and statutes of about the same date make it the duty of a canon residentiary to assist in the maintenance of its pueri elemosinarii, and prescribe the special services to be rendered them at their great annual ceremony of the Boy Bishop on Innocents' Day.[1] In the thirteenth century the supervision of these boys was in the hands of another subordinate official, appointed by the chapter and known as the almoner. The number of the boys was then eight; it was afterwards increased, apparently in 1358, to ten.[2] The almoner is required to provide for their literary and moral education, and their liturgical duties are defined as consisting of standing in pairs at the corners of the choir and carrying candles.[3] A later version of the statutes provides for their musical education, and it is clear that these pueri elemosinarii were in fact identical with or formed the nucleus of the boys of the song school.[4] During the sixteenth century the posts of almoner and master of the song school, although technically distinct, were in practice held together, and the holder was ordinarily a member of the supplementary cathedral establishment known as the College of Minor Canons.[5] To this college had been appropriated the parish church of St. Gregory, on the south side of St. Paul's, just west of the Chapter or Convocation House, and here the song school was alreadyi faciat, et quolibet quarterio semel vel bis post matutinas iunioribus gentaculum unum in domo sua faciat'. A thirteenth-century statute required the pueri de elemosinaria to sit humbly upon the ground when feeding in the house of a canon. Cf. Mediaeval Stage, i. 355, for Diceto's statute about the Boy Bishop, with its mention of the return of the boys 'ad Elemosinariam', and the reforming statute of 1263.]'octo pueros bonae indolis et honestae parentelae habeat; quos alat et educat in morum disciplina; videat etiam instruantur in cantu et literatura, ut in omnibus apti ad ministerium Dei in Choro esse possent'.]
- ↑ Archaeologia, lxii. 1. 215, from statutes collected in decanate of Ralph de Diceto (1181-99), 'Cotidie pascat . . . duos pueros elemosinarios . . . et secum ad Ecclesiam media nocte panem et cervisiam pro iunioribus chorum frequentantibus defer[r
- ↑ Archaeologia, lxii. 1. 220.
- ↑ Ibid. 217, 220 (c. 1263; c. 1310) 'Elemosinarius . . . habeat insuper continuo secum octo pueros ad Ecclesiae ministerium ydoneos, quos per seipsum vel alium magistrum in spectantibus ad ministerium ecclesiae et litteratura ac bonis moribus diligenter faciat informari. . . . Quociens vero dicti pueri ad scolas vel spaciatum ire debent. . . .'; Dugdale, 349 [Elemosinarius
- ↑ There was a bequest to the almoner to maintain boys, apparently at the University, after they had changed their voices, as early as 1315 (Archaeologia, lxii. 1. 219-22).
- ↑ Hennessy, 61; W. S. Simpson, Charter and Statutes of the College of Minor Canons in St. Paul's Cathedral (Archaeologia, xliii. 165; cf. Trans. of London and Midd. Arch. Soc. (1st series), iv. 231). The statutes of c. 1521 note a dispensation of that year for Thomas Hikeman 'peticanon and amner' and for 'all and euery peticanon which shalbe Amneur hear-*after' to bring a stranger to meals.
