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.’

[1196] Reynolds, _op. cit._ 87 ‘_Prohibitio ludorum theatralium et spectaculorum et ostentationum larvarum in Ecclesia_. Item, cum infra septimanam Pentecostes et etiam in aliis festivitatibus fiant a laicis ludi theatrales in ecclesia praedicta et non solum ad ludibriorum spectacula introducantur in ea monstra larvarum, verum etiam in sanctorum Innocentium et aliorum sanctorum festivitatibus quae Natale Christi secuntur, Presbyteri Diaconi et Subdiaconi dictae Wellensis ecclesiae vicissim insaniae suae ludibria exercentes per gesticulationem debacchationes obscenas divinum officium impediant in conspectu populi, decus faciant clericale vilescere quem potius illo tempore deberent praedicatione mulcere....’ The statute goes on to threaten offenders with excommunication.

[1197] F. C. Hingeston Randolph, _Bishop Grandison’s Register_,