cover of it to throw wanton ridicule on holy things. True many

the result of the folly of the Emperor Michael III. (857—867), which Constantinus Porphyrogen. in Basilio no. 21, Continuator Theophanis lib. iv. no. 38, Symeon Logotheta in Michaele no. 18, record. This was a single act, and an act of hostility against the Church. An analogous custom in early times may be discovered in that which Georgius Cedrenus in histor. compend. ed. Paris. p. 639 relates of Theophylact Patriarch of Constantinople in the 10th century: epyov ékeivov Kai Tò νῦν κρατοῦν ἔθος, ἐν ταῖς λαμπραῖς καὶ δημοτελέσιν ἑορταῖς ὑβρίζεσθαι τὸν θεὸν καὶ τὰς τῶν ἁγίων μνήμας διὰ λογισμάτων ἀπρεπῶν καὶ γελώτων καὶ παραφόρων κραυγῶν, τελουμένων τῶν θείων ὕμνων. And afterwards: τὰς Σατανικὰς ὀρχήσεις καὶ τὰς ἀσήμους κραυγὰς καὶ τὰ ἐκ τριόδων καὶ χαμαιτυπείων ἠρανισμένα άσματα τελεῖσθαι ἐδίδαξεν.

2 The first to mention this is Jo. Beleth in Explicat. divin. offic. cap. 70, de iis festivitatibus, quae Christi Nativitatem proxime sequuntur: Debent ergo vesperae Natalis primo integre celebrari, ac postea conveniunt diaconi quasi in tripudio, cantantque Magnificat cum Antiphona de s. Stephano,-et universum officium crastinum celebrant Diaconi, quod Stephanus fuerit Diaconus. Sic eodem modo omne officium perficient sacerdotes ipso die b. Joannis, quia hic sacerdos fuerit, et pueri in ipso festo Innocentum, quia Innocentes pro Christo occisi sunt. Cap. 72: Festum Hypodiaconorum, quod vocamus stultorum, a quibusdam perficitur in circumcisione a quibusdam vero in Epiphania, vel in ejus octavis. Fiunt autem quatuor tripudia post nativitatem Domini in Ecclesia, Levitarum scilicet, Sacerdotum, Puerorum i. e. minorum aetate et ordine, et Hypodiaconorum, qui ordo incertus est. Unde fit, ut ille quandoque annumeretur inter sacros ordines, quandoque non, quod expresse ex eo intelligitur, quod certum tempus non habeat, et officio celebretur confuso. Durantis repeats the contents of these two chapters in his Rationale Divin. offic. lib. vii. c. 42 in fine.) Cap. 120 Restat,-ut-agamus-de quadam libertate Decembris, quae hoc tempore in quibusdam locis observatur. Sunt nempe nonnullae Ecclesiae, in quibus usitatum est, ut vel etiam Epis. copi vel Archiepiscopi in coenobiis cum suis ludant subditis, ita ut etiam sese ad lusum pilae demittant. Atque haec quidem libertas ideo dicta est Decembrica, quod olim apud ethnicos moris fuerit, ut hoc mense servi et ancillae et pastores velut quandam libertate donarentur, fierentque cum dominis suis pari conditione, communia festa agentes post collectionem messium. Quanquam vero magnae Ecclesiae, ut est Remensis, hanc ludendi consuetudinem observent, videtur tamen laudabilius esse non ludere. Most remarkable for wanton mockery of ecclesiastical institutions are the festum innocentum, (in the monastic schools a child-abbot, in the cathedral schools a child-bishop was chosen, in Mayence this festive custom has been continued down to modern times. cf. F. A. Dürr comm. hist. de Episcopo Puerorum vulgo vom Schulbischof. Mogunt. 1755. 4. E. Meyer's Gesch. d. Hamburgischen Schul-und Unterrichtswesens im Mittelalter, Hamburg 1843), and the festum hypodiaconorum (cf. du Tiliot mémoi

decrees were passed against this custom: still the disorder continued to increase.

res pour servir à l'histoire de la fête des foux. A Lausanne et à Genève 1751. 8. du Fresne s. v. Kalendae.) In Ratisbon the abuse was so great that Innocent IV. in 1249 issued a prohibition against it see Monumenta boica xiii. 214. Gemeiner's Reichstadt Regensburgische Chronik, Regensb. 1800. 4. i. 357. However the grossest extravagances of this nature seem to belong originally to the succeeding period. In many places, for instance in Rouen, an ass-feast was celebrated on Christmas-day: Elsewhere, as in Beauvais, a ceremony of the same kind was kept on the 14th of June, in commemoration of the flight into Egypt. cf. du Fresne s. v. Festum asinorum. Another festival, accompanied with similar extravagances of the clergy, took place in Evreux on the first of May so early as about 1200. Du Tiliot 1. c. p. 26 ss.

3 The first was in the year 1198, by Cardinal Peter, papal Legate, addrest to Odo, Bishop of Paris, and publisht by him (ed. Petrus de Gussanvilla in Append. ad Petri Blesensis opp. and quoted from this in Bibl. Patrum Lugd. xxiv. 1370): didicimus, quod in festo circumcisionis dominicae in eadem ecclesia [Parisiensi] tot consueverunt enormitates et opera flagitiosa committi, quod locum sanctum, in quo gloriosa Virgo gratam sibi mansionem elegit (the Church of Notre Dame), non solum foeditate verborum, verum etiam sanguinis effusione plerumque contingit inquinari; at eatenus adinventio tam perniciosae temeritatis invaluit, ut sacratissima dies, in qua mundi Redemptor voluit circumcidi, festum fatuorum nec immerito generaliter consueverit appellari. Thereupon in 1199 followed Odo's directions for a proper celebration of the Circumcision of our Lord, and of the Feast of St Stephen (quoniam festivitas b. Protomartyris Stephani ejusdem fere subjacebat dissolutionis et temeritatis incommodo): and a confirmation of these directions by Petrus Cambius, the next Bishop of Paris, in the year 1208 (both 1. c.) Nevertheless the Council of Paris ann. 1212 Pars iv. c. 16 (in Mansi xxii. 842) found it necessary to enjoin even on the Bishops: A festis vero follorum, ubi baculus accipitur, omnino abstineatur. Idem fortius monachis et monialibus prohibemus. The first sentence is repeated by Robertus Legatus in Conc. Rotomag. ann. 1214 P. iii. c. 16 (Mansi xxii. 920.)-Innocent III. in the year 1210 (Decr. Greg. lib. iii. tit. i. cap. 12): Interdum ludi fiunt in Ecclesiis theatrales, et non solum ad ludibriorum spectacula introducuntur in eis monstra larvarum, verum etiam in aliquibus anni festivitatibus, quae continue natalem Christi sequuntur, diaconi, presbyteri, ac subdiaconi vicissim insaniae suae ludibria exercere praesumunt: per gesticulationum suarum debacchationes obscoenas in conspectu populi decus faciunt clericale vilescere etc. Statuta Eccl. Nivernensis ann. 1246 cap. 3. (Martene thes. anecdot. iv. 1069, Mansi xxiii. 731): Quia in festo stultorum, scil. Innocentium et anni novi, in Ecclesia vestra multa fiunt-inhonesta, sub poena excommunicationis inhibemus districte, ne talia festa irrisoria de caetero facere praesumant. Constitt.

§ 80.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE.

Schröckh xxix. 311. G. Schmidt über das Predigen in d. Landesprachen während des Mittelalters, in d. theol. Studien u. Kritiken 1846. ii. 243. Deutsche Predigten des xii. und xiii. Jahrh. herausg. v. K. Roth, Quedlinb. u Leipz. 1839. Deutsche Predigten des xiii. u. xiv. Jahrh. herausg. v. H. Leyser, ebendas. 1838, Vorwort S. xiii.

In comparison with ecclesiastical pageantry, preaching, the more spiritual part of divine worship was either quite left off, or managed in a very unprofitable manner. Most of the sermons of the twelfth century were short homilies full of allegorical and mystical interpretations; they were often nothing more than stiff translations from some Latin Homiliarium. Accordingly the wandering preachers of repentance and crusades made all the more impression on the people. The most distinguisht preacher of this century is St Bernard.1

From the heretics of Southern France, Peter of Bruis, Henry, and the Waldenses, the common people first heard sermons

Petri Archiep. Burdegalensis in Conc. Copriniacensi ann. 1260 cap. 2 (Mansi xxiii. 1033): Cum in balleatione (dance) quae in festo ss. Innocentium in quibusdam Ecclesiis fieri inolevit, multae rixae, contentiones et turbationes-consueverint provenire, praedictas balleationes ulterius sub intimatione anathematis fieri prohibemus, necnon et Episcopos in praedicto festo creari: cum hoc in Ecclesia Dei ridiculum existat, et hoc dignitatis episcopalis ludibrio fiat. When these prohibitions were found fruitless, they became at last more complying. Conc. Saltzburgense ann. 1274 cap. 17: Ad haec quidam ludi noxii, quos vulgaris elocutio episcopatus puerorum appellat, in quibusdam Ecclesiis exercentur adeo insolenter, quod nonnunquam enormes culpae et damna gravia subsequuntur. Ex ipsis hos ludos in Ecclesiis et a personis ecclesiasticis de caetero fieri prohibemus, nisi forte parvi sexdecim annorum et infra fuerint, qui hujusmodi ludos exercent, quibus alii seniores ipsi nullatenus se misceant aut intersint. Ordinationes Joannis Cantuar. Archiep. in domibus religiosis ann. 1279 (Mansi xxiv. 264): Puerilia solemnia, quae in festo solent fieri Innocentum, post vesperas s. Joannis tantum inchoari permittimus, et in crastino in ipsa die Innocentum totaliter terminentur.

1 Schmidt and other places. S. 258. 2 See below § 87 and 88.

which brought before them the simple doctrines of Christianity with equal comprehensiveness and convincing power: accordingly they met with great success. It was probably their example which actuated Fulco, pastor of Neuilly in the Bishopric of Paris († 1202) whose exhortations to repentance and morality had the more powerful effect, from the strangeness of such spiritual admonitions to the people. In particular the first two mendicant orders were roused to action by them: for the Franciscans adopted into the service of the Church, those very peculiarities, by means of which the Heretics made so great an impression: They went forth among the people with an intelligible and animated style of preaching; while the Dominicans likewise in their addresses to the common people, made the extinction of heresy their principal aim. Although the Franciscans as tools of the Pope, soon became for the most part untrue to their original purpose: still from time to time the antient enthusiasm for popular preaching reappeared among them; as for instance in

3 Jacobi a Vitriaco hist. occident. c. 6: In diebus illis suscitavit Deus caeli spiritum cujusdam sacerdotis ruralis, simplicis valde et illiterati, de episcopatu Parisiensi, nomine Fulconis. Sicut enim piscatores et idiotas elegit, ut gloriam suam alteri non daret: sic Dominus eo quod parvuli petiissent panem, literati autem circa disputationes vanitatis et pugnas verborum intenti, frangere non curabant, praedictum Presbyterum tanquam stellam in medio nebulae, et pluviam in medio siccitatis, ad vineam suam excolendam misericorditer elegit.-He made his appearance as a preacher in Paris, cap. 8, et exinde alii tam doctores quam discipuli ad ejus rudem et simplicem praedicationem concurrebant. Alter alterum invitabat,-dicentes: Venite et audite Fulconem presbyterum, tanquam alterum Paulum. Ipse autem confortatus in Domino -coepit vitiorum monstra fortiter adminiculante Domino prosternere. On the affect of his preaching: Publicae meretrices capillos scindentes consuetam turpitudinem abnegabant. Sed et alii peccatores Sathanae et pompis ejus cum lacrimis renunciantes, ab ipso veniam postulabant. He soon acquired fame as a worker of miracles. In omnem autem Christianorum terram exivit sonus praedicationis ipsius, et fama sanctitatis ejus divulgabatur ubique. Sed et discipuli ejus, quos ad praedicandum mittebat, velut Apostoli Christi, cum summo honore et reverentia recipiebantur ab omnibus. His example was followed by many (cap. 9); but there rose up false preachers also, who desired nothing but their own advancement (cap. 10). Radulphi Abb. Coggeshalensis (after 1207) chron. Anglicanum, in Rerum Gallicarum et Francicarum scriptt. (begun by Bouquet, continued by Brial) xviii. 80. Wilken's Gesch. d. Kreuzzüge. Th. 5, s. 93.

See above § 68.

the Franciscan David at Augsburg (about the year 1250) and his pupil Berthold at Ratisbon († 1272).o

The religious education of the people remained fettered as before."

5 See deutsche Mystiker des 14. Jahrh. herausgeg. von F. Pfeiffer Bd. 1. (Leipzig 1845) s. 309. Einleit. s. xxvi.

6 Concerning him see especially Joannes Vitoduranus (a Franciscan + 1348) in chron. ad ann. 1265 (in Thesaurus historiae Helvetiae. Tiguri 1735. fol. p. 6: Circiter, ista tempora floruit frater Bertoldus Ordinis Fratrum minorum in Alamania egregius praedicator, qui circumeundo et perambulando frequenter Alamaniam ipsam mirabiliter illustravit, et peccatores innumeros verbo et exemplo pariter ad Dominum convertebat, cujus memoria in benedictione est, et adhuc recentissima meo tempore perseverat in hominibus. In campis saepius solebat praedicare, et tunc populus ex omnibus partibus finitimis et locis circumadjacentibus in maxima multitudine confluebat.-Ipse fuit linguae disertae, vitae sanctae, magnae literaturae, sicut adhuc evidenter apparet et patet in diversis voluminibus ab eo compilatis sermonum, quos rusticanos appellari voluit. In suis praedicationibus peccatores inveterati, obstinati ac sceleratissimi surrexerunt aperte peccata sua confitentes, et vitam turpem praeteritam abdicantes, veniamque postulantes, et satisfactionem ac emendam dignam promittentes.-Post mortem suam in civitate Bawariae dicta Ratispona, in qua, ut fertur, natus et alitus erat, multis multo tempore coruscavit miraculis in loco Fratrum minorum, ubi sepultus est. cf. Wadding ad ann. 1272 no. 16. Matth. Raderi Bavaria sancta (Tomi iv. Monach. 1704. fol.) i. 293. Müller's Schweizergeschichte i. 530. Berthold's Stammtafel b. Roth a. a. O. s. 80. Mons's Anzeiger 7r Jahrg. (1838) s. 218.-See also Berthold the Franciscan's German sermons, some entire, some in abstract, publisht (from a manuscript at Heidelberg) by Ch. Fredr. Kling, Berlin 1824. 8. Comp. J. Grimm's remarks in the Wiener Jahrbüchern (1825) xxxii. 194, where Berthold's life, activity, and preaching are expressly treated of, and some other manuscripts of sermons authenticated as his. Comp. Leyser Vorw. s. xvi.-At the same time lived also the unknown monk, to whom the German sermons of the 13th cent. publisht by Grieshaber 1. Div. Stuttg. 1844, are to be referred.

are

7 Statuta synodalia Richardi Cicestrensis Episc. ann. 1246 (Mansi xxiii. 714): Volumus, ut a propriis sacerdotibus laici moneantur, ut orationem dominicam, et symbolum Apostolorum addiscant (see Part 1. § 10. note 29), et salutatione b. Virginis; et haec sacerdotes parochianos in lingua saltem materna diligenter et frequenter doceant. Compare Odonis Ep. Paris praecepta above § 78, note 12.