[1145] On the nature and growth of vicars choral, cf. Cutts, 341; W. H. Frere, Use of Sarum, i. xvii; Lincoln Statutes, passim; A. R. Maddison, Vicars Choral of Lincoln (1878); H. E. Reynolds, Wells Cathedral, xxix, cvii, clxx. Vicars choral make their appearance in the eleventh century as choir substitutes for non-resident canons. At Lincoln they got benefactions from about 1190, and in the thirteenth century formed a regularly organized communitas. The vicarii were often at the same time capellani or chantry-priests. On chantries see Cutts, 438.
[1146] The Lincoln vicars chose two Provosts yearly (Maddison, op. cit.); the Wells vicars two Principals (Reynolds, op. cit. clxxi).
[1147] Reynolds, op. cit., gives numerous and interesting notices of chapter discipline from the Wells Liber Ruber.
[1148] In Leber, ix. 379, 407, is described a curious way of raising funds for choir suppers, known at Auxerre and in Auvergne, and not quite extinct in the eighteenth century. It has a certain analogy to the Deposuit. From Christmas to Epiphany the Psalm Memento was sung at Vespers, and the anthem De fructu ventris inserted in it. When this began the ruler of the choir advanced and presented a bouquet to some canon or bourgeois as a sign that the choir would sup with him. This was called ‘annonce en forme d’antienne,’ and the suppers defructus. The C. of Narbonne (1551), c. 47, forbade ‘parochis ... ne ... ad commessationes quas defructus appellant, ullo modo parochianos suos admittant, nec permittant quempiam canere ut dicunt: Memento, Domine, David sans truffe, &c. Nec alia huiusmodi ridenda, quae in contemptum divini officii ac in dedecus et probrum totius cleri et fiunt et cantantur.’
[1149] When, however, Ducange says that the feast was not called Subdiaconorum, because the sub-deacons held it, but rather as being ‘ebriorum Clericorum seu Diaconorum: id enim evincit vox Soudiacres, id est, ad litteram, Saturi Diaconi, quasi Diacres Saouls,’ we must take it for a ‘sole joke of Thucydides.’ I believe there is also a joke somewhere in Liddell and Scott.
[1150] Cf. p. 60; Gautier, Les Tropaires, i. 186; and C. of Treves in 1227 (J. F. Schannat, Conc. Germ. iii. 532) ‘praecipimus ut omnes Sacerdotes non permittant trutannos et alios vagos scolares aut goliardos cantare versus super Sanctus et Agnus Dei.’
[1151] The ‘abbot’ appears to have been sometimes charged with choir discipline throughout the year, and at Vienne and Viviers exists side by side with another dominus festi. Similarly at St. Omer there was a ‘dean’ as well as a ‘bishop.’ The vicars of Lincoln and Wells also chose two officers.
[1152] I suppose that ‘portetur in rost’ at Vienne means that the victims were roasted like the fags in Tom Brown.
[1153] Ducange, s. v. Kalendae.
[1154] Gibbon-Bury, v. 201. The Byzantine authorities are Genesius, iv. p. 49 B (Corp. Hist. Byz. xi. 2. 102); Paphlagon (Migne, P. G. cv. 527); Theophanes Continuatus, iv. 38 (Corp. Hist. Byz. xxii. 200); Symeon Magister, p. 437 D (Corp. Hist. Byz. xxii. 661), on all of whom see Bury, App. I to tom. cit.