The Boy-Bishop's Glovemaker

The Regulations

The Regulations for the Boy-Bishop at Exeter

Cathedral after Bishop Grandisson c. 1330

(translated from the Latin by Margaret Cash)

To the Mayor and Commonality of the City of Exeter

1. No wine or cake should be made available on the eve of St Thomas the Apostle at Kalandarhay.

2. No breakfast shall be made on the Feast Day of St Thomas the Apostle in the room of the Chorister-Bishop, but the Bishop together with the Choristers and servants of the Canons at the house of their master, as they are accustomed on other days.

3. Distribution of gloves within the Close shall be done by two or three of the Choir, and in the city and its vicinity by two, three or four from the servants of the Canons of the Master Bishop, according to the discretion of the said master.

4. The Bishop shall give no regard to his brother Choristers on Holy Innocents’ Day.

5. None shall be called to lunch on Holy Innocents’ Day, at the expense of the Bishop, at the house of his master, unless they be special friends of the said Bishop, and then not beyond the number of six persons. The Bishop shall pay to his Canon master, should he wish to receive it, four pence for whatever lunch is taken. And the Bishop shall consider himself content with his master’s service.

6. On Holy Innocents’ Day there shall be prepared and arranged a pennyweight of bread, a pottle with a narrow neck, and two or three pennyweights of meat or one of cheese and butter, to be carried to the Bishop’s room and carried by the Bishop and his brother Choristers, and he shall go down to the Priory of St Nicholas, provided that the expense of the said breakfast shall not exceed the sum of four or six pennies.

7. It is ordered that the said Bishop and his crosier, on the days after the said feast of the Holy Innocents, shall use dancing and leisure like the rest of the Choristers; and that afterwards they shall not run about through the church nor other places with the gloves, except when the County Court or Sessions of the Peace of Exeter is held, or certain respectable outsiders happen to approach the church or house of any Canon within the aforesaid precinct. And this with the licence of the Precentor or Succentor or the Clerk of the Chapel of St Mary.

Item, that the offering of money to the Bishop on Holy Innocents’ Day shall be counted openly within the church before a clerk of the treasury or other respectable priest of the Choir and then shall be offered by one of the Bishop’s friends.