FESTUM STULTORUM1 ONE of the salient features which strikes us most when we study the various customs of the Middle Ages is the strange vein of contradiction which runs through them: thoughts lofty and base, feelings noble and depraved, heroic and villainous actions, coarse pleasantry and childish buffoonery, intermingle in such a manner as to force the impartial critic to reject, condemn, excuse, and admire in one and the same breath. Doubtless this is why that period has invariably inspired either fanatical approval or wholesale condemnation. Among the strangest of these customs which invite our interest, if not our admiration, the Festum Stultorum, or Feast of Fools, may well be said to hold a prominent place, and was, in all probability, responsible for much of the opprobrium which has been lavished on the times in which it flourished. It was known under many different names, such as 'Feast of Fools,' 'Feast of the Innocents,' 'Feast of the Hypodeacons,' 'Feast of Calends,' 'The Liberties of December,' and found expression in a variety of forms which were at best childish and puerile, at the worst little else than religious orgies, and were celebrated with such extravagancies as would seem nowadays wellnigh incredible. Based on ancient privileges which dated back to the early days of Christianity, rather than on any ecclesiastical authority, and persistently denounced by Popes and Councils on account of the grave abuses to which they gave rise, they were celebrated in the churches during High Mass, vespers, and the other offices, and boasted a facetious ceremonial of their own which was carried out by the clerks, sub-deacons, deacons, and priests on certain days between Christmas and the Epiphany with a levity and licence which might well earn for them the title of Catholic Saturnalia. Their pagan origin is obvious, or rather it may be said that they actually superseded the old pagan festivals, and in some instances, notably the Feast of the Calends' and the Liberties of December,' even the very names are preserved. 1 Migne, Nouvelle Encyclopédie Théologique, tome 43; Jean Michel Constant, Monnaies Inconnues des Evêques, des Innocens, des Fous (see J. M. C. Leber, Collec tion des Meilleurs Dissertations, tome 9); Antoine Gachet d'Artigny, Notice Générale sur la fête des Fous (see J. M. C. Leber, ibid.). The old Roman Saturnalia, as is well known, were celebrated in December, being followed by the Calends of January and the Lupercalia of February. When in the fourth century Christianity became, under Constantine the Great, the recognised religion of the empire, the Church had to deal with masses of half-converted pagans who clung pertinaciously to their ancient customs. In vain she instituted public prayers, fasts, and processions in opposition to these pagan festivities; nothing could induce the people to abandon practices which had their roots in centuries. So, finding herself impotent to abolish them, she was compelled to adopt a policy of compromise in every instance which might be legitimately considered of secondary importance. She therefore tolerated the form and adapted it to objects of Christian belief. Thus were the Feasts of the Saints and Martyrs substituted for the cult of Saturn and Janus. But these customs spread with the progressive advance of Catholicism through barbarian Europe, and, therefore, instead of being mitigated, the scandal grew, since the confusion of ideas produced a corresponding confusion of principles. Nothing in the puerile, licentious practices had been changed but the name, and thus the remedy was worse than the evil, since it desecrated that which ought to have been kept holy. That the purely Christian Agape, or Love Feasts, originally celebrated within the precincts of the churches, had also very early shown a tendency to degenerate into licence is proved by the severe censure they incurred from St. Paul in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, xi. 21, 22. These abuses led them to be restricted to birthdays, marriages, funerals, and, finally, to some great festival such as the dedication of a church, until they were entirely prohibited by the Council of Laodicea, A.D. 363. St. Augustine warred against them in Africa, and recounts in his 'Confessions' how his mother, St. Monica, was forbidden by St. Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, to hold her accustomed Love Feast on the tombs of the dead. The Festum Stultorum found in France, owing to the Gallic love of pleasure, a particularly fertile soil; there these customs flourished in infinite variety, manuscript records of which are still preserved in many of the ancient cathedral churches. Dancing was a striking feature. On Christmas Day after vespers the deacons danced in the church while they sang an anthem in honour of St. Stephen; on St. Stephen's Day it was the turn of the priests to dance, on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist that of the choir boys, and on the Feast of the Epiphany that of the sub-deacons. In some churches the bishops threw dice, or played at various games, and danced with the minor clergy. These festivities were called the 'Liberties of December,' and, as we have already said, their name plainly denotes their pagan origin. Monks and nuns followed the example given them by the clergy, and kept the Feast of the Innocents with dances and other amusements. So late as 1702 we find a few convents still retaining something of the old customs, the nuns masquerading on that day in men's clothes and dancing among themselves. It is interesting here to recall that one of the principal charges brought against Joan of Arc was that she had worn men's clothes, a thing abominable to God,' as recorded in the minutes of her trial. The chief aim and object of the Festum Stultorum was the cere mony of electing the Fools' bishop.' In some dioceses they even went so far as to elect a pope.' On the eve of the feast the clerks proceeded to this election, and the new mock dignitary, generally one of the youngest amongst them, was conducted in triumph into the church where, arrayed in bishop's mitre, cope, gloves, and pectoral cross, he gave his blessing to the people, and was then conducted in procession through the town. Sometimes children were elected mockbishops (Episcopatus Puerorum or Episcopate of Children), but such grave disorders took place on these occasions, often terminating in serious conflicts between the clergy and the laity, that the custom was forbidden by the Council of Salzburg in 1274. A distinct formula of election, a certain method in their madness, prevailed in these extravagant demonstrations, and an interesting account of a Festum Stultorum held so late as 1570 is preserved in the archives of the cathedral at Chalons-sur-Marne. The date chosen was St. Stephen's Day, and on the Eve a stage was erected before the main entrance of the cathedral upon which the banquets, accompanied by much drinking, were to be held, all the expenses being defrayed by the chapter. Towards two o'clock on the Feast the mock-bishop was fetched by a large procession of clerks, sub-deacons, deacons, priests, and laymen. He rode on an ass richly caparisoned, and was preceded by every kind of discordant music, the cathedral bells chiming in merrily with the general pandemonium. Dismounting, the mock-bishop was vested in full episcopal robes, after which, cross in hand, he mounted the platform and sat down with his followers, the oldest canons usually forming his household,' and partook of the repast prepared for them. After the banquet vespers were hurriedly sung, and then feasting and drinking were resumed interspersed with music, games, dancing, and cavalcades. When at length the procession was formed for the return home, half the people accompanied the canons and the mockbishop, while the rest played on all sorts of utensils, creating a veritable charivari, the bells pealed above the burlesque symphony, and the clergy mingled with the crowd dressed as buffoons and in other grotesque costumes. In some of the churches where a pope' was elected as well as a 'bishop' the clergy used to appear during High Mass wearing hideous masks and dressed as women and jesters; they danced in the sanctuary and sang ribald songs, eating meat on the altar where Mass was being celebrated, gambling with dice, burning old shoes for incense, and after the service was over they promenaded the town, amusing the people with obscene songs and posturing. Many of the laity joined the clergy on these occasions dressed as monks and nuns. These feasts were for the most part similar to one another, but at Viviers a quaint variant was indulged in: the 'bishop's' followers were not allowed to lose sight of him for a single instant, sous peine d'avoir leur culotte coupée, and as the festivities lasted from the 17th of December till Christmas Eve, this duty can hardly have been a sinecure! Sometimes vespers were concluded in this droll fashion : the parish priest turned three times to the 'bishop' saying: 'Silence! silence! silence!' to which the choir answered the usual Deo gratias. The ass played a great part in all these medieval feasts, Balaam's ass probably being his prototype. Many of the churches in France celebrated a Feast of the Ass' with its proper 'office.' Details of this ceremony as it took place at Rouen, and from which we have drawn the following interesting account, still exist: On Christmas Day, before solemn High Mass, the whole clergy came in procession from the cloisters and stopped half way up the nave of the church, where a small bonfire of tow and lint had been prepared to represent a furnace. On either side of this furnace stood six men personifying the Jews and the Gentiles, who were invited by two clerks to confess the truth of the Mystery of the Incarnation. Jews and Gentiles expressed their marked incredulity in a chanted response, whereupon the prophets Moses, Amos, Isaiah, Aaron, Jeremiah, and King David were called upon to appear and convince these doubters, a long and tedious affair since each indulged in turn in a lengthy prophecy! Next, two ambassadors of Balak, King of the Moabites, called upon Balaam, who appeared upon his ass, spurring her on, when a young man representing an angel and carrying a sword suddenly stood before him in his path, whilst someone hidden beneath the ass spoke these words: Unhappy that I am! Why spurrest thou me?' The angel addressing Balaam said: 'Cease to execute the orders of King Balak!' The cantors cried out: 'Prophesy, Balaam!' Then Balaam chanted: A star shall come out of Jacob,' &c. A great many of Israel's kings next appeared in turn, and lastly came Nebuchadnezzar with Daniel and the young men who refused to worship the king's statue. They were incontinently thrown into the furnace and the tow was set on fire; Daniel and the youths sang their song of praise in the midst of the flames, and Nebuchadnezzar rendered glory to the Most High. The last to appear was the Roman Sybil dressed as a queen, and, prophesying, she, too, bore testimony to the Mystery of the Incarnation. This ended a very long ceremony, whereupon all returned to the choir leading Balaam's ass with them. High Mass began. The ass, wearing a cope, was placed near the altar, and his 'office' was then chanted. A Latin verse and a refrain in French were sung alternately; it opened thus: and so on. Orientis partibus Adventavit asinus Hé Sire Ane, car chantez In Beauvais we find the 'Feast of the Ass' celebrated on the 14th of January, and in quite a different manner, but the office de l'âne remains the same; a young and pretty girl, carrying a child in her arms, is seated on a richly caparisoned ass in representation of the Virgin Mother's flight into Egypt. Preceded by a large procession of all the clergy, she is conducted from the cathedral to the church of St. Stephen, where she is led, still seated on the ass, into the sanctuary and posted on the gospel side of the altar. High Mass begins, during which the Office of the Ass' is chanted as at Rouen, except that the Introit, the Kyrie, the Gloria, and the Credo are accompanied on the part of the congregation by loud hee-haws, hee-haws, hee-haws. At the end of the mass the priest turned to the people and said 'Hee-haw! hee-haw! hee-haw!' at which the people answered in like manner. In autumn the ass was led in procession under a golden canopy that was carried by four of the principal canons. It would appear there was also a similar Feast of the Ox,' which likewise had its own 'office.' Unfortunately no trace of it has come down to us. But perhaps the most curious of all these strange customs was the burial of the Alleluia. Alleluia is said throughout the year in the Divine Office except from Septuagesima Sunday up to Easter. He was therefore supposed to have died, and was buried with great pomp on Septuagesima Sunday at nones. On this occasion the choir boys, clad in their best vestments, carrying a clod of earth to represent the defunct Alleluia, assembled in the choir; they then walked in procession with the cross, incense, and holy water to the cloisters, where the burial was to take place; there they proceeded to incense the sham corpse and sprinkle it with holy water. Incredible as it may seem, an 'Alleluia office' existed whose antiquity may be proved by the condemnation it provoked in A.D. 633 by the Council of Toledo. However, it was still in existence much later on, for a manuscript at Auxerre in the thirteenth century has conserved it to us. It runs thus: Sois avec nous aujourd'hui, encore, Alleluia, Alleluia ! Que tes années se multiplient. Regagne tes trésors. Et que le bon ange de Dieu t'accompagne, Alleluia : |