The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-DayChamberlain, Alexander Francis
Science
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day
Chamberlain, Alexander Francis
Child rearing; Children -- Folklore; Folklore and children
And this was so really done, that in the cathedral
church of Salisbury (unless it be lately defaced) there is a perfect
monument of one of these Boy-Bishops (who died in the time of his young
pontificality), accoutred in his episcopal robes, still to be seen. A
fashion that lasted until the later times of King Henry the Eighth, who,
in 1541, by his solemn Proclamation, printed by Thomas Bertlet, the
king's printer, _cum privilegio_, straitly forbad the practice."
When King Edward First was on his way to Scotland, in 1299, we are told,
"he permitted one of these Boy-Bishops to say vespers before him in his
Chapel at Heton, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and made a considerable
present to the said bishop, and certain other boys that came and sang
with him on the occasion, on the 7th of December, the day after St.
Nicholas's Day" (408. I. 422).
The records of the churches contain many particulars of the election,
duties, and regalia of these boy-bishops, whence it would appear that
expense and ceremony were not spared on these occasions.
Another boy-bishop was paid "thirteen shillings and sixpence for singing
before King Edward the Third, in his chamber, on the day of the Holy
Innocents" (408. I. 428).
The Boy-Bishop of Salisbury, whose service set to music is printed in
the _Processionale et usum insignis et preclare Ecclesie Sarum,_
1566, is actually said "to have had the power of disposing of such
prebends there as happened to fall vacant during the days of his
episcopacy" (408. I. 424). With the return of Catholicism under Mary, as
Brand remarks, the Boy-Bishop was revived, for we find an edict of the
Bishop of London, issued Nov. 13, 1554, to all the clergy of his
diocese, to the effect that "they should have a Boy-Bishop in
procession," and Warton notes that "one of the child-bishop's songs, as
it was sung before the Queen's Majesty, in her privy chamber; at her
manor of St. James in the Field's on St. Nicholas's Day, and Innocents'
Day, 1555, by the child-bishop of St. Paul's, with his company, was
printed that year in London, containing a fulsome panegyric on the
queen's devotions, comparing her to Judith, Esther, the Queen of Sheba,
and the Virgin Mary" (408. I. 429-430). The places at which the
ceremonies of the Boy-Bishop have been particularly noted are:
Canterbury, Eton, St. Paul's, London, Colchester, Winchester, Salisbury,
Westminster, Lambeth, York, Beverly, Rotherham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
etc. The Boy-Bishop was known also in Spain and in France; in the latter
country he was called Pape-Colas. In Germany, at the Council of
Salzburg, in 1274, on account of the scandals they gave rise to, the
_ludi noxii quos vulgaris eloquentia_ Episcopatus Puerorum
_appellat,_ were placed under the ban (408. I. 426).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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