non nostrum morem, sed regis iussa sequentes.’
Cf. Rigollot, 143.
[1326] Lucas Cusentinus (†1203-24) Ordinarium (Martene, iii. 39): ‘Puero episcopello pontificalia conceduntur insignia, et ipse dicit orationes.’
[1327] The Ritual (†1264) of St. Omer (Mém. de la Soc. des Antiq. de la Morinie, xx. 186) has the following rubric for St. Nicholas’ Day ‘in secundis vesperis ... a choristis incipitur prosa Sospitati dedit egros, in qua altercando cantatur iste versus Ergo laudes novies tantum, ne immoderatum tedium generet vel derisum.’ The same rubric recurs on St. Catherine’s Day. At St. Omer, as at Paris (cf. p. 363), these were the two winter holidays for scholars. Cf. also p. 289, and A. Legrand, Réjouissances des écoliers de N.-D. de St. Omer, le jour de St.-Nicholas, leur glorieux patron (Mémoires, ut cit. vii. 160). The St. Omer Episcopus puerorum also officiated on Innocents’ Eve and the octave. Dreves, Anal. Hymn. xxi. 82, gives various cantiones for St. Nicholas’ Day; e.g.
‘Nicolai praesulis
Festum celebremus,
. . . . .
In tanto natalitio
Patrum docet traditio
Ut consonet in gaudio