrations of the same season at Rome. Thus
in the three days immediately following Christmas, church discipline
was sufficiently relaxed to permit of revels in turn, by the lower
orders of clergy and by the choir boys. December 26th, St. Stephen’s
day, was the day for the deacons, since St. Stephen was a deacon. For
this day the deacons supplanted the higher dignitaries and took the
preëminence in the divine services. On Christmas night, the eve of St.
Stephen’s day, after vespers, the deacons formed a pompous procession
dressed in silk copes like priests. On St. Stephen’s day the deacons
performed the parts of the divine service. There was also a great deal
of mock ceremonial, and drinking and processions in the streets, with
visiting of houses and levying of contributions.[56] On the following
day, the day of St. John the Evangelist, the priests had their innings.
Features of their celebration were mock blessings and the proclamation
of a ribald form of indulgence. On the eve of Innocents’ day (Dec.
28th), the priests gave way to the choir boys, “the children,” for
the celebration of Childermas. On Circumcision Day (Jan. 1st), the
sub-deacons, the “rookies” among the priestly orders, took their turn
at occupying the places of the higher clergy.
The day of the sub-deacons, possibly because of its coincidence with
the Roman Kalends, was celebrated in a particularly mad fashion. In
the words “_Deposuit potentes de sede: et exaltavit humiles_” sung in
the _Magnificat_ at Vespers, was found the suggestion for a general
inversion in rank. For the time, the places of rank and honor were
taken by the lowly sub-deacons. The sacred services were burlesqued in
most shocking fashion varying in different places. In Paris[57] in
the fifteenth century, “priests danced in the choir dressed as women,
panders, or minstrels. Wanton songs were sung. Black puddings were
eaten at the horn of the altar while mass was being celebrated, and
the altar was censed with ashes or by the smoke from the soles of old
shoes.” Performers without the church were even more irreverent and
riotous in character.
The choir boy customs of Holy Innocents’ day were somewhat like those
described, although more restrained in character, since, as Mr.
Chambers has remarked, boys were more amenable to discipline than
the older clergy. There was a similar inversion of rank and, within
limit, a similar burlesque of custom, on this day the choir boys taking
precedence in rank, presided over by one of their number, usually
elected on St. Nicholas’ day, with the title of Boy Bishop, or Nicholas
Bishop.
A central feature of the celebration was a pompous church procession
following vespers on Childermas eve. In this procession the inversion
of rank was a feature. The book, the censer, and the candles, usually
borne by boys, on this occasion were borne by reverend canons, and
when at the end of the ceremony the procession returned to the choir,
the boys took the places of dignity in the higher stalls, with the Boy
Bishop in the stall of the bishop or dean. Then followed a feature
doubtless in the estimation of the boys not less important than the
procession, namely a supper provided by one of the church dignitaries.
On Innocents’ day all the services, including the Mass, were performed
by the boys with their “Bishop,” also in many places the “Bishop”
preached a sermon. Nor were the honor and dignity of the Boy Bishop
confined to the ceremonies within the church. In mounted procession,
with attendant boy prebends, he visited other religious houses and
houses of neighboring people of prominence, singing songs and imparting
blessings in the expectation of festal entertainment and of money gifts
as well. In the year 1555 the “chylde byshope” of St. Paul’s with his
company visited Queen Mary at St. James’s and sang a song before her
both on St. Nicholas’ day (Dec. 6th) and on Innocents’ day (Dec. 28th).
The amounts collected on these occasions were considerable. Robert de
Holme,[58] who was “Bishop” at York, received from the choirmaster, who
served as treasurer, in 1369, the sum of £3 15s. 1½d. But this was only
a part of the receipts, for at intervals during the fortnight following
Christmas, the “Bishop” with his troupe made trips in the neighborhood
which netted handsome profit, the countess of Northumberland alone
contributing twenty shillings and a gold ring.[59] In Aberdeen the
master of the grammar school was paid by a collection taken when he
went the rounds with the “Bishop.” That this source of revenue was not
a matter of trivial importance may be inferred from the interesting
statement in the municipal registers that “he hes na uder fee to leif
on.”
Some interesting details regarding French observance of the Boy Bishop
custom have been garnered by Mr. Chambers from the records for Toul. At
that place
the expenses of the feast, with the exception of the dinner on
the day after Innocents’ day, which came out of the disciplinary
fines, are assigned by the statutes to the canons in the order of
their appointment. The responsible canon must give a supper on
Innocents’ day, and on the following day a dessert out of what
is over. He must also provide the “Bishop” with a horse, gloves,
and a _biretta_ when he rides abroad. At the supper a curious
ceremony took place. The canon returned thanks to the “Bishop,”
apologized for any shortcomings in the preparations, and finally
handed the “Bishop” a cap of rosemary or other flowers, which was
then conferred upon the canon to whose lot it would fall to provide
the feast for the next anniversary. Should the canon disregard
his duties the boys and sub-deacons were entitled to hang up a
black cope on a candlestick in the middle of the choir _in illius
vituperium_ for as long as they might choose.
The elaborateness, too, of the manner of celebration, as well as the
constant association with St. Nicholas, may be inferred from the
following Northumberland inventory of robes and ornaments belonging to
one of these Boy Bishops:[60]
Imprimis, i. myter, well garnished with perle and precious stones,
with nowches of silver and gilt before and behind. Item, iiii.
rynges of silver and gilt, with four ridde precious stones in them.
Item, i. pontifical with silver and gilt, with a blue stone in
hytt. Item, i. owche, broken, silver and gilt, with iiii. precious
stones, and a perle in the mydds. Item, a croose, with a staff of
coper and gilt, with the ymage of St. Nicolas in the mydds. Item,
i. vestment, redde, with lyons, with silver, with brydds of gold in
the orferes of the same. Item, i. albe to the same, with starres in
the paro. Item, i. white cope, stayned with tristells and orferes,
redde sylke, with does of gold, and whytt napkins about the necks.
Item, iiii. copes, blew sylk with red orferes, trayled, with whitt
braunchis and flowers. Item, i. steyned cloth of the ymage of St.
Nicholas. Item, i. taberd of skarlet, and a hodde thereto lyned
with whitt sylk. Item, a hode of skarlett, lyned with blue sylk.
The earliest known reference to the Boy Bishop custom is from St.
Gall in the year 911. King Conrad I. was visiting Bishop Solomon of
Constance and heard so much of the Vespers procession at St. Gall that
he determined to visit the monastery at the time of the revels. He
found it “all very amusing and especially the procession of children,
so grave and sedate that even when Conrad bade his train roll apples
along the aisle, they did not budge.”[61] In later years the custom
lost much of its early sobriety, although doubtless a great deal of
dignity, real or assumed, persisted in the church procession. The
custom pervaded most of the countries of Europe in the following
centuries.
In France it was not abolished until 1721. At Mainz, in Germany, it was
not wholly extinct in 1779.[62] In Belgium in the nineteenth century
there survived a number of popular customs showing for the celebration
of Innocents’ day of the present the same kind of inversion of
authority that characterized the Boy Bishop customs of earlier times.
Innocents’ day is in Belgium more than in other countries a popular
festival, making up somewhat for the fact that in Belgium, Christmas
is less of a children’s celebration than in other Teutonic countries,
or perhaps owing to the greater importance of St. Nicholas customs in
the Netherlands than in other countries. In any event, in Belgium,
Innocents’ day is a real children’s festival: children are masters in
the house, and parents must obey them. At Antwerp, in Brabant, and in
some parts of the county of Limbourg, little boys and girls dress up
for the day as papas and mammas. Usually the youngest of the family
receives the key to the pantry and orders in the kitchen the meals for
the day.[63]
In England the Boy Bishop custom, which came to an end in the sixteenth
century under Reformation influence, once prevailed throughout the
length and breadth of the land--at first in cathedrals, collegiate
churches, and schools, later “in every parish church where there
was a sufficient band of choristers to furnish forth the Boy Bishop
ceremonial, or sufficiently well-to-do parishioners to be worth laying
under contribution.”[64]
The relation of the Boy Bishop to St. Nicholas customs offers a
number of difficulties to explain. Mr. Chambers leans to the view
that the custom was originally associated with St. Nicholas’ day,
an opinion supported by the fact that the “Bishop” was elected
on the eve of St. Nicholas. But he believes that, like other St.
Nicholas customs, the Santa Claus custom for instance, it was later
transferred to the Christmas season. Something, however, may be said
for a contrary explanation. It is an established fact that medieval
schools and universities had their origin in the song schools of
the Church; consequently in schools and universities there survived
customs originally appropriate only to choir boys. In this way might
be transferred a custom observed by choir boys on the festival at
Holy Innocents’ day (Dec. 28th), to St. Nicholas’ day (Dec. 6th),
the festival day of schoolboys, and the Boy Bishop of Innocents’ day
get the name of _Episcopus Nicholatensis_, “Nicholas Bishop,” or by
an admirable Latin pun at Eton, “_Episcopus Nihilensis_,” “Bishop of
Nothing.” There is evident relationship between the custom of the Boy
Bishop and the story of St. Nicholas elected bishop when a boy. Did the
custom grow out of the story, or as is so often the case, did the story
originate as an explanation of an established custom?
Oliver Wendell Holmes, on the occasion of a visit paid, late in life,
to Westminster Abbey, singles out from “amidst all the imposing
recollections of the ancient edifice,” one that impressed him “in the
inverse ratio of its importance, ... the little holes in the stones,
in one place, where the boys of the choir used to play marbles.” In
a similar way it may be remarked that among all the magnificent
ceremonies in the history of the Church, few are more impressive than
those associated with the Boy Bishop, or Nicholas Bishop. The choir
boy, exercising his rule over his fellow boys, riding with them in
parade about the city or surrounding country, or for the nonce lording
it over his pompous superiors and indulging in playful parody of the
ceremonies in which throughout the year he has taken a not always too
patient part,--all this affords us a glimpse at natural boy nature
centuries ago.