Of the Feast of Fools in central France I can say but little. At Chartres, the _Papi-Fol_ and his cardinals committed many insolences during the first four days of the year, and exacted _droits_ from passers-by. They were suppressed in 1479 and again in 1504[1085]. At Tours a _Ritual_ of the fourteenth century contains elaborate directions for the _festum novi anni, quod non debet remanere, nisi corpora sint humi_. This is clearly a reformed feast, of which the chief features are the dramatic procession of the _Prophetae_, including doubtless Balaam on his ass, in church, and a _miraculum_ in the cloister[1086]. The ‘Boy Bishop’ gives the benediction at Tierce, and before Vespers there are _chori_ (carols, I suppose) also in the cloisters. At Vespers _Deposuit_ is sung three times, and the _baculus_ may be taken. If so, the _thesaurarius_ is beaten with _baculi_ by the clergy at Compline, and the new _cantor_ is led home with beating of _baculi_ on the walls[1087]. At Bourges, the use of the ‘Prose of the Ass’ in Notre-Dame de Sales seems to imply the existence of the feast, but I know no details[1088]. At Avallon the _dominus festi_ seems to have been, as at Laon, a ‘patriarch,’ and to have officiated on Innocents’ day. A chapter statute regulated the proceedings in 1453, and another abolished them in 1510[1089]. At Auxerre, full accounts of a long chapter wrangle are preserved in the register[1090]. It began in 1395 with an order requiring the decent performance of the _servitium_, and imposing a fee upon newly admitted canons towards the feast. In 1396 the feast was not held, owing to the recent defeat of Sigismund of Hungary and the count of Nevers by Bajazet and his Ottomans at Nicopolis[1091]. In 1398 the dean entered a protest against a grant of wine made by the chapter to the thirsty revellers. In 1400 a further order was passed to check various abuses, the excessive ringing of bells, the licence of the _sermones fatui_, the impounding of copes in pledge for contributions, the beating of men and women through the streets, and all _derisiones_ likely to bring discredit on the church[1092]. In the following January, the bishop of Auxerre, Michel de Crency, intervened, forbidding the _fatui_ to form a ‘chapter,’ or to appoint ‘proctors,’ or _clamare la fête aux fous_ after the singing of the Hours in the church. This led to a storm. The bishop brought an action in the secular court, and the chapter appealed to the ecclesiastical court of the Sens province. In June, however, it was agreed as part of a general _concordat_ between the parties, that all these proceedings should be _non avenu_[1093]. It seems, however, to have been understood that the chapter would reform the feast. On December 2, the abbot of Pontigny preached a sermon before the chapter in favour of the abolition of the feast, and on the following day the dean came down and warned the canons that it was the intention of the