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The Boy Bishop’s Feast: a Case-study in Church Attitudes towards Children in the High and Late Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Shulamith Shahar
Shulamith Shahar*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Tel-Aviv University
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Extract

THE main sources for the boy bishop’s feast are available in print. These include sections in ceremonial- and service-books, cathedral statutes, councils’ decrees, compotus, that is, accounts of the gifts and offerings of money the boy bishop received, as well as his expenses, household books that include registrations of the expenses for the annual entertainment of the boy bishop and his retinue, as well as two sermons the boy bishop delivered. Chambers, in his Medieval Stage, first published in 1903, dedicated a detailed description to the feast. A short reference to the feast appears in most research works on medieval schools and a number of articles have also been published on the subject. I’ll thus refer to the origins of the feast, but describe it only briefly, disregarding variations between places, and then turn to the subject of my paper: the boy bishop’s feast, as reflecting the image of childhood, attitudes towards childhood, and medieval educational conceptions. These are expressed in the feast itself and more clearly in the sermons written by adults to be delivered by the boy bishop.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 31: The Church and Childhood , 1994 , pp. 243 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1994

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References

1 Two Sermons Preached by the Boy Bishop ed. J. Nichols, Introduction: E. F. Rimbault, Camden Society, ns 14 (London, 1875, repr. 1965), i—xxxvi, 1–29; Ch. Wordsworth, ed., Ceremonies and Processions of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury (Cambridge, 1901), pp. 52–7; E. K. Chambers, The Medieval Stage (London, 1903, repr. 1967), 2, Appendix M.I, and see also, pp. 72, 282-9, 1. PP-276-371; A. F. Leach, ‘The Schoolboys’ Feast’, Fortnightly Review, 59 (1896), pp. 128-41; E. Howlett, ‘Boy-Bishops’ in W. Andrews, ed., Curious Church Gleanings (London, 1896), pp. 241-50; Wickersham Crawford, J. P., ‘A Note on the Boy Bishop in Spain’, The Romanic Review, 12 (1921), pp. 146–54 Google Scholar; Lawson, J., A Town Grammar School Through Six Centuries (Oxford, 1963), pp. 15–16 Google Scholar; Orme, N., English Schools in the Middle Ages (London, 1973), p. 132 Google Scholar; Molen, R. L. De, ‘ Pueri Christi Imitatio: the Festival of the Boy Bishop in Tudor England’, Moreana, 12 (1975), pp. 17—29 Google Scholar; Rigold, S. E., ‘The St Nicholas Tokens or the Boy Bishop’s Tokens’, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, 34 (1978), pp. 87—101 Google Scholar; Mackenzie, N., ‘Boy into Bishop; A Festive Role Reversal’, History Today, 37 (1987), pp. 10–16 Google Scholar; Duffy, E., The Stripping of the Altars. Traditional Religion in England c. 1400-c. 1580 (New Haven, 1992), pp. 13–44.Google Scholar

2 John Beleth, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, PL 202, ch.LXX, col. 77; the argument is based on a comparison with the feasts of St Stephen (26 December) and ofjohn the Evangelist (27 December); on St Stephen’s Day, says John Beleth, the deacons will officiate, because he was a deacon, while on Blessed John’s feast the priests will officiate because he was a priest.

3 Honorius Augustodunensis, Gemma Animae, PL 172, pan 3 Liturgica, ch. 14, col. 646; and he adds: ‘dalmatia vet subile non portatur’.

4 Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologiae, 2a 2ae, q. 124, art. 1 (Blackfriars, London, 1972), 42, p. 43.Google Scholar

5 Voragine, Jacobi de, Legenda Aurea, ed. Grasse, T. (Leipzig, 1850), ch. 10, pp. 62–6 Google Scholar; The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, tr. G. Ryan and H. Rippeiger (New York, 1948), p. 400.

6 Erasmus, , Homily on the Child Jesus, in Collected Works of Erasmus, ed. Fantham, E. and Rummel, E. (Toronto, 1989), 29, p. 61 Google Scholar; this homily, written in 1512, is different both in content and tone from the two English sermons. Though it was very popular in the sixteenth century, and was translated into English, it appears that it was not delivered by a boy bishop.

7 Ekhardus IV, B. Ctsuum S. Galli, MCH.SS 2 (Hanover, 1829, repr. 1963), pp. 84, 91: ‘Erat utique ius illorum, sicut adhuc hodie quidem est, quoniam exleges quidam sunt, ut hospites intrantes capiant, captos usque dum se redimant, teneant.’

8 John of Avranche wrote already in the late eleventh century that in past times the chants had been omitted in some of the churches, however, ‘tarn quia placuit modernis, placet et nobis ut cantentur’: Ioannes Abricensis, Liber de Officii* Ecclestasticis, PL 147, col. 42.

9 Chambers, Medieval Stage, I, pp. 291, 337-71; Rimbault, Introduction, Two Sermons, pp. vii, xi-xvi.

10 Sec The Sarum Office, in Chambers, Medieval Stage, 2, Appendix M.I.

11 Ibid., 1, p. 346 and n. 3.

12 Ibid., p. 356; in 1390 a further qualification was added: he must have a good voice.

13 Statuta ecclesiae collegiatae S. Castris, ordinationes et mandata Archidiocesis Trevirensis 1458-1855 (Trier, 1844-59), 1, PP. 361, 365; see also: J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum conciliomm nova et amplissima collectio (Florence, 1759-98, repr. Graz, 1961), 24, xvii, col. 142; Jean Gerson, Contre la fête de fous, in Oewres complètes, ed. Mgr Glorieux (Paris, 1966), 7, pp. 409-11; Chambers, Medieval Stage, 1, pp. 340-3.

14 Chambers, Medieval Stage, p. 361; see also Regestrum Visitationum Archiepiscopi Rothomagensis 1248-1269, ed. Th. Bonnin (Rouen, 1852), p. 44.

15 This lack of acknowledgement of a multiplicity of female roles is very dear in the sermones ad status, see: Longère, J., La Predication medievale (Paris, 1983), pp. 88–9, 101, 197 Google Scholar; Hasenohr, G., ‘La Vic quotidienne de la femme vue par l’Eglise: renseignement des “Journées chrétiennes” de la fin du Moyen-Age’ in Frau und Spättmittelalterlicher Alltag (Vienna, 1986), pp. 19–101.Google Scholar

16 E. Epstein, Die Wormser Minhagbikher, Literarisches und Culturhistorisches aus denselben, pp. 314-15; see also: C. Roth, ‘The Lord of Misrule. How Jews once Commemorated Purim’, Jetwish Chronicle, 15 March 1935, p. 28.

17 Bakhtin, M., Rabelais and his World, tr.Iswolsky, H. (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), pp. 5—12 Google Scholar; ‘Carnival’ in Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. M. Eliade (New York, 1987), pp. 948-1103; N. Zemon Davis, ‘The Reasons of Misrule: Youth Groups and Charivaris in 16th Century France’, PaP, 50 (1971), pp. 41–71, and, ‘The Reasons of Misrule’, in Society and Culture in Early Modem France (Stanford, 1915), pp. 97-123; E. Le Roy Ladurie, Carnival in Romans. A People’s Uprising at Romans 1579–1580, tr. M. Feeney (Harmondsworth, 1981).

18 Marche, A. Lecoy de la, ed., Anecdotes historiques, légendes et apologues tirés du recueil inédit d’Etienne de Bourbon (Paris, 1877), pp. 423–4.Google Scholar

19 Denifie, H., ed., Cartularium Universitatis Parisiensis (Paris, 1897, repr. Bruxelles, 1964), 4, p. 653.Google Scholar

20 Moran, J. Heppner, The Growth of English Schooling 1340–1548 (Princeton, 1985), pp. 64–5 Google Scholar; Shahar, S., Childhood in the Middle Ages (London, 1990), pp. 105–6, 187–91.Google Scholar

21 Shahar, Childhood, pp. 24-31.

22 See on this S. Lukes, ‘Political Ritual and Social Integration’ in Essays in Social Theory (London, 1977), p. 67.

23 Owst, G. R., Preaching in Medieval England (Cambridge, 1926), p. 220 Google Scholar and n. 4; Rimbault, Tun Sermons, Introduction p. xxxii.

24 Rimbault, Two Sermons, Introduction, pp. xxxv—xxxvi.

25 E. Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 430-1, 482.

26 Heppner Moran, English Schooling, pp. 214–19; the effect of the Reformation on the standard and scope of English schooling is a matter of controversy; see ibid., pp. 3-20, and H. M. Jewell, ‘The Bringing up of Children in Good Learning and Manners: A Survey of Secular Educational Provisions in the North of England, c. 1350–1550’, NH, 18 (1982), pp. 1-25.

27 Two Sermons, pp. 17-18.

28 Ibid., p. 21.

29 Ibid., pp. 3-4.

30 Gilbert of Nogent writes of children who have not yet reached puberty and are not ashamed of their nudity: ‘How great is the joy in the ignorance of little children. Being protected by absence of lust it enjoys the security of angels’: Tractatus de Incamatione contra Judaeus, PL 156, col. 497; the English fourteenth-century preacher, John Bromyard, describes the innocent children who do not understand the significance of death and who play merrily with the silk cloth covering the corpse of their father and mother: Summa Praedicantium (Antwerp, 1614), p. 338.

31 Two Sermons, pp. 5, 15.

32 Ibid., pp. 21-2.

33 Cited in Folts, J. D., ‘Senescence and Renascence: Petrarch’s Thought on Growing Old’, Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 10 (1980), p. 228.Google Scholar

34 Two Sermons, p. 5.

35 See Shahar, Childhood, pp. 16–18, 77–120; see also J. Swanson, ‘Childhood and Childrearing in ad status Sermons by later Thirteenth Century Friars’, JMedH, 16 (1990), p. 327.

36 For example: Navarre, Philippe de, Les Quatre âges de l’homme, ed. Fréville, M. de (Paris, 1888), PP. 7–9 Google Scholar; Bromyard, John, Summa Praedicantium, p. 6 Google Scholar; Select English Works of John Wycliffe, ed. T. Arnold (Oxford, 1871), 3, p. 19s.

37 Aegidius Romanus, De Regimine Principum (Venice, 1505), L. II, pt 2, ch. 17.

38 See for example: Die Konstitutionen Friedrichs II von Hohenstaufen für sein Königreich Sizilien, eds. H. Conrad, T. von der Lieck-Buyken and W. Wagner (Vienna, 1973), Bk I. tit. XIV, p. 22; Las Siete Partidas del Rey Don Alfonso el Sabio, Glossadas par G. Lopez (Salamanca, 1555; repr. Madrid, 1974), P. 1, tit. 1, ley 21, p. 10; P. 7, tit. 13, ley 17, p. 51; see also E. Cohen, ‘Youth and Deviancy in the Middle Ages’ in History of Juvenile Delinquency. A Collection of Essays on Crime committed by Young Offenders in History and in selected Countries (Aalen, 1990), I, pp. 207-10; Metz, R., La Femme et l’enfant dans le droit canonique médiéval (Variorum reprints, London, 1985), pp. 18–19, 25–7, 40–2.Google Scholar

39 Anglicus, Bartholomaeus, Liber de Proprietatibus Rerum (Strasbourg, 1505)Google Scholar, Bk 6, ch. 5; On the Properties of Things. John Trevisa’s translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, ed. M. C. Seymur (Oxford, 1975), pp. 300-1.

40 See on this, Shahar, Childhood, pp. 170-6.

41 Two Sermons, pp. 7–8, 10.

42 Ibid., pp. 6-7.

43 Ibid., p. 27.

44 See Shahar, Childhood, pp. 170-4, 178-9.

45 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Prima Pan, q. 92, art. I (Blackfriars, London, 1974), 13, pp. 34-6; Summa Contra Gentiles in Opera Omnia (Milan, 1980), Bk 3, ch. 122, n. 6-8, pp. 100-l; Bartholomew of Exeter: Bishop and Canonist with the Text of Bartholomew’s Penitential, ed. D. A. Morey (Cambridge, 1937), 9, p. 224; Ivo of Chartre, Decretum, PL 161, col. 893; Diplomatarium Danicum, ed. M. Skyum-Nielsen (Copenhagen, 1958), I, p. 144; Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Liber de Proprietatibus Return, Bk 6, ch. 7, 14.

46 Two Sermons, p. 28.

47 The fourteenth-century Dominican friar Robert Holcot, for example, commented that boys when they are first instructed are not able to learn anything subtle but only simple things. Cited in Smalley, B., English Friars and Antiquity in the Early Fourteenth Century (Oxford, 1960), p. 332.Google Scholar

48 Romans, Humbert de, Sermons (Venice, 1603), 87, p. 87 Google Scholar; see also Le Regime du corps de maître Aldebrandin de Sienne, eds L. Landouzy and R. Pépin (Paris, 1911), p. 80; Bernard de Gordon, De Conservatione vitae humanae (Leipzig, 1570), p. 27.

49 Two Sermons, p. 2.

50 Ibid., pp. 23-5; see also p. 8.

51 Ibid., pp. 6-7.

52 Ibid., pp. 8-9, 13, 20.

53 Dante, The Divine Comedy, tr. L. Binyon (New York, 1947), Paradise, Canto 27, p. 511.

54 Vauchez, A., La Sainteté en occident aux derniers siècles du moyen âge d’après les procès de canonisation et les documents hagiographiques (Rome, 1981), pp. 269–70 Google Scholar; Shahar, Childhood, pp. 17-20.

55 Shahar, Childhood, p. 138 and n. 74; M. Rubin, Corpus Christi. The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 13s—9, see also pp. 117, 143, 344.

56 Two Sermons, p. 15, sec also pp. 19-20.

57 E. Le Roy Ladurie, Carnival in Romans, pp. 283-4.