The affiliation of the ecclesiastical New Year revelries to the pagan Kalends does not explain why those who took part in them were called ‘Fools.’ The obvious thing to say is that they were called ‘Fools’ because they played the fool; and indeed their mediaeval critics were not slow to draw this inference. But it is noteworthy that pagan Rome already had its Feast of Fools, which, indeed, had nothing to do with the Kalends. The _stultorum feriae_ on February 17 was the last day on which the _Fornacalia_ or ritual sacrifice of the _curiae_ was held. Upon it all the _curiae_ sacrificed in common, and it therefore afforded an opportunity for any citizen who did not know which his _curia_ was to partake in the ceremony[1170]. I am not prepared to say that the _stultorum feriae_ gave its name to the Feast of Fools; but the identity of the two names certainly seems to explain some of the statements which mediaeval scholars make about that feast. It explains William of Auxerre’s derivation of it from the _Parentalia_, for the _stultorum feriae_ fell in the midst of the _Parentalia_[1171]. And I think it explains the remark of Belethus, and, following him, of Durandus, about the _ordo subdiaconorum_ being _incertus_. The sub-deacons were a regular _ordo_, the highest of the _ordines minores_ from the third century[1172]. But Belethus seems to be struggling with the notion that the sub-deacons’ feast, closing the series of post-Nativity feasts held by deacons, priests and choir-boys, was in some way parallel to the _feriae_ of the Roman _stulti_ who were _incerti_ as to their _curia_. CHAPTER XV THE BOY BISHOP [_Bibliographical Note._--Most of the authorities for chh. xiii, xiv, are still available, since many writers have not been careful to distinguish between the various feasts of the Twelve nights. The best modern account of the Boy Bishop is Mr. A. F. Leach’s paper on _The Schoolboys’ Feast_ in _The Fortnightly Review_, N. S. lix (1896), 128. The contributions of F. A. Dürr, _Commentatio Historica de Episcopo Puerorum, vulgo vom Schul-Bischoff_ (1755); F. A. Specht, _Geschichte des Unterrichtswesens in Deutschland_, 222 sqq. (1885); A. Gasté, _Les Drames liturgiques de la Cathédrale de Rouen_, 35 sqq. (1893); E. F. Rimbault, _The Festival of the Boy Bishop in England_ in _The Camden Miscellany_, vol. vii (Camden Soc. 1875), are also valuable. Dr. Rimbault speaks of ‘considerable collections for a history of the festival of the Boy Bishop throughout Europe,’ made by Mr. J. G. Nichols, but I do not know where these are to be found. Brand (ed. Ellis), i. 227 sqq., has some miscellaneous data, and a notice interesting by reason of its antiquity is that on the _Episcopus Puerorum, in Die Innocentium_, in the _Posthuma_, 95 sqq., of John Gregory (1649).]