Qui sont auques luxurieus,
Le donna toute et departi.’
[144] Kögel, i. 2. 220.
[145] Theganus, de gestis Ludovici Pii (M. G. H. Scriptores, ii. 594), c. 19 ‘Poetica carmina gentilia, quae in iuventute didicerat, respuit, nec legere nec audire nec docere voluit,’ and ‘nunquam in risu exaltavit vocem suam, nec quando in festivitatibus ad laetitiam populi procedebant thymelici, scurrae, et mimi cum choraulis et citharistis ad mensam coram eo, tunc ad mensuram ridebat populus coram eo, ille nunquam vel dentes candidos suos in risu ostendit.’ The ‘carmina gentilia,’ so much disliked by Louis, were probably Frankish and not classic poems.
[146] Benedictus Levita, vi. 205 (M. G. H. Leges, ii. 2. 83), ‘ne in illo sancto die vanis fabulis aut locutionibus sive cantationibus vel saltationibus stando in biviis et plateis ut solet inserviant.’ On this collection see Schaff, v. 272.
[147] This capitulary is of doubtful date, but belongs to the reign either of Louis the Pious, or Lothair (Boretius, i. 334; Pertz, i. 324; Ben. Levita, ii. 49) ‘ut in palatiis nostris ad accusandum et iudicandum et testimonium faciendum non se exhibeant viles personae et infames, histriones scilicet, nugatores, manzeres, scurrae, concubinarii, ... aut servi aut criminosi’; cf. R. Sohm, Die fränk. Reichs-und Gerichtsverfassung, 354.
[148] For ninth-century prohibitions see Statutes of Haito, Bp. of Basle (807-23), c. 11 (Boretius, i. 364); Conc. of Maintz (847), c. 13 (Boretius, ii. 179); Conc. of Maintz (852), c. 6 (Boretius, ii. 187); Capit. of Walter of Orleans (858), c. 17 (Mansi, xv. 507), Capit. of Hincmar of Rheims (P. L. cxxv. 776); and cf. Prynne, 556. Stress is often laid on the claims of the poor; e. g. Agobardus (†836), de Dispens. Eccles. Rer. 30 (P. L. civ. 249) ‘satiat praeterea et inebriat histriones, mimos, turpissimosque et vanissimos ioculares, cum pauperes ecclesiae fame discruciati intereant.’
[149] Otto Frisingensis, Chronicon, vi. 32, records of the Emperor Henry III in 1045 that ‘quumque ex more regio nuptias Inglinheim celebraret, omne balatronum et histrionum collegium, quod, ut assolet, eo confluxerat, vacuum abire permisit, pauperibusque ea quae membris diaboli subtraxerat, large distribuit.’ After the death of the Emperor Henry I of Germany his widow Matilda ‘neminem voluit audire carmina saecularia cantantem’ (Vita Machtildis Antiquior in M. G. H. Scriptores, iv. 294).
[150] Honorius Augustodunensis, Elucidarium (†1092), ii. 18 (P. L. clxxii. 1148) ‘Habent spem ioculatores? nullam; tota namque intentione sunt ministri Satanae’; on the vogue of this book cf. Furnivall Miscellany, 88.
[151] The following passages of the Decretum Gratiani, besides those already quoted, bear on the subject: (a) i. 23. 3, ex Isid. de Eccl. Officiis, ii. 2 ‘His igitur lege Patrum cavetur, ut a vulgari vita seclusi a mundi voluptatibus sese abstineant; non spectaculis, non pompis intersint’: (b) i. 44. 7, ex Conc. Nannetensi ‘Nullus presbyterorum ... quando ad collectam presbyteri convenerit ... plausus et risus inconditos, et fabulas inanes ibi referre aut cantare praesumat, aut turpia ioca vel urso vel tornatricibus ante se fieri patiatur’; I cannot identify the Council of Nantes referred to: the canon is not amongst those supposed to belong to the Council of 660, and given by Mansi, xviii. 166: (c) i. 46. 6, ex Conc. Carthag. iv. c. 60 [398. Mansi, iii. 956] ‘Clericum scurrilem et verbis turpibus ioculatorem ab officio retrahendum censemus’: (d) ii. 4. 1. 1, ex Conc. Carthag. vii (419) ‘Omnes etiam infamiae maculis aspersi, id est histriones ... ab accusatione prohibentur.’ The Decretum Gratiani was drawn up †1139. The Decretales of Gregory IX (1234) incorporate can. 16 of the Lateran Council (Mansi, xxii. 1003), held in 1215 (Decr. Greg. IX, iii. 1. 15) ‘[Clerici] mimis, ioculatoribus, et histrionibus non intendant’; and the Liber Sextus of Boniface VIII (1298) adds the following decree of that Pope (Sext. Decr. iii. 1. 1) ‘Clerici qui, clericalis ordinis dignitati non modicum detrahentes, se ioculatores seu goliardos faciunt aut bufones, si per annum artem illam ignominiosam exercuerint, ipso iure, si autem tempore breviori, et tertio moniti non resipuerint, careant omni privilegio clericali.’