Volume 1

Encyclopædia of religion and ethics / edited by James Hastings ; with the assistance of John A. Selbie ... and other scholars.

Date:
1908-1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Encyclopædia of religion and ethics / edited by James Hastings ; with the assistance of John A. Selbie ... and other scholars. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    At Rouen and Evxeux the leader of the frolics was called A bbas Conardorum. Another title was A bbas Juvenum. In certain cathedral chapters in France he was called VAbb6 des Foux. He was the mon- astic representative of the Boy Bishop, or Episcopus Puerorum, whose office is recognized in the service ‘ in die Sanctorum Innocentium ’ in the Sarum Pro- cessionale of 1555. In some cathedral churches he was styled Episcopus or Archiepiscopus Fatuorum. In churches exempt from diocesan jurisdiction he had the exalted title Papa Fatuorum. In every case these mimic dignitaries represented the highest authority in the Church. They mas- queraded in the vestments of the clergy, and exercised for the time being some of the functions of the higher clergy. The clergy themselves gave their sanction to the mimic rites: ‘ Deinde episcopus puerorum conversus ad clerum elevet hrachium suum dicens hanc benedictionem : Crucis signo vos consigno’ (Sarum Process, fol. xiv). In the York Inventory of 1530 a little mitre and a ring are mentioned, evidently for the Episcopus Puerorum. These titles are all closely connected -with the Feast of Fools, the Festum Fatuorum, in the medimval Church. There is little doubt that their privileges go hack to much earlier times. The standatd authority for the whole subject is the treatise Mimoirespo'ur servir d I’histoire della Ftte des Foux, by M. du Tilliot, published at Lausanne and Geneva, 1741. Du Tilliot, with good reason, traces them back to the Saturnalia, the Libertas Decembris of which Horace (Sat. il. vii. 5 f.) speaks when he bids his slave Davus exercise his annual privilege of masquerading as master: ‘ Age, libertate Decembri, Quando ita majores voluerunt, utere, narra.’ Du Tilliot says: 'Car oomme dans les Saturnales, les Valets faisoient les foncHo de leurs Maitres, de meme dans la FSte des Foux les jeur Clercs et les autres Ministres inf^rieurs de I’Eglise officioie publiquement et solennement, pendant certains jours consaci i honorer les Mystferes du Christianisme.’ The policy of the early Church was to divert the people from their pagan customs by consecrating them, as far as possible, to Christian use. The month of December was dedicated to Saturn. The Saturnalia were originally held on Dec. 17. Augnis- tus extended the holiday to three days, Dec. 17-19. Martial (ob. 101) speaks of it as lasting five days. Lucian, in the 2nd cent., says it lasted a week, and that mimic kings were chosen. Duchesne (Origines, p. 265) allows that the Mithraic festival of Natalis Invicti, on Dec. 25, may have had some influence in fixing the date of Christmas in the Western Church. He hesitates as to the Satur- nalia. Yet the Christianized festivities of the Saturnalia were probably slowly transferred to the Christmas season by the appointment of the Advent fast. A relic of this still lingers on in North Staffordshire, where the farm-servants’ annual holi- day extends from Christmas to New Year. The BoyiBishop (Episcopus Puerorum) was elected on St. Nicholas’ Day, Dec. 6, and his authority lasted till Childermas, or Holy Innocents’ Day. Edward I., in 1299, permitted him to say vespers in the royal presence on Dee. 7. The Santa Claus of to-day still keeps alive the tradition of the Boy Bishop and the Abbot of Unreason. The concessions of the early Church did not succeed in checking the abuses which had been associated with the Saturnalia. The ‘Liberty of December’ extended to New Year and Epiphany, covering the whole of the Cliristmas festival. The ‘ Misrule ’ called forth constant protests. Pseudo- Aug. (Serm. 265) condemns the dances, which after- wards became a recomized feature of the Feast of Fools: ‘ Isti enim infelices et miseri homines, qui balationes et saltationes ante ipsas basilicas Sanct- orum exercere nec metuunt nec erubescunt, etsi Christiani ad Ecclesiam venerint, Pagani de Ecclesia revertuntur.’ The sermon has been ascribed to Csesarius of Arles (o6. 547). The description of the Feast of Fools at Antiles in 1644, quoted by du Tilliot from a contemporary letter to Gassendi, shows that the custom was too deeply rooted in the same district to yield to the censures of the Church. The excesses connected with the Calends Brumalia and other festivals were condemned in Can. Ixii. of the Council in Trullo in 692. The mimic pageantry of bishop and abbot was specially censured in Sessio xxi. of the Council of Basel in 1435 : ‘Turpem etiam ilium abusum in quibusdam frequentatum baculo, ac vestibus pontificalibus more episcoporum benedicunt.’ Alii ut reges ac duces induti, quod festum fatuorum vel luno- centium vel puerorum in quibusdam regionibus nuncupatur, ut alii larvales et tbeatrales jocos.’ Tilliot also mentions the condemnation of these abuses by the Council of Rouen in 1435, Soissons in 1455, Sens in 1485, Paris in 1528, and Cologne in 1536. In England they were abolished by procla- mation of Henry Viii., July 22, 1542, though restored by Mary in 1554. In Scotland the annual burlesque presided over by the Abbot of Unreason was suppressed in 1555. The guisers, who in Scotland play the part of the mummers in the Christmas revels in England, wear mitre-shaped caps of brovTi paper, which are derived either from the Boy Bishops or from the Abbots of Unreason. In fiction. Sir Walter Scott has left a vivid picttire of the ‘right reverend Abbot of Unreason ’ in the Abbot. Litreatcre.—Du Tilliot, Mtmoires; Ducange, Glossarium; Sarum Processionale, 1555; Sir W. Scott, The Abbot, with historical note ; Chambers, Book of Days-, Jamieson, Scottish Diet.; Diet. Larousse. ThOMAS BaENS. ‘ABD AL-QADIR AL-JiLANi. —i. Life.— Sidi ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, one of the greatest religious personalities of Islam, ascetic, wonder- worker, teacher, and founder of a brotherhood, was bom in 471 A.H. [1078 A.D.]. The Muslims make him a sharlf of the blood of the Prophet and a descendant of ‘Ali; but this claim has little likeli- hood, for he was probably of Persian origin. His complete name reads hluhyi ad-Din ‘Abd al- Qadir, son of Abu Salih, son of Jenki-Dost al-Jili or Jilani. Jenki-Dost is a Persian name. His- torians, such as Abu-l-Mahasin (ed. Juynboll, i. p. 698), tell us that his national name (Jilani, ‘the Jilanite’) came to him not from the Persian pro- vince Jilan, but from Jil, a locality near Baghdad. Various legends, however, call him ‘the ‘Ajami,’ i.e. the Persian. He came to Baghdad in 488 to study Banbalite law. He learnt the Qur’an from Abu Sa‘id al-Mubarak al-hluharrimi, and polite literature from Abu Zakarya Yahya of Tabriz. His master in asceticism was Hammad ad-Dabbas; he spent long years in the deserts and among the ruins around Baghdad, leading a hermit’s life. In 521 he felt himself called back into the world, and returned to Baghdad, Avhere the Qadi, Abu Sa‘id al-Muharrimi, gave him charge ofjthe school which he had been directing in Bab el-Azaj (Le Strange, Baghdad, Map viii. No. 29, and p. 296AT.). His teaching met with very great success; the school had to be enlarged time after time; it was finally completed in 528, and took the name of Sidi Jilani. He spoke there three times a week—twice in the school, on law, and once in his oratory, on mysti- cism. He drew many hearers from all parts of Mesopotamia, Persia, and even Egypt. It is affirmed that he converted Jews and Christians. He gave legal decisions, which became authorita- tive among both the Ranbalites and the Shafi‘ites. Among his hearers might be mentioned the juris- consult Muwaffaq ad-Din ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi and the famous mystic Shihab ad-Din as-Suhra-