mony of the
Exeter _Ordinale_, the Boy-Bishop, on St. Nicholas' Day, censed the
altar of the Holy Innocents, recited prayers, read the Little Chapter at
Lauds "in a modest voice," and gave the Benediction.

We have seen that Dean Colet required his scholars to contribute, each
one, a penny to the Boy-Bishop. At Norwich annual payments were made by
all the officials of the cathedral church to the Boy-Bishop and his
clerks on St. Nicholas' Day, and the expenses of the feast were defrayed
by the Almoner out of the revenues of the chapter. An account of
Nicholas of Newark, Boy-Bishop of York in 1396, shows that, besides
gifts in the church, donations were received from the Canons, the
monasteries, noblemen, and other benefactors. On the Octave he repaired,
accompanied by his train, to the house of Sir Thomas Utrecht, from whom
he obtained "iij_s._ iiij_d._"; on the second Sunday he went still
farther afield, including in his perambulation the Priories of Kirkham,
Malton, Bridlington, Walton, Baynton, and Meaux. _En route_, he waited
on the Countess of Northumberland at Leconfield, and was graciously
rewarded with a gold ring and twenty shillings.

These "visitations" seem to have been characterized by feasting and
merriment and some undesirable mummery. Puttenham, in his "Arte of
Poesie" (1589), observes: "On St. Nicholas' night, commonly, the
scholars of the country make them a Bishop, who, like a foolish boy,
goeth about blessing and preaching with such childish terms as make the
people laugh at his foolish counterfeit." In some quarters regulations
were in force to preclude such levity. At Exeter, for example, one of
the Canons was appointed to look after the Boy-Bishop, who was to have
for his supper a penny roll, a small cup of mild cider, two or three
pennyworths of meat, and a pennyworth of cheese or butter. He might ask
not more than six of his friends to dine with him at the Canon's room,
and their dinner was to cost not more than fourpence a head. He was not
to run about the streets in his episcopal gloves, and he was obliged to
attend choir and school the next day like the other choristers.

It may be remarked that the Boy-Bishop proceedings had their counterpart
in the girls' observance of St. Catherine's Day; and the phrase "going
a-Kathering" expressed the same sort of alms-seeking as attended the
ceremonies in honour of St. Nicholas.

In its palmy days the festival of the Boy-Bishop was favoured not only