On Innocents' Day he was given a dinner, after which came a cavalcade
through the city, that the "bishop" might bless the people. He had also
to preach a sermon--no doubt written for him.
Examples of such discourses are still extant,{22} and are not without
quaint touches. For instance the bidding prayer before one of them
alludes to "the ryghte reverende fader and worshypfull lorde my broder
Bysshopp of London, your dyoceasan," and "my worshypfull broder [the]
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 Mass. 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 L77, 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.
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