POPULAR BELIEFS. 



241 



women, some as buffoons (see Figs. 172 and 173), some as stage-players, 

 others with their capes and chasubles turned inside out. They elected a 

 bishop or archbishop of buffoons, attired him in the pontifical robes, and 

 received his benediction, chanting an indecent parody of the matins. They 

 danced in the choir, singing ribald songs, ate and drank upon the altar, 



172. Buffoon playing the Bagpipe. 

 From the " Atlas des Monuments 

 de la France," by Alex. Lenoir. 



Fig. 173. Buffoon holding the Bauble beneath his 

 Arm. After a Miniature in a Manuscript of the 

 Fifteenth Century. National Library, Paris. 



played dice on the pavement, burnt old leather and other foul matter in the 

 censer, and incensed the celebrating priest with it, and after this mock mass 

 they promenaded the streets mounted upon chariots, and vying with one 

 another in grimaces and in insolent and impious remarks. 



The ecclesiastical censures and the royal prohibitions naturally remained 

 dead letters at a time when, as Gerson tells us, there were preachers who 



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