The Rheims _Ordinarium_ of the fourteenth century, for instance, knows nothing of it[1188]. The extent of the ceremonies, again, would naturally be subject to local variation. The germ of them lay in the procession at first Vespers described by Ekkehard at St. Gall. But they often grew to a good deal more than this. The deacons, priests, or choir-boys, as the case might be, took the higher stalls, and the whole conduct of the services; the _Deposuit_ was sung; _epistolae farcitae_ were read[1189]; there was a _dominus festi_. The main outlines of the feasts of the _triduum_ are thus almost exactly parallel, so far as the divine _servitium_ is concerned, to those of the Feast of Fools, for which indeed they probably served as a model. And like the Feast of Fools, they had their secular side, which often became riotousness. Occasionally they were absorbed in, or overshadowed by, the more popular and wilder merry-making of the inferior clergy. But elsewhere they have their own history of reformations or suppression, or are grouped with the Feast of Fools, as by the decretal of Innocent III, in a common condemnation. The diversity of local practice is well illustrated by the records of such acts of discipline. Sometimes, as at Paris[1190], or Soissons[1191], it is the deacons’ feast alone that has become an abuse; sometimes, as at Worms, that of the priests’[1192]; sometimes two of them[1193], sometimes all three[1194], require correction. I need only refer more particularly to two interesting English examples. One is at Wells, where a chapter statute of about 1331 condemns the tumult and _ludibrium_ with which divine service was celebrated from the Nativity to the octave of the Innocents, and in particular the _ludi theatrales_ and _monstra larvarum_ introduced into the cathedral by the deacons, priests, sub-deacons, and even vicars during this period[1195]. Nor was the abuse easy to check, for about 1338 a second statute was required to reinforce and strengthen the prohibition[1196]. So, too, in the neighbouring diocese of Exeter. The register of Bishop Grandisson records the mandates against _ludi inhonesti_ addressed by him in 1360 to the chapters of Exeter cathedral, and of the collegiate churches of Ottery, Crediton, and Glasney. These _ludi_ were performed by men and boys at Vespers, Matins, and Mass on Christmas and the three following days. They amounted to a mockery of the divine worship, did much damage to the church vestments and ornaments, and brought the clergy into disrepute[1197]. These southern prohibitions are shortly before the final suppression of the Feast of Fools in the north at Beverley and Lincoln. The Wells customs, indeed, probably included a regular Feast of Fools, for the part taken by the sub-deacons and vicars is specifically mentioned, and the proceedings lasted over the New Year. But it is clear that even where the term ‘Feast of Fools’ is not known to have been in use, the temper of that revel found a ready