68 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
sponsory Confirmatum est supplanted the antiphon Hodie Christies 
natus. 138 In other words, when the Festum Asinorum was per¬ 
formed it merely supplanted the greater part of the normal pro - 
cessio, the responsory Confirmatum est being retained ad introitum 
chori , 139 From the liturgical point of view, therefore, the dramatic 
performance may be regarded as a sort of introduction to the 
Mass; and it will be observed that at Mass the prophetce and their 
assistants begin the Introit and rule the choir. 140 
The name of this dramatic performance, its attachment to the 
liturgy of the Feast of Circumcision, and the presence of the 
asina ,—all these circumstances combine to raise the question of the 
relation of the dramatic performance at Rouen to the ecclesiastical 
ludi , or revels, of the Christmas season, particularly to the famous 
Feast of Fools. 141 This festival, variously known as festa asinaria, 
or as festum stultorum, fatuorum, follorum, subdiaconorum, or 
baculi, was usually celebrated on the Circumcision. The general 
nature of the observance may be conveniently seen in the famous 
manuscript inappropriately known as Missel des Fous, or Missel 
de l’cine, containing words and music for the Circumcision, written, 
or compiled, by Pierre de Corbeil for use at Sens. 142 This docu¬ 
ment is simply a choir-book containing troped, or embellished, 
forms of the musical propria for the complete Canonical Office and 
Mass of the Circumcision. 143 The simple heading of the text as a 
whole is Circumcisio Domini . The text itself begins, under the 
rubric In januis ecclesie, with four lines of extra-liturgical verse, 
138 In Rouen Ms. 384 (Y. 110) the Christmas processio is found (fol. 23v) as 
follows: Ad Processionem cantor incipiat responsorium: Descendit de celis. 
Prosa: Felix Maria. Versus: Tamquam sponsus. Prosa: Familiam custodi. 
Et exiuit. Prosa: Te laudant alme. Conditor. In statione responsorium: 
Verbum caro factum. Tres de maioribus in pulpito versum: In principio. 
Plenum gratie. Ad introitum chori antiphona: Hodie Xpistus natus. Sequatur 
Benedictio Archiepiscopi si presens fuerit. Hoc finito incipiatur Missa a can- 
tore cappato. 
139 See above, pp. 50, 67. 
140 See above, p. 62. 
141 The most convenient and comprehensive account of the Feast of Fools is 
that by Chambers, Vol. I, pp. 274-335. The other ludi we need not, for our 
present purpose, consider. Chambers considers the whole matter in masterly 
fashion (Vol. I, pp. 274-371). 
142 Ms. 46, of the thirteenth century, now kept in the municipal museum at 
Sens. From this manuscript the so-called “Office des Fons” has been most re¬ 
cently edited by H. Villetard, Office de Pierre de Corheil (Bibliotheque Musi- 
cologique, IV), Paris, 1907. 
143 One may consult Villetard’s complete text, or the general descriptions 
given by him (pp. 39-51) and by Chambers (Vol. I, pp. 279-284). 
