the politics of playing herod in beaune

THE POLITICS OF PLAYING HEROD IN BEAUNE *
Kathleen Ashley
The Christmas season was a period of sustained revelry in medieval and early modern cultures.
The central sacred event, the birth of Christ, was interpreted liturgically as an example of the
weak and humble triumphing over the world’s power and pride, an interpretation played out in
performative traditions of ludic role reversal and grotesquerie within churches.1 As is well
known, these rituals were especially popular in French ecclesiastical institutions, where a Boy
Bishop and the tyrant Herod were annually elected to lead the festivities at the Feast of
Innocents (December 28) and Epiphany (Jan. 6).2 Although the seasonal buffoonery provoked
the condemnation of innumerable bishops and other officials,3 for a religious community this was
often the one time of year when absent members returned to participate in the communal life,
which held warm associations of bonding through feasting and boisterous entertainment.4 The
festive framework within which the Herod play traditionally appeared thus explains both its
strikingly transgressive features and the emotional investment that a religious community might
have in its performance.
The typical features of the liturgical “Herod scene” appear to have been established early. Peter
Dronke notes that there are “no fewer than eleven Magi plays in eleventh-century MSS,”
indicating that the genre had developed in tenth century towns with cathedral schools.5 In these
liturgical dramas, Herod is always played as a tyrant -- impatient, arrogant, and prone to fits of
rage.6 Furthermore, in the Freising Officium Stelle that Dronke analyzes, the transgressive
behaviors of Herod are reflexive of medieval ecclesiastical festivity, as Herod becomes the Lord of
Misrule for the Feast of Fools;7 Herod’s page-boys are also the “Innocents” or young boys who
celebrate their power through ritual reversal. By the late Middle Ages, in a liturgical context, it
would have been difficult to imagine Herod and the Innocents in any but a context of festive
misrule.
Although none of the texts for playing Herod at the Notre-Dame church in Beaune, Burgundy
have survived, there are detailed registers containing the deliberations of the college of canons that
document annual elections to the roles of Herod and the Boy Bishop.8 A record for 1432, for
example, makes clear that the choice of a canon to play Herod was done in rotation according to
the principle of seniority. Herod was both a role in the play (misterium or ministerium) of the
Three Kings, long celebrated in accordance with custom (consuetudino) at Epiphany in the church
(G2480 f. 147), and a political office for the year that was symbolic of canonical identity. The
separability of the performative and symbolic roles, which will be discussed later in this paper, is
indicated by the language of the records: misterium et personagem Regem Herodis (G 2489 f. 35),
and personagium nec officium regis Herodis (G 2488 f. 229).
Records for mid-fifteenth century show that occasionally the canon chosen to play King Herod
tried to get out of the obligation and a substitute Herod was elected (G2482 f. 167v). However,
the chapter attempted to make the substitution process as costly as possible. In 1512, Benôit
Racolet asked to be exempt from the role of King Herod, to which he was expecting to be chosen
in two years (in turno suo). His reason was that he had in Beaune neither relatives nor friends
who could help with the necessary expenses and work (in villa Belnam nullos habebet parentis
aut notis vel affines nec domus aptum ad s’onorifice faciendum expenses hoc necessarias). He
offered a 70 livre compensation; the chapter added 80 fr., and Benôit accepted (G2488 f. 161v).
Other canons objected to this deal, so the chapter had to take a second vote before the matter was
concluded satisfactorily a month later. It seems that the main excuses accepted in the fifteenth
century were old age or illness. Claiming his age, in 1473 Henri de Salins paid 10 francs to be
replaced in the role of Herod by his nephew, the canon Antoine de Salins (G2483 f. 11v);
likewise, in 1479 referring to his infirmities (infirmus est et debilis), canon Jean Courtois paid the
usual 5 francs to be released from his assigned role of Herod (G2483 f. 89).
By the sixteenth century, it was more common to buy one’s way out of the obligation to play
Herod, though that option was made as difficult as possible by the chapter. For example, in
1511, the chapter decided that the election to the role of King Herod would be done among nonresident canons at the general winter meeting of the chapter, held at the feast of Saint Martin in
November -- so that absent candidates couldn’t claim ignorance of their duty -- while election for
residents would be at the feast of the Conception. Furthermore, those elected to the Herod role
could not resign their prebend without fulfilling the role (G2488 f. 153v).
Debates over the role of Herod in the Beaune college of canons therefore suggest the centrality of
this festive ritual to canonical identity as defined by the chapter. Playing Herod was taken very
seriously as a key component of one’s role as a full member of the Notre-Dame collégiale at
Beaune, an identity based on holding a prebend.9 A chapter meeting held in June, 1468 reiterated
that even the chapter’s Dean, since he was a canon with a prebend, had to take the role of Herod
in his turn; in suo turno is the phrase habitually used in fifteenth and sixteenth century records
(G2482 f. 178v)10. A Dean, in fact, held two prebends -- one as canon and one as Dean -making him eligible twice as often as other canons to play Herod. For example, in 1537, Louis
Martin the Dean of the chapter was chosen to play King Herod (in suo turno) (G2495 f.33v). In
the very next year, 1538, Louis Martin was again chosen to play King Herod -- the record
explicitly saying that it was now his duty as a canon, since he had been chosen in his position as
Dean before (Ludovico Martin decanum hec ratione decanatis dignitatis led. anno elapso fuerit
iam electus ... electo fuit usi canonicus in suo turno existens cum honoribus et oneribus dictus
Regno Incumben) (G2495 f. 88v).
In addition to documenting over a century of choices to play the leading roles in Christmas
festivity, the registers thus reveal how important such performances were in articulating the
corporate identity of the canons, especially in relation to their nominal superior, the Bishop of
Autun.11 After the Schism and throughout the fifteenth century, an evolving set of agreements
regulated the power relations between the papacy, other ecclesiastical entities, and French royal
authorities, agreements that often gave local church officials considerable power over their own
practices. That independence was never uncontested, however, but was subject to continuing
negotiation and even violent confrontation.
One of these legal instruments was the Pragmatic Sanction, published in 1438 by Charles VII,
which, among many other stipulations about the limits of papal and clerical authority, forbade
the Feast of Fools because of its indecorous revelry.12 Numerous high church councils also
banned the feast, and the Bishop of Autun joined the reformist effort, pressuring the Notre-
Dame chapter for decades to control the seasonal festivity, including official orders to cease the
popular celebrations of the Feast of Fools.13
The Burgundian legal historian Michel Petitjean has described the lengthy 15th century lawsuits
between the Bishop of Autun and the chapter of Notre- Dame over their freedom from episcopal
oversight and their right to select their own leadership in electing their Dean.14 Although he does
not mention the performances that are the focus of this paper, Petitjean points out that the
canons of Notre-Dame tended to belong to the most wealthy and the most elite classes. Their
church and properties were located next to the palace of the Dukes of Burgundy, at the center of
medieval ducal power before the court moved to Dijon.15 The chapter thus wielded immense
ecclesiastical clout in Beaune and the surrounding area, where its nominees became vicars at the
other five churches in town and at fifteen of the nineteen parishes in the region as well as in 2/3 of
the 55 chapels in Beaune.16 Composed of highly educated legal experts, the Beaune collégiale
was the source of the major 14th century commentary on Burgundian customary law.17 It’s not
surprising, therefore, that over the centuries of litigation with the Bishop the chapter consistently
won its law cases.
Notre-Dame’s relations with Autun became significantly more tense in the decades after 1480,
and the political power struggle that ensued eventually focused on the Christmas seasonal
festivity. As Petitjean argues, the long-standing confrontation between the Notre-Dame canons
and the bishop of Autun was brought to a head in 1483 (in a bull dated May 22) when the Pope
agreed to be the direct supervisor of the chapter, nullifying the authority of the bishop:
A la demande du roi Louis XI, qui portait une affection particulière à
collégiale, le pape place sous la protection du
chapitre, chaonoines et
cette insigne et rich
Saint-Siège l’église de Beaune, les doyen,
chantre avec toutes les personnes qui en dépendent, vicaires,
sacristains, marguilliers, scribes et organiste, les quatre sergents,
les chapelains, les clercs choriaux, tous les
préceptueur et les habitués
serviteurs,
les
six
appelés
enfants
de
bâtonniers,
choeur,
leur
de l’église, y compris leurs maisons et leurs biens.18
The Beaune church and chapter, all their personnel and their belongings as well as administrative
and legal authority, were no longer under the power of other ecclesiastical officials, most notably
the Bishop of Autun.
The Pope was responding to well-attested long-standing physical and financial harrassment of
the Notre-Dame canons by the henchmen of the Bishop of Autun, but (as the canons seem to
have understood) the 1483 papal exemption for Notre-Dame only made matters worse since the
Bishop had not been consulted before the Pope made his pronouncement. The new Dean of the
chapter, Antoine de Salins (our Herod of ten years before), attempted to placate the Autun
Bishop by giving him rights to fill the next two prebends (G2483 f. 126v). However, the conflict
over the papal exemption continued throughout most of the next two decades, with Antoine de
Salins, as Dean of the chapter, taking the lead in diplomacy and legal processes that went through
many courts, including those of Autun, the Parlement in Dijon, and even the King.19 When the
Bishop of Autun died in 1500 and his successor was elected in 1501, the Beaune canons
considered the papal exemption theirs to enjoy. Contestation now shifted to the arena of festive
performance.
During the 1480’s and 1490’s, the traditional performances of the Christmas season seem to have
continued without interruption or censorship. Each December, one of the canons was chosen to
play the role of King Herod at Epiphany, according to the normal rules.20 The pattern continued
uninterrupted in the early years of the sixteenth century.21 However, as the new Bishop of
Autun was settling into his position in 1504, the contestations over the right to fill vacant
prebends began again, along with the issues of the Notre-Dame exemption from episcopal
authority (G2486 f. 206v),22 which affected the right of the canons to celebrate at the Christmas
season.
In 1512, Jean Briçonnet having been elected to the role of King Herod, the chapter received orders
from the Bishop of Autun to suppress the Feast of Fools on Innocents day as well as the playing
of King Herod at Epiphany (G2488 f. 227). They delayed their response until their Dean was
back in town, a meeting that occurred January 5, 1513, at which it was decided not to play the
accustomed role or office (personagium nec officium) of King Herod on the next day (G2488
f.229). A pattern of delay and resistence characterized all the chapter’s dealings with the Bishop
for the next ten years.
That the issue was one of political power and identity is indicated by the uncontested
cancellation by the chapter of the Feast of Fools, the Bishop of the Innocents, and the King
Herod role because of war in 1513 (G2488 ff. 279v and 283v). The Swiss had invaded Burgundy
in that year, causing widespread disruptions, including the chapter’s festive rituals. Likewise in
1519, Claude Geliot was elected to play Herod but the danger of the plague was so high that
neither the Herod play and its dinner nor the feast of the Innocents was allowed to go on.23 In
1521 again the festivities of the Innocents and the mysterium of the Kings were suppressed
because of the plague, and Pierre de Villers, whose turn it was to play Herod and pay for the
misterium, was asked to pay 50 francs in compensation (G2491 f.217v). These cancellations for
reasons of plague or war were decided internally by the Notre-Dame canons through discussion
at a chapter meeting; they were not ordered by the Bishop.
A second explicit order by the Bishop to suppress the festum folorum and the personagio of
Herod, delivered by the the Bishop’s prosecutor Pierre D’Orges on December 24 1515, provoked
a response from the canons that they would perform their festive rituals as always. The Bishop
invoked a reformist rationale for curbing the seasonal highjinks, but the canons responded that
they were not challenging the law or the Pragmatic Sanction (nihil intenderant facere contra forma
juris et pragmatice sanctionis). They intended to have the Bishop of the Innocents perform his
office, but without miter or bacula and without scandalous behavior in the church (G2489 f. 33v).
No doubt the festive figure of the Boy Bishop with his miter had provided an irresistable
opportunity for members of the Beaune canonical community to mock their prominent
antagonist, the Bishop of Autun. On the Feast of the Epiphany Herod too would follow the
traditional rules of the church, but this time without the usual uproar (derisione et clamore in
coralia) (G2489 f. 34v).
The figure of Herod was the spark point of the contestations between chapter and bishop and, as
a result, the records show the canon selected as Herod often negotiating a very uncomfortable
position. Several canons chosen to play Herod during this period refuse the role, with the chapter
trying to enforce the rotation. Robert Leblanc, for example, tries to get out of it over the
objections of the chapter. Asked twice to write down his reasons, on his second try, Leblanc
says he is afraid of the Bishop’s men (pro timore officianorum), who come to Notre-Dame and
other churches of the diocese to prevent the accustomed recreations (solitas recreationes
impedice intebantur) (G2489 f. 34v-35). He is finally released from his performative obligation
for the sum of 10 francs and the financing of a dinner for all in the chapter. A marginal note in the
register says that it was a convivium amplissimum et delicatum.
The anti-festal pressure from Autun obviously continued, because in the 1517 register the
chapter makes the following tactfully defiant statement: that -- in celebrating the vigil and feast of
Epiphany as well as the misterium et representacione of the Three Magi -- the chapter does not
intend any disrespect to the Bishop nor to acquire a right of exemption from episcopal
jurisdiction. They simply perform in honor of God, for the devotion of the people (sed ob
honorem dei et devotionem populi), and following annual custom and the rules of the church .
They offer a deal to the Bishop; they will be willing to drop their appeal on this issue, which
they have in metropolitan courts of Lyon and at the Parlement of Dijon, if the Bishop will revoke
his order made at Autun (G2490 f. 191). Needless to say, the response of the Bishop was
negative and the conflict continued (G2490 f. 196v). In December 1518, Jean de Gasse was
elected to hold the role of King Herod in the misterium of the kings that was to be played in the
church (G2490 f. 285v). Although he was excused for a 30 franc penalty, the record for
December 29 says that it was decided (ordinatum fuit) that the play would be performed “in the
accustomed manner” along with the horse parade (equitate) in the church on the eve of Epiphany,
without derisione but with devotion and reverence to the glory of God and the Virgin Mary (f.
290).
Despite the opposition of the Bishop, therefore, the festivities of Notre-Dame, Beaune continued
into the mid-sixteenth century. In 1520, on the 5th of December, Esme de France was chosen
Bishop of the Innocents, with authorization to tap funds for staging and to stage the horse parade
as always, but honestly and seriously, for the glory of God and the Innocents (G2491 f. 135).
Likewise, on the 7th of December, Claude Margueron was selected for the role of Herod (G2491
f. 136v) and, according to other financial records, he celebrated the Epiphany magnificently
(G2558 f.208). In 1522, when Jean Bouton, who was in absentia from the chapter, avoided his
obligation to play Herod with a fine of 100 gold écus (G2492 f.1, 4v), Claude Margueron again
offered to take the role of Herod (f. 9v).24 The chapter had decided to play the Herod cum
solemnitatibus (f. 4), and each canon was personally tapped for 20 solz for the banquet, with the
chapter furnishing bread and wine (f. 9v) -- which may have encouraged Margueron to volunteer!
These records suggest that, in addition to a large, delicious and convivial dinner, the attractions of
the seasonal festivity were the elaborate stagings of the misterium and the horse parades as well
as the maskings and disguises (larvis et aliis jorcisionibus?) (G2492 f. 179) -- all of which
celebrated ancient traditions and were seen as symbolic of the chapter’s identity.
During the 1520’s and 1530’s into the 1540’s, the election of child Bishop and the role of King
Herod continued annually.25 The records are somewhat misleading because evidently the election
to the position of King Herod as presider over the festivities of Epiphany was separable from the
playing of Herod in the actual dramatization of Herod and the Innocents. In 1538, the chapter
authorized the canons and choir boys wanting to play the misterium in the church to celebrate it
according to ancient custom, but without insolence -- absque tamen ulla insolentia (G2495 f.
88v). The same register for January 6, 1538 notes that Pierre Landroul at his own expense
celebrated the play which had been interrupted for sixteen years, to the great joy of the people,
who jammed the church (cum maxima felitia totus populi, fuit factum misterium et fuit tanta
multitudo populi in ecclesiam ) (G 2495 f. 94).26 This record implies that for sixteen years
(1522-37) the play of Herod was not being performed. However, other records show that a canon
was regularly chosen each December to be King Herod. Presumably the chosen canon had a ritual
role as Herod at Epiphany separable from performance in the play of the Three Kings.
Despite pressure from the Bishop, the annual selection of the key actors -- the Boy Bishop for
the Feast of Fools and King Herod for Epiphany -- continued for a few more years. In 1544, the
role of King Herod was chosen, but the role of the Bishop of Innocents was suppressed (G2495
f. 355v-356); however, in 1545, both were again performing their roles (G2496 f. f. 34v and 38v),
as they were also in 1546 (f. 123). A decision was made then that the Feast of Innocents was not
to be celebrated as before because of the disorder it caused; it was only to be done with
appropriate respect (G 2496 f. 122). 1547 appears to be the last year that a King Herod was
chosen, when Jean Milot took the role (G2496 f. 174v). The combination of episcopal pressure,
changing performative norms, and other material stresses on the collégiale had brought the
seasonal ritual misrule to an end.27
Conclusion
Although the field of medieval studies in general was slower than many others in responding to
theoretical developments of the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s, the reframing of “drama” as
“performance” and the shift in focus from play texts to contexts of production and reception
have reinvigorated medieval drama studies. In fact, few areas of literary study have responded
more profoundly, as a comparison of criticism about medieval vernacular plays written in the
1950’s and 60’s with that written today reveals. Scholarship on the Latin liturgical drama has
been affected less by contemporary theory, perhaps because the cultural work it did seemed less
in need of reassessment; that is, it was “religious” or “ecclesiastical” -- terms that often have the
effect of blunting critical analysis.
In his discussion of Latin drama two decades ago, however, C. Clifford Flanigan with his usual
perspicacity insisted upon the primacy of:
readers and audiences, whose roles in determining the meaning of
written records of these performances was
attempt to
specific
performances
and
at least as crucial that of the author or scribe. The
determine the horizons of expectations out of which each drama grew,
which it was directed, and by which it was constantly in the process
of
to
transformation,
must be afforded the highest priority. 28
His call for a focus on the “horizons of expectation” for all plays was a salutary one, one that
emphasizes the drama’s role as social praxis. In the case of the Beaune collegial church, this paper
calls attention to a historical moment in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries when the
political stakes underlying the festive performances of the Christmas season were revealed and
explicitly articulated. Because the documentation is so complete and the debate is so fully
articulated, we can see with exceptional clarity what was at stake politically for the canons, both
as a group and individually, whenever they played Herod. The records of Notre-Dame
unambiguously demonstrate that to “play Herod” was to assert the chapter’s corporate identity,
independence and power.
Kathleen Ashley
University of Southern Maine
* Research into the Notre-Dame registers was undertaken with the invaluable collaboration of
John Reuter. Please do not reproduce or quote from this essay without permission.
1
As Meg Twycross and Sarah Carpenter comment, in Masks and Masking in Medieval and
Early Tudor England (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), pp.34-44, pagan winter festivities of Saturnalia
and Kalends with their masking, cross-dressing, and riotous behaviors appear to have been
adapted into various clerical feasts of the post-Christmas period, including St. Stephen’s (Dec.
26) for deacons, St. John the Evangelist (Dec. 27) for priests, Holy Innocents (Dec. 28) for
choirboys, and Feast of the Circumcision (Jan.1) as well as Epiphany (Jan. 6). The adoption of
popular masking practices provoked Christian condemnation throughout the Middle Ages and
early Renaissance (pp. 296-309). Twycross and Carpenter discuss evidence that Herod in the
English mystery plays always had a blackened face or wore a mask to signify his exceptional
wickedness (pp. 216-20; see also 327-32).
2
The medieval French traditions were first fully described by an eighteenth century scholar, Jean
Benigne Lucotte Du Tillot, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la Fête des Fous (Geneva, 1741);
his findings are summarized by Edmund K. Chambers in The Mediaeval Stage, vol. I (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1903), pp. 274-371. The four feasts of the twelfth night of Christmas, in which
ecclesiastical hierarchy was upset to the accompaniment of burlesque and parodic behaviors,
were generically referred to as the “Feast of Fools” (Chambers, p. 275). Texts for liturgical plays
connected with the various Christmas feasts may be found in Karl Young, The Drama of the
Medieval Church, Vol. II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933), pp.29-101 . For more recent
discussions, see Craig Wright, Music and Ceremony at Notre Dame of Paris: 500-1550
(Cambridge, 1989). On the “paraliturgies” of Christmas, see also E. Delaruelle, E.-R. Labande and
Paul Ourliac, L’Eglise au temps du Grand Schisme et de la crise conciliare (1378-1449). T. II
(Tournai, Belgium: Bloud & Gay, 1964), pp. 605-10.
3
Examples of such condemnations are collected in William Tydeman, ed. The Medieval
European Stage, 500-1550 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 113-117. See
also, discussion of the official attempts to suppress the revelry in churches by Enid Welsford,
The Fool: His Social and Literary History (Gloucester, MA.: Peter Smith, 1966), Ch. IX, “The
Lord of Misrule,” especially pp. 199-206.
4
As noted by Margot Fassler, “The Feast of Fools and Danielis ludus: Popular Tradition in a
Medieval Cathedral Play,” in Plainsong in the Age of Polyphony, ed. Thomas Forrest Kelly,
Cambridge Studies In Performance Practice, 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992),
pp. 78, 97. She synthesizes the extant scholarship on festive misrule at the Christmas season in
ecclesiastical institutions and draws on Karl Morrison, “The Church as Play: Gerhoch of
Reichersberg’s Call for Reform,” in Popes, Teachers, and Canon Law in the Middle Ages, ed.
James Ross Sweeney and Stanley Chodorow (Ithaca, NY: Cornell, 1989) pp. 114-44.
5
Nine medieval Latin plays, trans. and ed. by Peter Dronke (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1994, p. xxiii, n. 14. A twelfth-century Epiphany play from Castile, Auto de los Reyes
Magos, is “notable for its independence from the liturgical tradition,” according to Ronald E.
Surtz, “Spain: Catalan and Castilian Drama,” in The Theatre of Medieval Europe: New Research
in Early Drama, ed. Eckhard Simon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 200. The
twelfth-century manuscript known as the “Fleury Plays” (Orléans Ms. 201) -- a collection of ten
plays obviously related to a liturgical context although assembled separately -- contains a Herod
play and an Innocents play; see The Fleury Playbook: Essays and Studies, ed. Thomas P.
Campbell and Clifford Davidson. Early Drama, Art, and Music Monograph Series, 7.
(Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1985). The attractions of Epiphany drama
with its tyrant Herod are attested to by records from sixteenth-century New Spain, where the
Franciscans had introduced liturgical performances to Indians in villages they controlled. Max
Harris notes an Epiphany play staged on January 6, 1587 in Jalisco, featuring a typical ranting
Herod; Aztecs, Moors and Christians: Festivals of Reconquest in Mexico and Spain (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 2000), pp. 154-56.
6
For much more on “The Iconography of Herod in the Fleury Playbook and in the Visual Arts,”
see Miriam Anne Skey, The Fleury Playbook, pp. 120-43. Most scholars agree that the character
of Herod comes to dominate these early liturgical and church dramas.
7
Dronke, p. 29.
8
The Registers of Notre-Dame collegial church in Beaune containing chapter deliberations may
be found in the Côte-d’Or departmental archives in Dijon as G 2469 to G2479, G 2555 to G
2592 and G 2593 to 2599. A useful introduction to the Notre Dame holdings is Ferdinand
Claudon and Léon Delessard, Répertoire numérique des Archives départementales. Côte d’Or.
Archives ecclésiastiques. Série G (clergé séculier). Chapitre Notre-Dame de Beaune (Dijon: Impr.
Jobard, 1940). See also analysis of the chapter deliberations from 1401 - 1789 by Ferdinand
Claudon, Inventaire sommaire des Archives départementales de la Côte d’Or, série G, tome III
(Dijon: Archives départementales de la Côte d’Or, 1926) and by Leon Delessard, Inventaire
sommaire des Archives départementales de la Côte-d’Or, série G Supplément (tome V) (Dijon:
Imprimerie Jobard, 1942).
9
Jean-Pierre Brelaud in his 1998 thesis from the University of Bourgogne on the Notre-Dame
canons notes that the Beaune collégiale was exceptional in having 29 full prebends, one for each
member, marking it as a well-endowed chapter, and that this was a larger number of canons than
at many French cathedrals; it was also a larger number than in all 48 of the other fifteenth-century
Burgundian collégiales. Les chanoines de la collégiale Notre-Dame de Beaune au XVe siècle (mise
à jour), p. 4. I quote from this abridged version of his thesis as well as the full 2 tome Mémoire de
maîtrise d’histoire médiévale. On the social status of the Beaune canons, see Brelaud, Mémoire,
pp. 42-49.
10
Although most of the Register’s records are in Latin, this one is in French: “L’an mil cccc
soixante et huit le vingt et deuxieme jour de juing messires les venerables doyen et chapitre de
l’eglise collegiale notre-dame de beaune en leur chapitre assemblez ont consentu que monsieur
maistre guillaume de buxi leur conchanoine foust quitte du personaige du Roy Herode pour ceste
foyz du Jour des Roys .... passe moyenant la somme de cent soulz que l’on luy devoit restituer
sur la fabrique comme par declaration tante par messiresdict sur l’option par luy et maistre
guirard paisseaul ... faicte de la prebende de feu maistre jehan chasnaul et lesqueulx cent soulz
tournoy avoit l’aultre le fabricacion pour faire ledict personnaige pource que differant estoit entre
monsieur le doyen comme doyen et ledict maistre guillaume de faire ledict personnaige cil pour ce
que ledict monsieur le doyen a promis par messires audez gremellet et guillaume piton que jamais
ne virent quelque reiteracion quil ayent vehu faire entre les seigneurs chanoines de faire ledict
personaige que le doyen de ladicte eglise fust regnis et faire led. personnaige comme doyen mais
bien comme chanoine guide il tiendroit aucung led. doyenne une chanoine et prebende.”
1111.
On the history of canons in earlier centuries, see the general discussion in Margot Fassler,
Gothic Song: Victorine Sequences and Augustinian Reform in Twelfth-Century Paris (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 187ff, as well as the specialized bibliography cited there.
The canons of Notre-Dame had an immense and erudite library, judging by the catalog of
manuscripts and books begun in 1790 after the Revolution had abolished church privileges and
confiscated their library collections.The catalog is R 111 B5 No. 4 in the Beaune municipal
archives. However, I have not located liturgical books with materials relevant to the performances
of Epiphany and the role of Herod. For a 1553 Notre-Dame liturgical manuscript that mentions
the Feast of Innocents with its Boy Bishop and the overturning of clerical hierarchy, see Louis
Cyrot, “Un manuscrit liturgique de l’insigne collégiale de Beaune (XVIe siècle),” Mémoires de la
Société d’histoire et d’archéologie de Beaune (MSHAB) t. 15 (1890): 69-88).
12
The royal decree known as the “Pragmatic Sanction” attempted to strengthen a Gallican
tradition of French independence from papal authority. Concretely, it authorized the king to
intervene in ecclesiastical decisions and appointments, effectively lessening the power of the
Pope. For the long history of Gallicanism, see Victor Martin, Les origines du Gallicanisme. 2
Tomes (Saint-Dizier: Bloud & Gay, 1939), especially T. II, pp. 293-338. Of the 23 articles of the
Pragmatic Sanction, one condemned disguising at the Feast of Fools as well as plays, feasting, and
revelry at other times in the church (p. 311). See also E. Delaruelle, E.-R. Labande and Paul
Ourliac, L’Eglise au temps du Grand Schisme et de la crise conciliaire (1378-1449) Part I
(Tournai, Belgium: Bloud & Gay, 1962), pp. 352-77. Since the 1438 decree recognized and
regulated power relations between many parties -- the King of France, the Pope, international
church councils, and local church officials -- it was subject to continual interpretation and
contestation, not to mention variable enforcement, as Noël Valois points out, Histoire de la
Pragmatique Sanction de Bourges sous Charles VII (Paris: Alphonse Picard, 1906), pp. XCIIICXXVI. On the church in France ca. 1500 and the status of bishops, see E. Delaruelle, A.
Latreille and J.-R. Palanque, Histoire du catholicisme en France (Paris: Édition Spes, 1960).
According to these historians, the apparent wealth and power of the bishops masked a profound
weakness: “On est loin des temps de la monarchie épiscopale; les pouvoirs de l’”Ordinaire” ont
au contraire continué à se démembrer, passant par morceaux aux diverses corporations, chapitres,
universités, monastères, qui forment désormais comme autant d’enclos, défendus contre
l’intervention de l’évêque par une tradition seculaire. L’évêque n’a en fait aucune autorité sur son
chapitre. Il a perdu le pouvoir de choisir aux bénéfices“ (pp. 171-72). The Pragmatic Sanction
was superseded by the Concordat of 1516 of François I.
13
Noted by Ch. Voillery, “Anciennes Cérémonies de Notre-Dame de Beaune,” Société
D’Archeologie de Beaune (Cote-d’Or) Mémoires Années 1906-1907: 80.
14
Michel Petitjean, “Un proces entre l’évêché d’Autun et le chapitre collegial de Beaune à
propos d’un privilege d’exemption,” Centre Beaunois D’Etudes Historiques, Recueil des
Travaux, T. 6 (1987): 73-95. See also Petitjean’s other major article on the canons, “Le doyen de
la collégiale Notre-Dame de Beaune, RCBEH t. 11 (1992): 19-40.
15
See also, Jean-Charles Picard, ed. Les chanoines dans la ville: Recherches sur la topographie des
quartiers canonians en France (De l’Archéologie à l’Histoire) Paris: De Boccard, 1994.
16
According to Jean-Pierre Brelaud, Les chanoines de la collégiale de Notre-Dame de Beaune
(mise à jour), pp. 5-7. He also notes that the members of the Beaune chapter often went on to
become canons at large cathedrals, bishops, and even cardinals (p. 42), leading him to conclude
that membership in the Beaune collégiale could be the route to a good career.
17
See Michel Petitjean, Le Coutumier bourguignon glosé (fin du XIVe siècle), Paris: CNRS, 1982.
Also his article, “La formation de la Coutume de Bourgogne et l’enseignement du droit à Beaune à
la fin du XIVme siècle, Centre beaunois d’Etudes historiques, Receuil de travaux, T. 4 (1983): 2325. See also Brelaud on the impressive educational backgrounds of the canons (Mémoire, pp. 5057).
18
Petitjean, “Un proces,” p. 78. See also Brelaud on the 1483 papal bull releasing them from
episcopal oversight (Mémoire pp. 24-25).
19
On the hostilities, see the account of Michel Petitjean, “Un proces,” pp. 79-87. He comments,
“La liste est longue des dignitaires ecclésiastiques qui, à un titre ou à un autre, intervinrent dans ce
conflit: y figurent les abbés de Saint-Etienne de Dijon, de Fontenay, de Flavigny, le personnel des
officialités de Paris, Lyon, Autun, Mâcon, Nevers, Auxerre, les officiers des évêques de Chalon,
Langres, sans compter des princes d’églises étrangères” (p. 83).
20
Guillaume Pierre in 1481, Jean Dehuval in 1482, Mathieu Perrot in 1486, Guillaume Arbaleste
in 1488, Jerome de Saint-Michel in 1489, Regnault Landrot in 1493, Robert Brynon in 1494,
Girard Martin in 1496, Antoine de Salins le jeune, a clerc, in 1498. (All found in G2483)
21
Guillaume Ypolite was elected King Herod in 1500; Philippe Bouton, who was absent serving
at the Parlement, in 1501; Hugues Pinard in 1502; Jean Boffeaul in 1503; Jean Briçonnet in 1504,
however since he was in Paris his place was taken by Jacques Borde; Antoine Petral in 1505;
Miles Le Mairet in 1506; Eudes Macheco in 1507; Henri Bouchard in 1508, replaced by Andre
Legoux; Guillaume Arbaleste in 1509; Philibert de Colonia, who had been absent for five years,
was chosen to play the role of King Herod at Epiphany in 1510.
22
The selection of candidates to fill offices also began to be contested. In 1506, Antoine de
Salins, Dean of the chapter who was a royal counselor at the Parlement of Burgundy, died.
Although the governor of Burgundy recommended filling the position with Antoine Petral, the
chapter chose Humbert Legoux, a canon who was also counselor at the Parlement in Dijon
(G2487 f. 143 ff.).
23
Canon Geliot donated the 40 francs he would have spent on the festivities, the record notes
(G2491 f. 37v).
24
To fulfill his obligation, Jean Bouton was elected Herod in 1535 (G2494 f. 354).
25
1520, Claude Margueron; 1522, Claude Margueron; 1523, Pierre Landroul; 1524, Guillaume
Boffeaul; 1526, Jean de Pucelle; 1527, Roch Perret; 1528, Bonnet Boenfoy; 1529, Robert Fesvre;
1530, Jean de Cologne; 1531, Jean Gay; 1532, Jean de Xaintonge; 1533, Jean Clement; 1534,
Philibert de Mipont; 1535, Jean Bouton; 1536, Jean Landroul; 1537, Louis Martin (as canon);
1538, Louis Martin (as dean); 1539, Jean Perret; 1540, Guillaume de la Colonge; 1541, Claude de
Brancion; 1542, Philibert Grostet; 1543, Georges Gay; 1544, Roch Ravier; 1545, Claude Loizel;
1546, Etienne Landroul; 1547, Jean Milot.
26
As Brelaud argues in his thesis, the collégiale of Notre-Dame was at the center of religious life
in Beaune, which included not just liturgical services and ecclesiastical administration but pastoral
care (Mémoire de maîtrise, pp. 12, 25). The Herod dramatization, perhaps with the coming of the
Magi on horses, would probably have made use of the “entire church space, since Christianity is
a feast of incarnation aimed at the whole Christian community,” as David Bevington notes with
regard to the Fleury Service for Representing Herod. He suggests that the Fleury performance
made use of “all parts of the nave as well as the sanctuary and exploited vertical dimensions as
well” (Fleury Playbook, p. 69). See his full spatial analysis of the staging of the Fleury, Beauvais
and Benediktbeuern Christmas plays, where procession is used extensively (pp. 69-75).
27
The reasons are not entirely clear, but they seem to reflect the shrinking of the number of
canons available for duties as much as external pressure from the bishop. (See G2498 for 1552
note for ff. 99-122, on the fewer and fewer canons present for chapter meetings) The need to
respond to both plague and war had also increased. During the fifteenth century it had been
normal for 14 or 15 of the 29 canons to be present at chapter meetings, but the numbers
decreased in the sixteenth century.
28
The Fleury Playbook, pp. 22-23.