Young — Or do Prophetarum. 
67 
(Jan. 1). There can be no doubt that this last date is the correct 
one, and that the other dates have been arrived at only through 
neglect of the plain facts of the manuscripts. In Rouen Ms. 384, 
for example, which is our chief source for the text of the Festum, 
Asinorum, the dramatic text is found in the very midst of the ordo 
for the service of January first, 134 and is attached directly to the 
Mass for that day. 135 This attachment is made clear by the rubrics 
preceding and following the Festum Asinorum itself. The intro¬ 
ductory rubric is as follows: 
Processio fiat ut in die Natiuitatis Domini excepto quod ad introitum 
chori dicatur responsorium: Confirmatum est. 
Nota Cantor: Si Festum Asinorum fiat, processio ordinetur post Ter- 
ciam; si non fiat Festum, tunc fiat processio ut prenotatur. 136 
From this rubric it is clear, in the first place, that the Festum 
Asinorum might or might not be performed in any particular 
year. 137 If the Festum Asinorum were omitted, the usual liturgical 
processio occurred immediately after Terce and before Mass, the 
processio being identical with that of Christmas except that as the 
chant at the entrance to the choir (Ad introitum chori) the re- 
Noel. On s’appuyait principalement sur l’introit Puer natus est nobis entonnS 
par les prophetes. Cela ne prouve rien, puisque cet introit est aussi celui de la 
Circoncision . . . Enfin, nous avons trouve dans un ordinaire de Bayeux 
(Ms. 121, publie par U. Chevalier, Bib. liturg., t. VIII, p. 75) le r6pons: Con¬ 
firmatum est, a, la procession de la Circoncision. Or c’est justement ce meme 
repons qu’entonne le chantre quand les prophetes sont rentres au choeur. On le 
chante, d’ailleurs, encore aujourd’hui, au 2e nocturne des matines de la Circon¬ 
cision. Les faits semblent bien imposer notre conclusion.” 
134 The Cursus and Mass for St. Sylvester (Dec. 31) are found on fol. 31v-32v, 
followed immediately by the Cursus and Mass for the Circumcision (Jan. 1) on 
fol. 32v-35v. The Festum Asinorum is found on fol. 33r—35r. 
135 The ordo for this Mass is printed above, pp. 62-63. This Mass can be identi¬ 
fied as that for Jan. 1 by comparison of its basic elements with the same ele¬ 
ments in the Mass of the Circumcision for the Feast of Fools at Sens (Villetard, 
op. cit. infra., pp. 109—117). Further evidence that the Rouen Festum Asinorum 
belongs on Jan. 1 is provided by the following note written at the end (fol. 27r) 
of the seventeenth-century copy of the dramatic text found in Bibliotheque Na- 
tionale Ms. lat. 1232 (see above p. 63) : “Hsec supra scripta deprompta 
fuerunt ex antiquo codice Rituali S. Rotom. Ecclesise, in Festo Circumcisionis 
Domini.” 
138 Rouen Ms. 384 (Y. 110), fol. 33r. The second paragraph is printed at the 
beginning of the Festum Asinorum above, p. 50. 
137 As to the reason for this option any person may, in the absence of facts, 
guess to his heart’s content. Sepet conjectures (pp. 38-40) that the giving of 
the performance may have been contingent upon the decorous conduct of the 
spectators during the performance of the previous year. Of this conjecture 
Chasles (p. 128) very justly observes, “Cette idee nous semble d§nu£e de tout 
fondement.” 
