70 
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
I think it must he taken for granted that the plays 149 are the older in¬ 
stitution of the two. They seem all to have taken shape by the eleventh 
century, 150 before there is any clear sign that the Kalends 151 had made their 
way into the churches and become the Feast of Fools. The plays may 
even have been encouraged as a counter-attraction, for the congregation, 
to the Kalends outside. On the other hand, I do not hold, as some writers 
do, that the riotous Feasts of Asses were derived from the pious and 
instructive ceremony so called at Rouen. 152 On the contrary, Balaam and 
his ass are an interpolation in the Prophetce both at Rouen and, more ob¬ 
viously, at Laon. Balaam, alone of the Laon performers, is not from 
the pseudo-Augustinian sermon. 153 Is he not, therefore, to be regarded as 
a reaction of the Feast of Fools upon the Prophetce, 15i as an attempt to 
turn the established presence of the ass in the church to purposes of edi¬ 
fication, rather than of ribaldry? I think the explanation is the more 
plausible one. 
We may, then, with reasonable certainty account for the mis¬ 
nomer Festum Asinorum attached to the prophet-play in the Rouen 
manuscripts: The Feast of Fools contributed to the prophet-play 
the figure of the ass, and the conspicuous presence of the ass forced 
upon the prophet-play the alien name Festum Asinorum. The 
question remains as to whether the ass in the Rouen play,—and in 
the Laon play as well,—brought with it the comic associations of 
the Feast of Fools. In the absence of documentary evidence, one 
can only surmise that however solemn the intention of the writers 
of the prophet-plays may have been, 155 the spectators must have 
149 In this part of his statement Chambers is referring to the several liturgical 
plays of the Christmas season: OJficium Pastorum, Officium Stellas, and Ordo 
Prophetarum. See Chambers, Vol. II, pp. 41-55. 
iso ;p or an application of this date to the Ordo Prophetarum see Chambers, 
Vol. II, p. 53, note 4. 
151 The word Kalends here refers, of course, to the festivities of the folk at the 
beginning of the year. 
152 Chambers notes that Gast§ (pp. 20-24) holds this view. See also Chambers, 
Vol. I, p. 332, note 1. Chasles (p. 126, note 3) seems not to discriminate at all 
between the Ordo Prophetarum and the Feast of Fools. 
153 See above, p. 46. 
154 Elsewhere (Vol. I, p. 332) Chambers presents this view more positively as 
follows: “It has been pointed out, and will, in the next volume, be pointed out 
again, that the ecclesiastical authorities attempted to sanctify the spirit of play 
at the Feast of Fools and similar festivities by diverting the energies of the 
revellers to ludi of the miracle-play order. In such ludi they found a place for 
the ass. He appears for instance as Balaam’s ass in the later versions from 
Laon and Rouen of the Prophetce, and at Rouen he gave to the whole of this 
performance the name of the festum or processio asinorum. 
155 Sepet (p. 28) undertakes to assure us that the conduct of the ass itself 
was altogether decorous. 
