The hymn to the ass has been preserved; each
stanza ends with the burthen "Hez! Sire Ane, hez!" "Huzza! Seignior Ass,
Huzza!" On other occasions, they put burnt old shoes to fume in the
censers; ran about the church, leaping, singing, and dancing obscenely;
scattering ordure among the audience; playing at dice upon the altar!
while a _boy-bishop_, or a _pope of fools_, burlesqued the divine
service. Sometimes they disguised themselves in the skins of animals,
and pretending to be transformed into the animal they represented, it
became dangerous, or worse, to meet these abandoned fools. There was a
_precentor of fools_, who was shaved in public, during which he
entertained the populace with all the balderdash his genius could
invent. We had in Leicester, in 1415, what was called a _glutton-mass_,
during the five days of the festival of the Virgin Mary. The people rose
early to mass, during which they practised eating and drinking with the
most zealous velocity, and, as in France, drew from the corners of the
altar the rich puddings placed there.
So late as in 1645, a pupil of Gassendi, writing to his master, what he
himself witnessed at Aix on the feast of the Innocents, says, "I have
seen, in some monasteries in this province, extravagances solemnised,
which the pagans would not have practised. Neither the clergy, nor the
guardians, indeed, go to the choir on this day, but all is given up to
the lay brethren, the cabbage-cutters, the errand-boys, the cooks and
scullions, the gardeners; in a word, all the menials fill their places
in the church, and insist that they perform the offices proper for the
day.
Pages:
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393