246 POPULAR BELIEFS. 



plays, the Church gradually withdrew its protection and tolerance of the 

 excesses arising from the " Liberty of December." 



It is certain, however, that the election of a Pope of the Buffoons was 

 discontinued before the suppression of the Feast of the Innocents, as the 

 former was considered an insult to the Papacy previously to the election of a 

 Bishop of the Innocents being looked upon as offensive to the episcopacy. 

 It is also worthy of remark that these parodies of elections lasted longer and 

 were more celebrated in the North than in the South. At Amiens, for 

 instance, as late as 1548 there was not only a Pope of the Buffoons, but 

 several Cardinals as well. This pope, elected by the subdeacons, received as the 

 insignia of his dignity a gold ring, a silver tiara, and a seal. His enthrone- 

 ment took place at a banquet paid for by the canons of the cathedral, upon 

 the condition that the servitors of the mock pontiff should abstain from 

 removing the bells from the tower and committing other such pleasantries. 

 The Bishops of the Innocents, elected, consecrated, and acclaimed by the pre- 

 centors and subordinate officials of the Church, had the right to wear the 

 mitre, staff, and gloves at the ceremonies of the Buffoons ; they issued decrees 

 and ordinances sealed with their seal, and also coined lead and even copper 

 money bearing their name and motto. 



The learned hold that these pieces of money, which had much analogy 

 with the sigilla, or seals, which the Romans offered as presents at the 

 Saturnalia, were used as counters at games of chance, and so became sorts of 

 passes or countermarks to be used at the processions, shows, and theatrical 

 representations which the Bishop of the Innocents had the right to organize 

 and have performed by his adherents. These moneys, great quantities of 

 which have been discovered, especially in Picardy, which seems to have been 

 the mother country of the Innocents, are in many cases similar, with regard 

 to the effigy and inscriptions, to the royal and baronial coinage of the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In addition to the Latin inscription, $it 

 nomen Domini benedidum, they often bear various French inscriptions, sxich as, 

 Monnoie de Fercsque Innocent, or nondescript mottoes, such as, Vow royez le 

 temps qu'il est ! Guerre cause maintz helas (griefs) Bcne rircrc d Icetari, &c. 



The popes and patriarchs of the Buffoons also coined money, but all the 

 pieces which have been preserved are distinguished by two principal charac- 

 teristics. One of them represents a double head of a cardinal and a buffoon, 

 with the inscription, Stulti aliquando sapientcs. 



