St. Nicholas is practically forgotten to-day in Protestant England. But in the merrie England of olden times, before the Catholic religion had given way to Protestantism, he was one of the most popular saints in the calendar. This is shown not only by the number of churches dedicated in his honor, but also by the number of boys who received his name in baptism. Nicholases were once as common among the Englishmen of the past as Maries were among English women. A curious fact may be brought up in evidence. In English catechisms, whose forms date from a very early time, the question is put to the pupil: “What is your name?” And the answer is printed thus: “N. or M.” Of course the pupil is expected to put his or her name in place of these initials. Now it is probable that N stands for Nicholas and M for Mary, and the choice of these initials was made not only because Nicholas was the patron of boys and Mary of girls, but because these were the commonest names in Old England. The feast of St. Nicholas used to be celebrated by a ceremony known as the election of a Boy-bishop. This custom existed to some extent on the continent of Europe, but it nowhere flourished so vigorously as in England. It has been traced as far back as the thirteenth century. To the choir boys and altar boys of English churches it was a particularly exciting time. On St. Nicholas’ eve all the boys who sang in the choir or served at the altar met at their parish church, or in the great cathedral, if they belonged to a bishop’s see, and elected one from among their number, who took the title of “the Boy-bishop.” This title with its dignities he retained until December 28th, Holy Innocents’ Day, so called because it is the anniversary of the slaughter of the children in Palestine by order of the wicked King Herod. The Boy-bishop was dressed in the robes of a real bishop. On his head was placed a mitre, in his right hand a crozier. Another boy was elected dean, while the rest were styled canons, all being dressed in the robes of their office. During the three weeks from December 5 to December 28, the Boy-bishop could perform all the duties of a real bishop, except that of saying mass. If a priest died during the period when he held office he could appoint another to take his place in the church left vacant. If he himself died before Holy Innocents’ Day he was given a bishop’s grand funeral in the cathedral. “There is a little tomb of this kind,” says Miss Abbie Farwell Brown, “not half the size of a full-grown one, in a great cathedral that I know. It is of white marble, grandly carved and decorated, and though it is worn and nicked by eight hundred years of change, one can plainly see that it is a child’s face among the long curls beneath the bishop’s mitre. No one knows his name, nor aught about him, save that he must be one of the Boy-bishops who died at Christmas time, or he would not be buried in the great cathedral tomb.”[4]