Difference between revisions of "Feast Of Asses"

<p> a ridiculous festival of the [[Roman]] [[Catholic]] Church, celebrated in [[Rouen]] and some other cities of France, to commemorate the flight into Egypt. It was not uniformly observed, but the following were generally among the ceremonies, especially at Beauvais. A young woman with a child in her arms was made to ride on an ass. [[Followed]] by the bishop and clergy, she was conducted to the church, and a sermon was preached, in which the high qualities of the animal that enabled the [[Virgin]] and child to escape from [[Herod]] were lauded. During the ceremony, a ludicrous composition, half Latin, half French, was sung with great vociferation, in praise of the ass, of which the last stanza may serve as a specimen: </p> <p> "Amen dicas asine Jam satur de gramine Amen, amen itera Aspernare vetera. Hez va! Hez va! Hez va! Hez! Bialx sire asnez, car allez, Belle bonche car chantez" </p> <p> In Rouen it was celebrated about Christmas; in other places, as, for instance, at Beauvais, on the 14th of June. [[Several]] popes, papal legates, and bishops endeavored to suppress it, but it maintained itself until the 15th century, when [[Nicholas]] de Clemangis, by his work Dae novis celebritatibus non instituendis, and especially the [[Council]] of [[Basle]] by a decree, caused the suppression of this and a number of similar festivals. - Ducange, s.v. Festum Asinorum; Moreri, s.v. Fete; Schrockh, Kirchen- Geschichte, vol. 28; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lex. 4:710. </p>