There was a second feast in Dijon at the church of St. Stephen. In 1494 it was the custom here, as at Sens, to shave the ‘precentor’ of Fools upon a stage before the church. In 1621 the vicars still paraded the streets with music and lanterns in honour of their ‘precentor[1109].’ In 1552, however, the Feasts of Fools throughout Burgundy had been prohibited by an arrêt of the Parlement of Dijon. This was immediately provoked by the desire of the chapter of St. Vincent’s at Châlons-sur-Saône to end the scandal of the feast under their jurisdiction. It was, however, general in its terms, and probably put an end to the Chapelle feast at Dijon, since to about this period may be traced the origin of the famous compagnie of the Mère-Folle in that city[1110].
In Dauphiné there was a rex et festum fatuorum at St. Apollinaire’s in Valence, but I cannot give the date[1111]. At Vienne the Statutes of St. Maurice, passed in 1385, forbid the abbas stultorum seu sociorum, but apparently allow rois on the Circumcision and Epiphany, as well as in the three post-Nativity feasts. They also forbid certain ludibria. No pasquinades are to be recited, and no one is to be carried in Rost or to have his property put in pawn[1112]. More can be said of the feast at Viviers. A Ceremonial of 1365 contains minute directions for its conduct[1113]. On December 17 the sclafardi et clericuli chose an abbas stultus to be responsible, as at Auxerre, for the decorum of the choir throughout the year. He was shouldered and borne to a place of honour at a drinking-bout. Here even the bishop, if present, must do him honour. After the drinking, the company divided into two parts, one composed of inferior clergy, the other of dignitaries, and sang a doggerel song, each endeavouring to sing its rival down. They shouted, hissed, howled, cackled, jeered and gesticulated; and the victors mocked and flouted the vanquished. Then the door-keeper made a proclamation on behalf of the ‘abbot,’ calling on all to follow him, on pain of having their breeches slit, and the whole crew rushed violently out of the church. A progress through the town followed, which was repeated daily until Christmas eve[1114]. On the three post-Nativity feasts, a distinct dominus festi, the episcopus stultus, apparently elected the previous year, took the place of the abbas. On each of these days he presided at Matins, Mass, and Vespers, sat in full pontificals on the bishop’s throne, attended by his ‘chaplain,’ and gave the Benedictions. Both on St. Stephen’s and St. John’s days these were followed by the recitation of a burlesque formula of indulgence[1115]. The whole festivity seems to have concluded on Innocents’ day with the election of a new episcopus, who, after the shouldering and the drinking-bout, took his stand at a window of the great hall of the bishop’s palace, and blessed the people of the city[1116]. The episcopus was bound to give a supper to his fellows. In 1406 one William Raynoard attempted to evade this obligation. An action was brought against him in the court of the bishop’s official, by the then abbas and his predecessor. It was referred to the arbitration of three canons, who decided that Raynoard must give the supper on St. Bartholomew’s next, August 24, at the accustomed place (a tavern, one fears) in the little village of Gras, near Viviers[1117].
Finally, there are examples of the Feast of Fools in Provence. At Arles it was held in the church of St. Trophime, and is said to have been presented, out of its due season, it may be supposed, for the amusement of the Emperor Charles IV at his coronation in 1365, to have scandalized him and so to have met its end[1118]. Nevertheless in the fifteenth century an ‘archbishop of Innocents,’ alias stultus, still sang the ‘O’ on St. Thomas’s day, officiated on the days of St. John and the Innocents, and on St. Trophime’s day (Dec. 29) paid a visit to the abadesse fole of the convent of Saint-Césaire. The real abbess of this convent was bound to provide chicken, bread and wine for his regaling[1119]. At Fréjus in 1558 an attempt to put down the feast led to a riot. The bishop, Léon des Ursins, was threatened with murder, and had to hide while his palace was stormed[1120]. At Aix the chapter of St. Saviour’s chose on St. Thomas’s day, an episcopus fatuus vel Innocentium from the choir-boys. He officiated on Innocents’ day, and boys and canons exchanged stalls. The custom lasted until at least 1585[1121]. Antibes, as late as 1645, affords a rare example of the feast held by a religious house. It was on Innocents’ day in the church of the Franciscans. The choir and office were left to the lay-brothers, the quêteurs, cooks and gardeners. These put on the vestments inside out, held the books upside down, and wore spectacles with rounds of orange peel instead of glasses. They blew the ashes from the censers upon each other’s faces and heads, and instead of the proper liturgy chanted confused and inarticulate gibberish. All this is recorded by the contemporary free-thinker Mathurin de Neuré in a letter to his leader and inspirer, Gassendi[1122].
It will be noticed that the range of the Feast of Fools in France, so far as I have come across it, seems markedly to exclude the west and south-west of the country. I have not been able to verify an alleged exception at Bordeaux[1123]. Possibly there is some ethnographical reason for this. But on the whole, I am inclined to think that it is an accident, and that a more complete investigation would disclose a sufficiency of examples in this area. Outside France, the Feast of Fools is of much less importance. The Spanish disciplinary councils appear to make no specific mention of it, although they know the cognate feast of the Boy Bishop, and more than once prohibit ludi, choreae, and so forth, in general terms[1124]. In Germany, again, I do not know of a case in which the term ‘Fools’ is used. But the feast itself occurs sporadically. As early as the twelfth century, Herrad von Landsberg, abbess of Hohenburg, complained that miracle-plays, such as that of the Magi, instituted on Epiphany and its octave by the Fathers of the Church, had given place to licence, buffoonery and quarrelling. The priests came into the churches dressed as knights, to drink and play in the company of courtesans[1125]. A Mosburg Gradual of 1360 contains a series of cantiones compiled and partly written by the dean John von Perchausen for use when the scholarium episcopus was chosen at the Nativity[1126]. Some of these, however, are shown by their headings or by internal evidence to belong rather to a New Year’s day feast, than to one on Innocents’ day[1127]. A festum baculi is mentioned and an episcopus or praesul who is chosen and enthroned. One carol has the following refrain[1128]:
‘gaudeamus et psallamus novo praesuli
ad honorem et decorem sumpti baculi.’
Another is so interesting, for its classical turn, and for the names which it gives to the ‘bishop’ and his crew that I quote it in full[1129].
1. Gregis pastor Tityrus,
asinorum dominus,
noster est episcopus.