In England these ceremonies were far more
popular and lasting than the Feast of Fools, and, unlike it, they were
recognized and approved by authority, probably because boys were more
amenable to discipline than men, and objectionable features could be
pruned away with comparative ease. The festivities must have formed a
delightful break in the year of the mediaeval schoolboy, for whom
holidays, as distinguished from holy-days for church-going, scarcely
existed. The feast, as we shall see, was by no means confined within the
church walls; there was plenty of merrymaking and money-making outside.
Minute details have been preserved of the Boy Bishop customs at St.
Paul's Cathedral in the thirteenth century. It had apparently been usual
for the "bishop" to make the cathedral dignitaries act as taper- and
incense-bearers, thus reversing matters so that the great performed the
functions of the lowly. In 1263 this was forbidden, and only clerks of
lower rank might be chosen for these offices. But the "bishop" had the
right to demand |307| after Compline on the Eve of the Innocents a
supper for himself and his train from the Dean or one of his canons. The
number of his following must, however, be limited; if he went to the
Dean's he might take with him a train of fifteen: two chaplains, two
taper-bearers, five clerks, two vergers, and four residentiary canons; if
to a lesser dignitary his attendants were to be fewer.
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