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FEAST OF FOOLS (Lat. festum stultorum...

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 616 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FEAST OF See also:

FOOLS (See also:Lat. festum stultorum, fatuorum, follorum, Fr. fete See also:des fous)  , the name for certain See also:burlesque quasi-religious festivals which, during the See also:middle ages, were the ecclesiastical counterpart of the See also:secular revelries of the See also:Lord of See also:Misrule . The celebrations are directly traceable to the See also:pagan Saturnalia of See also:ancient See also:Rome, which in spite of the See also:conversion, of the See also:Empire to See also:Christianity, and of the denunciation of bishops and ecclesiastical See also:councils, continued to be celebrated by the See also:people on the Kalends of See also:January with all their old See also:licence . The See also:custom; indeed, so far from dying out, was adopted by the See also:barbarian conquerors and spread among the See also:Christian Goths in See also:Spain, See also:Franks in See also:Gaul, Alemanni in See also:Germany, and Anglo-See also:Saxons in See also:Britain . So See also:late as the 11th See also:century See also:Bishop Burchard of See also:Worms thought it necessary to fulminate against the excesses connected. with it (Decretum, xix. c . 5, See also:Migne, Patrologia See also:lat . 140, p . 965) . Then, just as it appears to have been sinking into oblivion among the people, the See also:clergy themselves gave it the See also:character of a specific religious festival . Certain days seem See also:early to have been set apart as See also:special festivals for different orders of the clergy: the feast of St See also:Stephen (See also:December 26) for the deacons, St See also:John's See also:day (December 27) for the priests, See also:Holy Innocents' Day for the boys, and for the sub-deacons See also:Circumcision, the See also:Epiphany, or the 11th of January . The Feast of Holy Innocents became a See also:regular festival of See also:children, in which a boy, elected by his See also:fellows of the See also:choir school, functioned solemnly as bishop or See also:archbishop, surrounded by the See also:elder choir-boys as his clergy, while the canons and other clergy took the humbler seats . At first there is no See also:evidence to prove that these celebrations were characterized by any specially indecorous behaviour; but in the 12th century such behaviour had become the See also:rule . In 118o See also:Jean Beleth, of the See also:diocese of See also:Amiens, calls the festival of the sub-deacons festum stultorum (Migne, See also:Patrol. lat .

202, p . 79) . The burlesque See also:

ritual which characterized the Feast of See also:Fools throughout the middle ages was now at its height . A See also:young sub-See also:deacon was elected bishop, vested in the episcopal insignia (except the See also:mitre) and conducted by his fellows to the See also:sanctuary . A See also:mock See also:mass was begun, during which the lections were read cum farsia, obscene songs were sung and dances performed, cakes and sausages eaten at the See also:altar, and See also:cards and See also:dice played upon it . This burlesquing of things universally held sacred, though condemned by serious-minded theologians, conveyed to the See also:child-like popular mind of the middle ages no See also:suggestion of contempt, though when belief in the doctrines and See also:rites of the See also:medieval See also:Church was shaken it became a ready See also:instrument in the hands of those who sought to destroy them . Of this See also:kind of retribution See also:Scott in The See also:Abbot gives a vivid picture, the Protestants interrupting the mass celebrated by the trembling remnant of the monks in the ruined See also:abbey church, and insisting on substituting the traditional Feast of Fools . This naive See also:temper of the middle ages is nowhere more conspicuously displayid than in the Feast of the See also:Ass, which under various forms was celebrated in a large number of churches throughout the See also:West . The ass had been introduced into the ritual of the church in the 9th century, representing either See also:Balaam's ass, that which stood with the ox beside the manger at See also:Bethlehem, that which carried the Holy See also:Family into See also:Egypt, or that on which See also:Christ rode in See also:triumph into See also:Jerusalem . Often the ass was a See also:mere incident in the Feast of Fools; but sometimes he was the occasion of a special festival, ridiculous enough to See also:modern notions, but by no means intended in an irreverent spirit . The three most notable celebrations of the Feast of the Ass were at See also:Rouen, See also:Beauvais and See also:Sens . At Rouen the feast was celebrated on See also:Christmas Day, and was intended to represent the times before the coming of Christ .

The service opened with a procession of Old Testament characters, prophets; patriarchs and See also:

kings, together with See also:heathen prophets, including See also:Virgil, the See also:chief figure being Balaam on his ass: The ass was a hollow wooden effigy, within which a See also:priest capered and uttered prophecies . The procession was followed, inside the church, by a curious See also:combination of ritual See also:office and See also:mystery See also:play, the See also:text of which, according to the Ordo processionis asinorum secundum Rothomagensem usum, is given in Du Cange . Far more singular was the celebration at Beauvais, which was held on the 14th of January, and represented the See also:flight into Egypt . A richly caparisoned ass, on which was seated the prettiest girl in the See also:town holding in her arms a baby or a large See also:doll, was escorted with much pomp from the See also:cathedral to the church of St See also:Etienne . There the procession was received by the priests, who led the ass and its See also:burden to the sanctuary . Mass was then sung; but instead of the See also:ordinary responses to the Introit, See also:Kyrie, Gloria, &c., the See also:congregation chanted " Hinham " (Hee-haw) three times . The See also:rubric of the mass for this feast actually runs: In See also:fine Missae Sacerdos versus ad populunt See also:rice, Ite missa est, Hinhannabit: populus vero See also:vice, Dco Gratias, ter respondebit Hinham, Hinham, Hinham (At the See also:close of the mass the priest turning to the people instead of saying, De snissa est, shall See also:bray thrice: the people, instead of Deo gratias, shall thrice See also:respond Hee-haw, Hee-haw, Hee-haw) . At Sens the Feast of the Ass was associated with the Feast of Fools, celebrated at See also:Vespers on the Feast of Circumcision . The clergy went in procession to the west See also:door of the church, where two canons received the ass, amid joyous chants, and led it to the See also:precentor's table . Bizarre vespers followed, sung falsetto and consisting of a medley of extracts from all the vespers of the See also:year . Between the lessons the ass was iolemnly fed, and at the conclusion of the service was led by the precentor out into the square before the church (conductus ad lidos); See also:water was poured on the precentor's See also:head, and the ass became the centre of burlesque ceremonies, dancing and buffoonery being carried on far into the See also:night, while the clergy and the serious-minded retired to See also:matins and See also:bed . Various efforts were made during the middle ages to abolish the Feast of Fools .

Thus in 1198 the See also:

chapter of See also:Paris suppressedits more obvious indecencies; in 1210 See also:Pope See also:Innocent III. forbade the feasts of priests, deacons and sub-deacons altogether; and in 1246 Innocent IV. threatened those who disobeyed this See also:prohibition with See also:excommunication . How little effect this had, however, is shown by the fact that in 1265 See also:Odo, archbishop of Sens, could do no more than prohibit the obscene excesses of the feast, without abolishing the feast itself; that in 1444 the university of Paris, at the See also:request of certain bishops, addressed a See also:letter condemning it to all cathedral chapters; and that See also:King See also:Charles VII. found it necessary to See also:order all masters in See also:theology to forbid it in collegiate churches . The festival was, in fact, too popular to succumb to these efforts, and it survived through-out See also:Europe till the See also:Reformation, and even later in See also:France; for in 1645 Mathurin de Neure complains in a letter to See also:Pierre Gassendi of the monstrous fooleries which yearly on Innocents' Day took See also:place in the monastery of the See also:Cordeliers at See also:Antibes . " Never did pagans," he writes, " solemnize with such extravagance their superstitious festivals as do they .... The See also:lay-See also:brothers, the See also:cabbage-cutters, those who See also:work in the See also:kitchen .. . occupy the places of the clergy in the church . They See also:don the sacerdotal garments, See also:reverse See also:side out . They hold in their hands books turned upside down, and pretend to read through See also:spectacles in which for See also:glass have been substituted bits of See also:orange-See also:peel." See B . Picart, Ceremonies et coutumes religieuses de taus See also:les peuples (1723) ; du Tilliot, Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de in fete See also:des Fous (See also:Lausanne, 1741) ; Aime Cherest, Nouvelles recherches sur la fete des Innocents et la fete des Fous clans plusieurs eglises et notamment clans cellede Sens (Paris, 1853); Schneegans in See also:Muller's Zeitschrift See also:fur deutsche Kulturgeschichte (1858) ; H . See also:Bohmer, See also:art . "Narrenfest in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklop . (ed .

1903); Du Cange, Glossarium (ed . 18$4), s.v .

End of Article: FEAST OF FOOLS (Lat. festum stultorum, fatuorum, follorum, Fr. fete des fous)
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