[1017] Ducange, s. v. Kalendae, ‘MS. codice Bellovac. ann. circiter 500, ubi 1a 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 (No. 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 xiiie 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: