[1307] Denifle, i. 532. It was forbidden ‘in eisdem festis vel aliis paramenta nec coreas duci in vico de die nec de nocte cum torticiis vel sine.’ But it was on Innocents’ Day that the béjaunes or ‘freshmen’ of the Sorbonne were subjected to rites bearing a close analogy to the feast of fools; cf. Rigollot, 172 ‘1476 ... condemnatus fuit in crastino Innocentium capellanus abbas beiannorum ad octo solidos parisienses, eo quod non explevisset officium suum die Innocentium post prandium, in mundationem beiannorum per aspersionem aquae ut moris est, quanquam solemniter incoepisset exercere suum officium ante prandium inducendo beiannos per vicum super asinum.’
[1308] Denifle, iii. 166.
[1309] ‘Verbis nedum gallicis sed eciam latinis, ut ipsi qui de partibus alienis oriundi linguam gallicam nequaquam intelligebant plenarie.’
[1310] S. F. Hulton, Rixae Oxonienses, 68. There had been many earlier brawls.
[1311] Statute xxix (T. F. Kirby, Annals of Winchester College, 503) ‘Permittimus tamen quod in festo Innocencium pueri vesperas matutinas et alia divina officia legenda et cantanda dicere et exsequi valeant secundum usum et consuetudinem ecclesiae Sarum.’ The same formula is used in New College Statute xlii (Statutes of the Colleges of Oxford, vol. i).
[1312] Cf. Appendix E. Kirby, op. cit. 90, quotes an inventory of 1406 ‘Baculus pastoralis de cupro deaurato pro Epõ puerorum in die Innocencium ... Mitra de panno aureo ex dono Dñi. Fundatoris hernesiat (mounted) cum argento deaurato ex dono unius socii coll. [Robert Heete] pro Epõ puerorum.’
[1313] The Charter of King’s College (1443), c. 42 (Documents relating to the Univ. of Camb. ii. 569; Heywood and Wright, Ancient Laws of the Fifteenth Century for King’s Coll. Camb. and Eton Coll. 112), closely follows Wykeham’s formula: ‘excepto festo Sti Nicholai praedicto, in quo festo et nullatenus in festo Innocentium, permittimus quod pueri ... secundum usum in dicto Regali Collegio hactenus usitatum.’ The Eton formula (c. 31) in 1444 is slightly different (Heywood and Wright op. cit. 560) ‘excepto in festo Sancti Nicholai, in quo, et nullatenus in festo Sanctorum Innocentium, divina officia praeter missae secreta exequi et dici permittimus per episcopum puerorum scholarium, ad hoc de eisdem annis singulis eligendum.’
[1314] Warton, ii. 228; Leach, 133. The passage from the Consuetudinarium is given from Harl. MS. 7044 f. 167 (apparently a transcript from a C. C. C. C. MS.) by Heywood and Wright, op. cit. 632; E. S. Creasy, Eminent Etonians, 91 ‘in die Sti Hugonis pontificis solebat Aetonae fieri electio Episcopi Nihilensis, sed consuetudo obsolevit. Olim episcopus ille puerorum habebatur nobilis, in cuius electione et literata et laudatissima exercitatio, ad ingeniorum vires et motus excitandos, Aetonae celebris erat.’
[1315] Eton Audit Book, 1507-8, quoted by H. C. Maxwell-Lyte, Hist. of Eton (ed. 1899), 149 ‘Pro reparatione le rochet pro episcopo puerorum, xjd.’ An inventory of Henry VIII’s reign says that this rochet was given by James Denton (K. S. 1486) for use at St. Nicholas’ time.
[1316] Maxwell-Lyte, op. cit. 450.