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