Boy bishop

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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.

Contents 1 History 2 Revivals 3 Analysis 4 Notes 5 Sources 6 External links

[edit] History

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). The real Bishop would, symbolically, step down at the deposuit potentes de sede of the Magnificat ("he hath put down the mighty from their seat"), and the boy would take his seat at et exaltavit humiles ("and hath exalted the humble and meek").

After the election, the boy was dressed in full bishop's robes with mitre and crozier and, attended by comrades dressed as priests, made a circuit of the town blessing the people.

Typically the chosen boy and his colleagues took possession of the cathedral and performed all the ceremonies and offices, except 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 resistant. In England it was abolished by Henry VIII 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.

[edit] Revivals

There have been some recent revivals both in the English-speaking world and on the continent. Most famous perhaps is that of Hereford, revived in 1973 for a special children's service, with full and traditional ceremonies following annually since 1982. The Boy Bishop preaches a sermon and leads prayers at various Diocesan Advent services. Such ceremonies are now also found at Westminster Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, and a number of parish churches throughout England. The custom has been likewise revived in Chavagnes International College, a Catholic boarding school in France. In the United States, one of the first revivals of the custom took place in 1979 at the Cathedral of All Saints in Albany, New York, as part of an annual medieval fair held in the great Gothic church.

[edit] Analysis

A good deal of the secondary literature on the subject is vitiated by schoolmarmish primness and disapproval. Granted, the custom is hardly appreciable in most of the modern world. However, in the Middle Ages liturgical services often occupied a social function of entertainment or at least pastime. Common sense shows that in a given context a behaviour may be amusing while outside that context it could be embarrassing or even in bad taste. In a social context where everybody shared the same religious beliefs, backed up by common social conventions, these practices had a certain positive value.

In the settings where the practice has been revived, the figure of the boy bishop echoes the words of Jesus: "Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child shall never enter it." As with other traditional festivals which offered a brief social revolution, the replacement of the bishop by a boy turns the world upside. It stands as a reminder to clergy and laity alike that, "There is no room for pride of person or place in the Kingdom of Heaven, whose King emptied himself of the divine majesty and assumed the form of a servant. ^[1]

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 delivered by a young boy to an adult congregation could move and elicit a certain repentance.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Consortium of Country Churches: "Boy Bishops." Full Homely Divinity, 2006.

[edit] Sources

Salisbury Catherdral

Recent works:

• 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

Public references:

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.

[edit] External links

• Chavagnes ceremony
• Hereford ceremony
• Salisbury ceremony
• Westminster ceremony
• Catholic Encyclopedia entry
• Anglican Consortium of Country Churches' entry