Part 28 (1/2)

Deane of this cathedrall chirche,”{23} while in another the preacher remarks, speaking of the choristers and children of the song-school, ”Yt is not so long sens I was one of them myself.”{24}

In some places it appears, though this is by no means certain, that the boy actually sang Ma.s.s. The ”bishop's” office was a very desirable one not merely because of the feasting, but because he had usually the right to levy contributions on the faithful, and the amounts collected were often very large. At York, for instance, in 1396 the ”bishop” pocketed about 77, all expenses paid.

The general parallelism of the Boy Bishop customs and the Feast of Fools is obvious, and no doubt they had much the same folk-origin. One point, already mentioned, should specially be noticed: the election of the Boy Bishop generally took place on December 5, the Eve of St. Nicholas, patron of children; he was often called ”Nicholas bishop”; and sometimes, as at Eton and Mayence, he exercised episcopal functions at divine service on the eve and the feast itself. It is possible, as Mr. Chambers suggests, that St. Nicholas's Day was an older date for the boys'

festival than Holy Innocents', and that from the connection with St.

Nicholas, the bishop saint _par excellence_ (he was said to have been consecrated by divine command when still a mere layman), sprang

308

the custom of giving the t.i.tle ”bishop” to the ”lord” first of the boys'

feast and later of the Feast of Fools.

In the late Middle Ages the Boy Bishop was found not merely in cathedral, monastic, and collegiate churches but in many parish churches throughout England and Scotland. Various inventories of the vestments and ornaments provided for him still exist. With the beginnings of the Reformation came his suppression: a proclamation of Henry VIII., dated July 22, 1541, commands ”that from henceforth all suche superst.i.tions be loste and clyerlye extinguisshed throughowte all this his realmes and dominions, forasmoche as the same doo resemble rather the unlawfull superst.i.tion of gentilitie [paganism], than the pure and sincere religion of Christe.”{25} In Mary's reign the Boy Bishop reappeared, along with other ”Popish” usages, but after Elizabeth's accession he naturally fell into oblivion. A few traces of him lingered in the seventeenth century.

”The Schoole-boies in the west,” says Aubrey, ”still religiously observe St. Nicholas day (Decemb. 6th), he was the Patron of the Schoole-boies.

At Curry-Yeovill in Somersets.h.i.+re, where there is a Howschole (or schole) in the Church, they have annually at that time a Barrell of good Ale brought into the church; and that night they have the priviledge to breake open their Masters Cellar-dore.”{26}

In France he seems to have gradually vanished, as, after the Reformation, the Catholic Church grew more and more ”respectable,” but traces of him are to be found in the eighteenth century at Lyons and Rheims; and at Sens, even in the nineteenth, the choir-boys used to play at being bishops on Innocents' Day and call their ”archbishop” _ane_--a memory this of the old _asinaria festa_.{27} In Denmark a vague trace of him was retained in the nineteenth century in a children's game. A boy was dressed up in a white s.h.i.+rt, and seated on a chair, and the children sang a verse beginning, ”Here we consecrate a Yule-bishop,” and offered him nuts and apples.{28}

309

310

311

CHAPTER XIV

ST. STEPHEN'S, ST. JOHN'S, AND HOLY INNOCENTS' DAYS

Horse Customs of St. Stephen's Day--The Swedish St. Stephen--St.

John's Wine--Childermas and its Beatings.

The three saints' days immediately following Christmas--St. Stephen's (December 26), St. John the Evangelist's (December 27), and the Holy Innocents' (December 28)--have still various folk-customs a.s.sociated with them, in some cases purely secular, in others hallowed by the Church.

ST. STEPHEN'S DAY.

In Tyrolese churches early in the morning of St. Stephen's Day there takes place a consecration of water and of salt brought by the people.

The water is used by the peasants to sprinkle food, barns, and fields in order to avert the influence of witches and evil spirits, and bread soaked in it is given to the cattle when they are driven out to pasture on Whit Monday. The salt, too, is given to the beasts, and the peasants themselves partake of it before any important journey like a pilgrimage.

Moreover when a storm is threatening some is thrown into the fire as a protection against hail.{1}

The most striking thing about St. Stephen's Day, however, is its connection with horses. St. Stephen is their patron; in England in former times they were bled on his festival in the belief that it would benefit them,{2} and the custom is still continued in some parts of Austria.{3} In Tyrol it is the custom not only to

312

bleed horses on St.

Stephen's Day, but also to give them consecrated salt and bread or oats and barley.{4}

In some of the Carinthian valleys where horse-breeding is specially carried on, the young men ride into the village on their unsaddled steeds, and a race is run four or five times round the church, while the priest blesses the animals, sprinkling them with holy water and exorcizing them.{5}

Similar customs are or were found in various parts of Germany. In Munich, formerly, during the services on St. Stephen's Day more than two hundred men on horseback used to ride three times round the interior of a church.

The horses were decorated with many-coloured ribbons, and the practice was not abolished till 1876.{6} At Backnang in Swabia horses were ridden out, as fast as possible, to protect them from the influence of witches, and in the Hohenlohe region men-servants were permitted by their masters to ride in companies to neighbouring places, where much drinking went on.{7} In Holstein the lads on Stephen's Eve used to visit their neighbours in a company, groom the horses, and ride about in the farmyards, making a great noise until the people woke up and treated them to beer and spirits.{8} At the village of Wallsbull near Flensburg the peasant youths in the early morning held a race, and the winner was called Steffen and entertained at the inn. At Viol near Bredstadt the child who got up last on December 26 received the name of Steffen and had to ride to a neighbour's house on a hay-fork. In other German districts the festival was called ”the great horse-day,” consecrated food was given to the animals, they were driven round and round the fields until they sweated violently, and at last were ridden to the blacksmith's and bled, to keep them healthy through the year. The blood was preserved as a remedy for various illnesses.{9}

It is, however, in Sweden that the ”horsy” aspect of the festival is most obvious.{10} Formerly there was a custom, at one o'clock on St.

Stephen's morning, for horses to be ridden to water that flowed northward; they would then drink ”the cream of the water” and flourish during the year. There was a violent race to the water, and the servant who got there first was rewarded by a drink of something stronger. Again, early that morning one

313

peasant would clean out another's stable, often at some distance from his home, feed, water, and rub down the horses, and then be entertained to breakfast. In olden times after service on St. Stephen's Day there was a race home on horseback, and it was supposed that he who arrived first would be the first to get his harvest in. But the most remarkable custom is the early morning jaunt of the so-called ”Stephen's men,” companies of peasant youths, who long before daybreak ride in a kind of race from village to village and awaken the inhabitants with a folk-song called _Staffansvisa_, expecting to be treated to ale or spirits in return.

The cavalcade is supposed to represent St. Stephen and his followers, yet the saint is not, as might be expected, the first martyr of the New Testament, but a dauntless missionary who, according to old legends, was one of the first preachers of the Gospel in Sweden, and was murdered by the heathen in a dark forest. A special trait, his love of horses, connects him with the customs just described. He had, the legends tell, five steeds: two red, two white, one dappled; when one was weary he mounted another, making every week a great round to preach the Word.