[1155] C. of Constantinople (869-70), c. 16 (Mansi, xvi. 169, ex versione Latina, abest in Graeca) ‘fuisse quosdam laicos, qui secundum diversam imperatoriam dignitatem videbantur capillorum comam circumplexam involvere atque reponere, et gradum quasi sacerdotalem per quaedam inducia et vestimenta sacerdotalia sumere, et, ut putabatur, episcopos constituere, superhumeralibus, id est, palliis, circumamictos, et omnem aliam Pontificalem indutos stolam, qui etiam proprium patriarcham adscribentes eum qui in adinventionibus risum moventibus praelatus et princeps erat, et insultabant et illudebant quibusque divinis, modo quidem electiones, promotiones et consecrationes, modo autem acute calumnias, damnationes et depositiones episcoporum quasi ab invicem et per invicem miserabiliter et praevaricatorie agentes et patientes. Talis autem actio nec apud gentes a saeculo unquam audita est.’
[1156] Cedrenus, Historiarum Compendium, p. 639 B (ed. Bekker, in Corp. Hist. Byz. xxiv. 2. 333), follows verbatim the still unprinted eleventh-century John Scylitzes (Gibbon-Bury, v. 508). Theophylactus was Patriarch from 933 to 956.
[1157] Theodorus Balsamon, In Can. lxii Conc. in Trullo (P. G. cxxxvii. 727) Σημείωσαι τὸν παρόντα κανόνα, καὶ ζήτησον διόρθωσιν ἐπὶ τοῖς γινομένοις παρὰ τῶν κληρικῶν εἰς τήν ἑορτὴν ἐπὶ τῆς γεννήσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ τὴν ἑορτὴν τῶν Φώτων [Luminarium, Candlemas] ὑπεναντίως τούτῳ· καὶ μᾶλλον εἰς τὴν ἁγιωτάτην Μεγάλην ἐκκλησίαν ... ἀλλὰ καί τινες κληρικοὶ κατά τινας ἑορτὰς πρὸς διάφορα μετασχηματίζονται προσωπεῖα. καὶ ποτὲ μὲν ξιφήρεις ἐν τῷ μεσονάω τῆς ἐκκλησίας μετὰ στρατιωτικῶν ἀμφίων εἰσέρχονται, ποτὲ δὲ καὶ ὡς μοναχοὶ προοδεύουσιν, ἢ καὶ ὡς ζῶα τετράποδα. ἐρωτήσας οὖν ὅπως ταῦτα παρεχωρήθησαν γίνεσθαι, οὐδέν τε ἕτερον ἤκουσα ἀλλ’ ἢ ἐκ μακρᾶς συνθείας ταῦτα τελεῖσθαι. τοιαῦτά εἰσιν, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, καὶ τὰ παρά τινων δομεστικευόντων ἐν κλήρῳ γινόμενα, τὸν ἀέρα τοῖς δακτύλοις κατὰ ἡνιόχους τυπτόντων, καὶ φύκη ταῖς γνάθοις δῆθεν περιτιθεμένων καὶ ὑπορρινομένων ἔργα τινὰ γυναικεῖα, καὶ ἕτερα ἀπρεπῆ, ἵνα πρὸς γελωτα τοὺς βλέποντας μετακινήσωσι. τὸ δὲ γελᾶν τοὺς ἀγρότας ἐγχεομένους τοῦ οἴνου τοῖς πίθοις, ὡσεί τι παρεπόμενον ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἐστὶ τοῖς ληνοβατοισιν· εἰ μήτις εἴπη τὴν σατανικὴν ταύτην ἐργασίαν καταργεῖσθαι διὰ τοῦ λέγειν τοὺς ἀγρότας συχνότερον ἐφ’ ἑκάστῳ μέτρῳ σχεδὸν τό, Κύριε ἐλέησον. τὰ μέντοι ποτὲ γινόμενα ἀπρεπῆ παρὰ τῶν νοταρίων παιδοδιδασκάλων κατὰ τὴν ἑορτὴν τῶν ἁγίων νοταρίων, μετὰ προσωπείων σκηνικῶν διερχομένων τὴν ἀγοράν, πρὸ χρόνων τινῶν κατηργήθησαν, καθ’ ὁρισμὸν τοῦ ἁγιωτάτου ἐκείνου πατριάρχου κυρίου Λουκᾶ.
[1158] Belethus, c. 120, compares the ecclesiastical ball-play at Easter to the libertas Decembrica. He is not speaking here of the Feast of Fools.
[1159] e.g. Du Tilliot, 2.
[1160] S. R. Maitland, The Dark Ages, 141, tilts at the Protestant historian Robertson’s History of Charles V, as do F. Clément, 159, and A. Walter, Das Eselsfest in Caecilien-Kalender (1885), 75, at Dulaure, Hist. des Environs de Paris, iii. 509, and other ‘Voltairiens.’
[1161] Chérest, 81.
[1162] J. Bujeaud, Chants et Chansons populaires des Provinces de l’Ouest, i. 63. The ronde is known in Poitou, Aunis, Angoumois. P. Tarbé, Romancero de Champagne (2e partie), 257, gives a variant. Bujeaud, i. 61, gives another ronde, the Testament de l’Âne, in which the ass has fallen into a ditch, and amongst other legacies leaves his tail to the curé for an aspersoir. This is known in Poitou, Angoumois, Franche-Comté. He also says that he has heard children of Poitou and Angoumois go through a mock catechism, giving an ecclesiastical significance to each part of the ass. The tail is the goupillon, and so forth. Fournier-Verneuil, Paris, Tableau moral et philosophique (1826), 522, with the Beauvais Officium in his mind, says ‘Voulez-vous qu’au lieu de dire, Ite, missa est, le prêtre se mette à braire trois fois de toute sa force, et que le peuple réponde en chœur, comme je l’ai vu faire en 1788, dans l’église de Bellaigues, en Périgord?’
[1163] Cf. ch. xx. Gasté, 20, considers the Rouen Festum Asinorum ‘l’origine de toutes les Fêtes de l’Âne qui se célébraient dans d’autres diocèses’: but the Rouen MS. in which it occurs is only of the fourteenth century, and the Balaam episode does not occur at all in the more primitive forms of the Prophetae, while the Sens Feast of Fools is called the festa asinaria in the Officium of the early thirteenth century.
[1164] Tille, D. W. 31. In Madrid an ass was led in procession on Jan. 17, with anthems on the Balaam legend (Clément, 181).