[1082] Ducange, s. v. Deposuit (Stat. Capit. S. Petri Insul. July 13, 1531, ex Reg. k.) ‘Scandala et ludibria quae sub Fatuitatis praetextu per beneficiatos et habituatos dictae nostrae ecclesiae a vigilia usque ad completas octavas Epiphaniae fieri et exerceri consueverunt ... deinceps nullus nominetur, assumatur et creetur praelatus follorum, nec ludus, quem Deposuit vocant, in dicta vigilia, aut alio quocumque tempore, ludatur, exerceatur, aut fiat.’ Probably to this date belongs the very similarly worded but undated memorandum in Delobel, Collectanea, f. 76, which Hautcœur, Hist. ii. 220, 224, assigns to 1490. This adds ‘de non ... faciendo officio ... per vicarios in octava Epiphaniae.’ The municipal duties of the praelatus fell to the confrérie of the Prince des Foux, afterwards Prince d’Amour, which held revels in 1547 (Du Tilliot, 87), and still later to the ‘fou de la ville’ who led the procession of the Holy Sacrament, and flung water at the people in the eighteenth century (Leber, ix. 265).
[1083] Rigollot, 14.
[1084] Two documents are preserved, each giving a full account of the event: (a) summons of the delinquents before the Parlement, dated March 16, 149⁸⁄₉ (J. F. Foppens, Supplément (1748), to A. Miraeus, Opera Diplomatica, iv. 295). This is endorsed with some notes of further proceedings; (b) official notes of the hearing on Nov. 18, 1499 (Bibl. de l’École des Chartes, iii. 568); cf. Julleville, Rép. com. 355; Cousin, Hist. de Tournay, Bk. iv. 261. The Synod of Tournai in 1520 still found it necessary to forbid students to appear in church ‘en habits de fous, en représentant des personnages de comédie’ on St. Nicholas’ day, Innocents’ day, or ‘la fête de l’évêque’ (E. Fleury, Cinquante Ans de Laon, 54).
[1085] Rigollot, 19, 157.
[1086] Cf. ch. xix.
[1087] Martene, iii. 41 ‘[at second Vespers] Cantor ... dicit ter Deposuit baculum tenens, et si baculus capitur, Te Deum Laudamus incipietur ... [at Compline] ascendunt duo clerici super formam thesaurarii et cantant Haec est sancta dies, &c. et post Conserva Deus, et dum canitur verberant eum clerici baculis, et ante eos cantores festi et erupitores.... Post incipit cantor novus Verbum caro factum est, et hoc cantando ducunt eum in domum suam per parietes cum baculis feriendo. Si autem baculus non accipitur, nihil de iis dicitur, sed vadunt, et extinguitur luminare.’
[1088] Cf. Appendix L.
[1089] Chérest, 9, 55, quoting Acta Capit. (1453) ‘item circa festum Innocentium ordinatum est quod in ecclesia nullae fient insolenciae seu derisiones potissime tempore divini servitii et quod pulsentur matutinae non ante quartam horam. Permittimus tamen quod reverenter et in habitu ecclesiastico per Innocentes et alios iuvenes de sedibus inferioribus dictum fiat officium, saltem circa ea quae sine sacris ordinibus possunt exerceri’; (1510) ‘item turpem illum abusum festi fatuorum in nostra hactenus ecclesia, proh dolor, frequentatum quo in celebritate sanctorum Innocentium quidam sub nomine patriarchali divinum celebrant officium, penitus detestamus, abolemus et interdicimus.’
[1090] Lebeuf, Mém. concernant l’Histoire ... d’Auxerre (ed. Challe et Quantin, 1848-55), ii. 30; iv. 232 (quoting Acta Capit. partly extracted by Ducange, s.v. Kalendae); and in Leber, ix. 358, 375, 385.
[1091] ‘Cum domini nostri rex et alii regales Franciae sint valde dolorosi, propter nova armaturae factae in partibus Ungariae contra Saracenos et inimicos fidei’; cf. Bury-Gibbon, vii. 35.