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Boy Bishop, was a name given to a custom very widespread in the Middle Ages, whereby a boy was chosen, for example among cathedral choristers, to parody the real Bishop, commonly on the feast of Holy Innocents. This custom was linked with others, such as that of the Feast of Fools and the Feast of Asses. The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...
The Holy Innocents by Giotto di Bondone. ...
The Feast of Fools (Fête des Fous) is the name given to popular medieval festivals regularly celebrated by the clergy and laity of the Roman Catholic Church from the 5th century to the 16th century in several countries of Europe. ...
Feast of Asses. ...
In England the boy bishop was elected on December 6, the feast of Saint Nicholas, the patron of children, and his authority lasted till Holy Innocents day (December 28). After the election, the boy was dressed in full bishops robes with mitre and crozier and, attended by comrades dressed as priests, made a circuit of the town blessing the people. December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Saint Nicholas is the common name for Saint Nicholas of Myra, who lived in 4th century Byzantine Lycia (part of modern Turkey), who had a reputation for secret gift-giving. ...
December 28 is the 362nd day of the year (363rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 3 days remaining. ...
Typically the chosen boy and his colleagues took possession of the cathedral and performed all the ceremonies and offices, except obviously Mass. Originally, it seems, confined to the cathedrals, the custom spread to many parishes. Notwithstanding the intervention of various Church authorities (see Feast of Fools), the popularity of the custom made it resistent. In England it was abolished by Henry VIII. Then in 1542, revived by Mary in 1552 and finally abolished by Elizabeth. On the continent it survived longest in Germany, in the so-called Gregoriusfest, said to have been founded by Gregory IV. There have been some recent revivals in the English-speaking world among Anglo-Catholics. A cathedral is a Christian church building, specifically of a denomination with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Anglican, Roman Catholic and some Lutheran churches, which serves as the central church of a diocese, and thus as a bishops seat. ...
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) presiding at the 2005 Easter Vigil Mass in place of Pope John Paul II. Mass is the term used of the celebration of the Eucharist in the Latin rites of the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church. ...
The Feast of Fools (Fête des Fous) is the name given to popular medieval festivals regularly celebrated by the clergy and laity of the Roman Catholic Church from the 5th century to the 16th century in several countries of Europe. ...
Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England and Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) from 22 April 1509 until his death. ...
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 6 July 1553 (de jure) or 19 July 1553 (de facto) until her death. ...
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603 ) was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. ...
Gregory IV, pope (827-844), was chosen to succeed Valentinus in December 827, on which occasion he recognized the supremacy of the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious in the most unequivocal manner. ...
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, groups, ideas, customs and practices within Anglicanism that emphasise continuity with Catholic tradition. ...
A good deal of the secondary literature on the subject is vitiated by schoolmarmish primness and disapproval. Granted, the custom is hardly appreciable in a modern world. However, in the Middle Ages liturgical services often occupied a social function of entertainment or at least pastime. Commonsense shows that in a given context a behaviour may be amusing while outside that context it could be embarrassing or even in bad taste. This is the bsis of every family joke. In a social context where everybody shared the same religious beliefs, backed up by common social conventions, these practices had a certain positive value.
The more sophisticated parts of the Boy Bishop festival were in any case supervised by notoriously stern masters. For instance, the sermons of the boy bishop were undoubtedly written by clergymen. The rare surviving examples show that these clerics grasped well how a reproof to delivered by a boy of, say twelve, to an adult congregation could move and elicit a certain repentance.
Sources
This article incorporates text from the public domain Catholic Encyclopedia. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...
The Catholic Encyclopedia (also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia today) is an English-language encyclopedia published in 1913 by the The Encyclopedia Press, designed to give authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine. // History The writing of the encyclopedia began on January 11...
A. Ward, "Richard Ramsey's Sermon for a Boy Bishop (Tudor Catholic Sermons 2)", in Ephemerides Liturgicae 111 (1997) 476-505.
A. Ward, "A Sermon for A Boy Bishop by John Alcock, Bishop of Ely (1430-1486-1500)", in Ephemerides Liturgicae 112 (1998) 58-81.
Less recent:
John Gough Nichols (ed.), "Two Sermons pronounced by the Boy Bishop at St. Paul's, Temp. Henry VIII, and at Gloucester, Temp. Mary", in Camden Miscellany, Volume the Seventh, Camden Society, 1875.
W.C. Meller, The Boy Bishop and other Essays on Forgotten Customs and Beliefs of the Past, London 1923, pp. 3-18
A. Gastá‚ "Les Drames liturgiques de la cathédrale de Rouen", in Revue catholique de Normandie 2 (1893) 349-372, 477-500, 573-605.
T.H.V. Motter, The School Drama in England, London 1929, pp. 6-8, 11-12, 31, 33, 49-50, 229, 252.
J.P.W. Crawford, "A Note on the Boy Bishop in Spain", in Romanic Review 12 (1921) 146-154.
Madeleine Charles, "Le drame liturgique", in La Vie et les arts liturgique 3 (1916-1917) 65-70, 121-134, 169-181, 258-266, 297-307, 403-412, esp. 404-406
J.M.J. Fletcher, The Boy Bishop at Salisbury and Elsewhere, Salisbury [1921]
Classic works on religious and liturgical drama:
C.M. Gayley, Plays of our Forefathers, New York, 1907, pp. 54-61.
E.K. Chambers, The Medieval Stage, 1903, vol. 1, pp. 336-371.
R.B. Donovan, The Liturgical Drama in Medieval Spain, 1958.
H. Craig, English Religious Drama of the Middle Ages, 1955.
F. Arens (ed.) Der Liber Ordinarius der Essener Stiftskirche, Paderborn, 1908, p. 213.
J.P.W. Crawford, Spanish Drama before Lope de Vega, Philadelphia 1922 (= Publications of the University of Philadelphia, Extra Series in Languages and Literatures 7), pp. 15-16.
V. De Bartholomaeis, Le Origini della Poesia drammatica italiana, Bologna [1924], pp. 201-211
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