It was upon this festival that some wealthy man or other of the parish would make an entertainment on the occasion for his own household, and invite his neighbours’ children to come and partake of it; and, of course, Nicholas and his clerks sat in the highest place. The Golden Legend tells how “a man, for the love of his sone that wente to scole for to lerne, halowed every year the feest of Saynt Nycholas moche solemply. On a time it happed that the fader had doo make redy the dyner, and called many clerkes to this dyner.” Individuals sometimes bequeathed money to find a yearly dinner on St. Nicholas’ day for as many as a hundred Childermas’ tide scholars, who were, after meat, to pray for the soul of the founder of the feast. In our large schools and universities the festival was kept with public sports and games. But it was at Holy Innocents, or Childermas’ tide, that Nicholas and his clerks came forth in all their glory. The boy-bishop had a set of pontificals provided for him. St. Paul’s, London, had its “una mitra alba cum flosculis breudatis—ad opus episcopi parvulorum—baculus ad usum episcopi parvulorum;” York Minster, too, its “una capa de tissue pro episcopo puerorum;” Lincoln Cathedral, “a cope of red velvet, ordained for the barn-bishop;” All Souls’ College, Oxford, “j. chem. (ches.?) j. cap et mitra pro episcopo Nicholao;” St. Mary’s Church, Sandwich, “a lytyll chesebyll for Seynt Nicholas bysschop.” For the boy-bishop’s attendants copes were also made, and York had no fewer than “novem capæ pro pueris.”
Towards the end of evensong on St. John’s Day the little Nicholas and his clerks, arrayed in their copes, and having burning tapers in their hands, and singing those words of the Apocalypse (c. xiv.) “Centum quadraginta” walked processionally from the choir to the altar of the Blessed Trinity, which the boy-bishop incensed; afterwards they all sang the anthem, and he recited the prayer commemorative of the Holy Innocents. Going back into the choir these boys took possession of upper canons’ stalls, and those dignitaries themselves had to serve in the boys’ place, and carry the candles, the thurible, and the book, like acolytes, thurifers, and lower clerks. Standing on high, wearing his mitre, and holding his pastoral staff in his left hand, the boy-bishop gave a solemn benediction to all present, and, while making the sign of the Cross over the kneeling crowd, said:
“Crucis signo vos consigno; vestra sit tuitio,
Quos nos emit et redemit suæ carnis pretio.”
The next day, the feast itself of Holy Innocents, the boy-bishop preached a sermon, which of course had been written for him; and one from the pen of Erasmus, “Concio de puero Iesu,” spoken by a boy of St. Paul’s School, London, is still extant, and Dean-Colet, the founder of that seminary, in his statutes for it, ordained that “all these children shall, every Childermas Daye, come to Paulis Churche, and hear the childe bishop sermon; and after be at the high masse, and each of them offer a 1d. to the childe bysshop, and with them the maisters and surveyors of the scole.” At evensong bishop Nicholas and his clerks officiated as on the day before, and until Archbishop Peckham’s times, used to take some conspicuous part in the services of the church during the whole octave of Childermas tide. About 1279 A.D. that primate decreed, however, thus:—“Puerilia autem solennia, quæ in festo solent fieri Innocentum post vesperas S. Johannis tantum inchoari permittimus, et in crastino in ipsa die Innocentum totaliter terminentur.” This festival, like St. Nicholas’ Day, had its good things; and then, as now, was marked by a better dinner in nunneries, wherein the little boys who had served at the altars of the nuns’ churches were not forgotten, as we see by the expenses of St Mary de Prees: “Paid for makyng of the dyner to the susters upon Childermas Day, iiis. iiijd. It. Paid for brede and ale for Saint Nicholas, iiis.
If schoolboys had the patron St. Nicholas, little girls had their patroness too, St. Catherine, who by her learning overthrew the cavilings of many heathen philosophers and won some of them to Christianity. On this holy martyr’s festival, therefore, did the girls walk about the towns in their procession. All this was looked upon with a scowl by those who pulled down the Church of God in this land: hence Cranmer, towards the end of Henry VIII.’s reign, forbade these and other like processions:—“Whereas heretofore dyverse and many superstitious (?) and childysshe observations have been used, and yet to this day are observed and kept in many and sondry parties of this realm, as upon Sainte Nicolas, Sainte Catheryne, Sainte Clement, the Holy Innocentes, and such like; children be strangelye decked and apparelid to counterfaite priestes, byshoppes, and women; and so ledde with songes and daunces from house to house, bleassing the people, and gatherynge of monye, and boyes doo singe masse and preache in the pulpitt ... the Kyng’s majestie willith and commaundeth that from henceforth all suche superstitions be loste and clyerlye exstinguished,” &c. Queen Mary restored these rites, and the people were glad to see this, along with other of their old religious usages, given back to them; and an eye-witness tells us that, in A.D. 1556, “the V. day of December was Sant Necolas evyn, and Sant Necolas whentt abrod in most partt in London, syngyng after the old fassyon, and was reseyvyd with mony good pepulle into their howses, and had mych good chere as ever they had, in mony plasses.”
Some have thought that it was owing to his early abstinence that St. Nicholas was chosen patron of schoolboys; a better reason perhaps is given to us by a writer in the Gent. Mag. (1777, vol. xlvii. p. 158), who mentions having in his possession an Italian life of St. Nicholas, from which he translates the following story, which explains the occasion of boys addressing themselves to St. Nicholas’ patronage:—
“The fame of St. Nicholas’ virtues was so great that an Asiatic gentleman, on sending his two sons to Athens for education, ordered them to call on the bishop for his benediction; but they, getting to Myra late in the day, thought proper to defer their visit till the morrow, and took up their lodgings at an inn, where the landlord, to secure their baggage and effects to himself, murdered them in their sleep and then cut them into pieces, salting them, and putting them into a pickling tub with some pork, which was there already, meaning to sell the whole as such. The bishop, however, having a vision of this impious transaction, immediately resorted to the inn, and calling the host to him, reproached him for his horrid villany. The man, perceiving that he was discovered, confessed his crime, and entreated the bishop to intercede on his behalf to the Almighty for his pardon, who being moved with compassion at his contrite behaviour, confession, and thorough repentance, besought Almighty God not only to pardon the murderer, but also, for the glory of His name, to restore life to the poor innocents who had been so inhumanly put to death. The saint had hardly finished his prayer when the mangled and detached portions of the youths were, by Divine Power, reunited, and perceiving themselves alive, threw themselves at the feet of the holy man to kiss and embrace them. But the bishop not suffering their humiliation, raised them up, exhorting them to return thanks to Almighty God for this mark of His mercy, and gave them good advice for the future conduct of their lives; and then, giving them the blessing, he sent them with great joy to prosecute their studies at Athens.”—D. Rock, The Church of our Fathers, 1853, vol. iii. part. ii. p. 215.
Dec. 8.] CONCEPTION OF VIRGIN MARY.
Dec. 8.]