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what was the "Chyld-Bysshop," or, as he is usually styled, the
Boy-Bishop?

In the first place it may be noted that the Latin equivalent of the
phrase was not, as might be expected, _Episcopus puerilis_, but
_Episcopus puerorum_, suggesting that the boy, if boy he was, was
elevated above his compeers and possessed perhaps some jurisdiction over
them. There is no question of the access of dignity, but the amount of
authority enjoyed by him would have depended on the humour of his
fellows, and boys are not always docile subjects even of rulers of
their own election. This, however, is a minor consideration, since the
Boy-Bishop, when we first make his acquaintance, has already emerged
from the obscurity of school and playground, and made good his claim to
the homage of superiors in age and station. Hence the term "Boy-Bishop"
appears to define more accurately than its Latin analogue the rank and
privileges of the immature prelate.

It seems to lie in the nature of things that the Boy-Bishop was
originally an institution of the boys themselves, the chief figure in a
game in which they aped, as children so commonly do, the procedure of
their elders, and that, in course of time, those elders, for reasons
deemed good and sufficient, extended their patronage to the innocent
parade, and made it a constituent of their own festal round.

In tracing the migration of the custom from the precincts to the
interior of the church we must not forget the tradition of the Roman
Saturnalia, with the season and spirit of which it accorded, and to
which the Christian festival, with its greater purity and decorum, may
have been prescribed as an antidote. The pagan holiday was held on
December 17th, and as the Sigillaria formed a continuation of it, the
joyous celebration endured a whole week. The Boy-Bishop's term of office
was yet longer, extending from St. Nicholas' Day (December 6th) to Holy
Innocents' Day (December 28th).

The distinctive feature of the Saturnalia was the inversion of ordinary
relationships; the world was turned upside down, and the licence that
prevailed, by dint of long usage and inviolable sentiment, imparted to
the merry-making a rough and even immoral character. Slaves assumed the
position of masters, and masters of slaves; and the general nature of
the observance is aptly described by the patron deity in Lucian's play
on the subject: "During my reign of a week no one may attend to his
business, but only to dri