THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
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at the high mass, and each of them offer a penny to the Chylde-Byshop : and with them the maisters and surreyois of the scole ! By a pny- clamation of Henn^ VIII. dated July 32, 1642, the show of the Child Bishop was abrogated, but in the reign of Mary it was revived. One of the flattering songs sung before that queen by the Boy Bishop and printed, was a panegyric on her devotion, and compared her to Judith, Esther, the queen of Sheba, and the Virgin Mary. The accountsofStMaryat Hill, London, in die 10th Heniy VI. and for 1649 and 1660, contain charges for the Boy Bishops of those nan. At this period his estimation seems to have been undiminished ; for on November 13, 1664, the Bishop of London issued an order to all the clergy of his diocese to have a Boy Bishop in procession; and in the same year he went about St. Andrew's, Holbom, and St. Nicholas Olares, in Bread-street, and other parishes. In 1566, the Boy Bishop again went abroad singing in the old iashion, and was received by many ignonut but well-disposed persons into their houses, and had much g^ood cheer. Warton affirms that the practice of electing a Boy Bishop subsisted in common grammar schools ; for St. Nicholas, as the patron of scholars has a double feast at Eton College, where, in the papal times, the scholars (to avoid interfering as it should seem with the Boy Bishop of the college on St Nicholas' day) elected their Boy Bishop on St. Bnrii's day, in the month of November. Brand i$ of opinion that the anniversary montem at Eton, IS only a corruption of the ceremony of the Boy Bishop and his companions, who by the edict of Henry VIII. being prevented from mimicking any longer their religious superiors, girea new mce to their festivity, and began their present play at soldiers, and electing a captain. Even within the memory of persons ahre when Brand vrrote, the montem was kept in the winter time a little before Christmas, although it is now kept on Whit-Tuesday. A fonn«r provost of the school remembered when the scholars were accustomed to cut a passage thtongfa the snow from Eton to the hill, called SaltUll. After the procession had arrived, the chaplain wiUi his clerk used to read prayers, and then, at the conclusion, the chaplain kicked the clerk down the hill.
The procession of the boy bishop took place at \ichohis tide, and according to Strype, " made the people so fond of keeping this holiday, that aim puish almost had its St. Nicholas."* For a full and interesting account of the boy bishop, see Hone on Mytteriet and Religious Shmes. Loud. 182.3, 8vo.
1239. One of the eariiest specimens of paper
- Hie iirocesKion of the bojr bishop vu iostituted in
hooonrof 8t.Nichoias,Uie patron of scholars and (tf diUdren, the inrocaliTC saint of mariners, and likewise the patron of the parish clerks of London. It is said of 8t. Nicholas, thit, " being present at the conncil of Nice, among 318 bishops, he shone among them all with so much ditfity, •nd oidiuon of sanctitr.tbat he appeared like ason among ■o manr ttan." He was an emiDent Grecian archbisbop, tmi December S, 3il.
from linen rags, which has yet been discovered, is a document, with the seals preserved, with this date, and signed by Adolphus, count of Schaom- burg. It is preserved in the university of Rintelu in Germany. But Cassiri, positively affirms, that there are manuscripts in the palace of the Escu- rial, near Madrid, both upon cotton and linen paper, written prior to the tnirteenth century.
1240. The numeral figures which we now em- ploy, began to be made use of in Europe, for the first time, in the Alphonsean tables, made by the order of Alphonso, son of Ferdinand, King of Castile ; who employed for this purpose, Isaac Hagen, a Jew singer, of the synagogue of Toledo, and Abel Ragel, an Arabian. About the year 900, the Arabs took them from the Indians ; and the other Eastern nations received them through the Spaniards, a short time aAer their invasions.
These ciphers, in the indexes to French books, are frequently called Arabic- ciphers, to distin- guish them from Roman numerali. .
1246. In a synod held at Leige, by Hugo de S. Caro, or according to his French name, Hu- gues de St. Cher, the feast of Cormu Ckritti* was first ordered to be celebrated. Hugo deserves to be placed in the first rank of sacred critics, and patrons of literature. To him we are indebted for the celebrated Correetorium Biblionim of the Dominicans; ihejirtt Concordance ot the Holy Scriptures, that is of the Vulgar latin bible ; a Comment on the Old and New Testament ; and, according to dean Prideaux, for the division of the bible into chapters. He was born at Vienne, in Dauphiny, stuoied at Paris, where he became a Dommican friar in 1226. Gregory IV. sent him to Constantinople, to procure, if possible, an union of the Greek and Roman churches. On his return, he was chosen provincial of France, and in 1246, he received the dignity of a cardinal from Innocent FV. being the first of the Domi- nicans who obtained that honour. He died March 14, 1262, and was buried at Lyons.
1260. A manuscript containing the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, and Wisdom, and the prologues, has the following anathema at the beginning: "This book belongs to the monas- tery of Rochester, given bythcpriorJohn;ifany one remove it, or conceal it when taken away, or fraudulently deface this inscription, let him be anathem. Amen."
The prior and convent of Rochester, declare, that they will every year, pronounce the irrevo- cable sentence of damnation on him who shall purloin or conceal a Latin translation of Arit- totle't Physics, or even obliterate the title.
- The design of the annual feast of Corput CkrUti was to
impress upon the minds of the people a belief of the reality oftransubstantiation. Besides a superb procession throngh the streets on the day of the celebration, there was com- monly a Mattery, or Interlude, which sometimes lasted eight days. It was confirmed by dilTerent popes, and various (VivUeges and Indulgendea were granted to those who honoured it by their devotions. Thus Pope Urban, in his bull of 19S4, " To encourage the faithful to honour and celebrate this great feast, we grant to all that do con- fess their sins, and are truly penitent, who shallbe found in the church, at the Mattitu (midnight) of the said feast, one hundred days' pardon, and as many to those who shall devoutly assist at mass."— £«««"< MoveaUe Featlt.
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