On the feast of Holy Innocents, or, as it was called frequently, “Childermas,” there was kept a feast which may seem somewhat strange to our notions, but which our forefathers evidently loved well. It was the festival of the boy-bishop, attended by his youthful ministers. Sometimes the celebration was associated with the name of St. Nicholas, and was thus kept on December 6th, rather than on the 28th; but the method of the festival was the same. Dr. Rock, in _The Church of our Fathers_, has described this pageant for us. In every cathedral, collegiate, and parish church the boys of the place--and in those days every little boy either sang or served about the altar at church--met together on the eve of the feast, and chose of their number a “St. Nicholas and his clerks.” This boy-bishop and his ministers then sang the first Vespers of the Saint, and in the evening walked all round the parish making collections for their feast. All who could afford it asked them into their houses and made them presents of various kinds. In 1299 Edward I., for instance, attended Vespers in his chapel at Heton, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, at which the “boy-bishop” and his fellows sang, and he gave them 40s. for singing before him; and the _Northumberland Household Book_ tells us that “My Lord useth and accustomyth to gyfe yerly, upon Saynt Nicolas--even, if he kepe chapell for Saynt Nicolas, to the mester of his children of his chapell for one of the childeren of his chapell, yerely 6_s._ 8_d._” It was upon this feast that, in memory of the Holy Innocents, some father of a family in the parish would make an entertainment for his children, and invite those of his neighbours to join in the festivities. In such a case, of course, the “Nicholas and his clerks” sat in the most honoured place. The _Golden Legend_ relates a story illustrating the practice: “A man, for the love of his sone that wente to scole for to lerne, halowed every year the fest of Saynt Nicholas moche solemnly. On a tyme it happed that the fader had doo make redy the dyner, and called many clerkes to this diner.” It was, however, on Holy Innocents’ day that the boy-bishop, chosen on the feast of St. Nicholas, played his part in a set of pontificals provided for him. At St. Paul’s, at York Minster, and at Lincoln, we find recorded in the inventories pontificals provided for his use. In the parish church of St. Mary-at-Hill, in London, the churchwardens paid for “a myter for a bysshop at St. Nicholas tyde.” At this parish church, too, there was a store of copes, a mitre, and a crosier for the boy-bishop; whilst at St. Mary’s, Sandwich, the inventory contains “a lytyll chasebyll for Seynt Nicholas bysschop,” and at York there were “nine copes” for the boy attendants.