BOY BISHOP

widespread custom in the Middle Ages in which a boy was chosen to act as bishop in connection with the Feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28. In England a boy bishop was elected on December 6, the feast of St. Nicholas, the patron of children. On the eve of Holy Innocents the boy and his colleagues took possession of the cathedral and performed all the ceremonies and offices except mass. Several ecclesiastical councils attempted to abolish or restrain the abuses of the custom, and the Council of Basel prohibited it in 1431. It was, however, too popular to be easily suppressed. In England it was finally abolished by Elizabeth I. An analogous custom survived until late in the 18th century in Germany, where on March 12 a schoolboy was elected bishop in honour of St. Gregory the Great, the patron of schools.