[109] This was clearly realized by the more intelligent upholders of the Feast of Fools. Austere persons wished to abolish this Feast, and in a remarkable petition sent up to the Theological Faculty of Paris (and quoted by Flogel, _Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen_, fourth edition, p. 204) the case for the Feast is thus presented: "We do this according to ancient custom, in order that folly, which is second nature to man and seems to be inborn, may at least once a year have free outlet. Wine casks would burst if we failed sometimes to remove the bung and let in air. Now we are all ill-bound casks and barrels which would let out the wine of wisdom if by constant devotion and fear of God we allowed it to ferment. We must let in air so that it may not be spoilt. Thus on some days we give ourselves up to sport, so that with the greater zeal we may afterwards return to the worship of God." The Feast of Fools was not suppressed until the middle of the sixteenth century, and relics of it persisted (as at Aix) till near the end of the eighteenth century. [110] A Méray, _La Vie au Temps des Libres Prêcheurs_, vol. ii, Ch. X. A good and scholarly account of the Feast of Fools is given by E.K. Chambers, _The Mediæval Stage_, Ch. XIII. It is true that the Church and the early Fathers often anathematized the theatre. But Gregory of Nazianzen wished to found a Christian theatre; the Mediæval Mysteries were certainly under the protection of the clergy; and St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of the schoolmen, only condemns the theatre with cautious qualifications. [111] Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_, Ch. XII. [112] _Journal Anthropological Institute_, July-Dec., 1904, p. 329. [113] Westermarck (_Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, vol. ii, pp. 283-9) shows how widespread is the custom of setting apart a periodical rest day. [114] A.E. Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_, pp. 273 et seq., Crawley brings into association with this function of great festivals the custom, found in some parts of the world, of exchanging wives at these times. "It has nothing whatever to do with the marriage system, except as breaking it for a season, women of forbidden degree being lent, on the same grounds as conventions and ordinary relations are broken at festivals of the Saturnalia type, the object being to change life and start afresh, by exchanging every thing one can, while the very act of exchange coincides with the other desire, to weld the community together" (Ib., p. 479). [115] See "The Analysis of the Sexual Impulse" in vol. iii of these _Studies_. [116] G. Murray, _Ancient Greek Literature_, p. 211. [117] The Greek drama probably arose out of a folk-festival of more or less sexual character, and it is even possible that the mediæval drama had a somewhat similar origin (see Donaldson, _The Greek Theatre_; Gilbert Murray, loc. cit.; Karl Pearson, _The Chances of Death_, vol. ii, pp. 135-6, 280 et seq.).