BOY-BISHOP. The custom of electing a boy-bishop on St. Nicholas's day dates from a very early period. Wartou thought he could find some allusion to it in one of the anathemas of the Constantinopolitan synod, 867 A.D. It quickly spread over most Catholic countries, and in England seems to have prevailed in almost every parish.. Although the election took plaice on St. Nicholas's day (60 Dec.), the authority lasted to Holy Innocents' day (28th Dec.). The boy-bishop was chosen from the children of the church or cathedral choir, or from the pupils at the grammar-school. He was arrayed in episcopal vestments, and, attended by a crowd of subordinates in priestly dress, went about with songs and dances from house to house, blessing the people, who, as bishop Hall says, "stood grinning in the way to expect that ridiculous benediction." The boy-bishop exacted implicit obedience from his fellows, who, along with their superior, took possession of the church, and performed all the ceremonies and offices except mass. The custom found countenauce not among the populace only. In 1299,
Edward I., on his way to Scotland, permitted a boy-bishop to say vespers before hini at Heton, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, and gave him and his companions a present. At Salis bury—and perhaps in other places also—the boy-bishop, it is said, had the power of dis posing of such prebends as happened to fall vacant during the days of his episcopacy; and if he died during his office, the funeral honors of a bishop, with a monument, were granted him. What secular shows and entertainments accompanied this practice; history does not inform us. .Probably dramatic exhibitions of a rude nature were the principal. In England, the custom of electing a boy-bishop was abolished by a proclamation of Henry VIII., dated July 22, 1542; restored by queen Mary in 1554; and again abolished during the reign of Elizabeth, though it seems tohave lingered here and there in villages till about the close of her reign.