Colet’s scholars and the child bishop’s sermon

28 December · St Paul's Cathedral, London

No longer kept

Every Childermas the boys of St Paul’s School went to the cathedral to hear a sermon preached by the boy bishop and gave him a penny each. John Colet, dean of St Paul’s, wrote the duty into the statutes of his school, and the masters and surveyors paid their pennies too. Strutt thought it odd that so wise a man should countenance what he called an idle farce.

shall, every Childermas, that is, Innocents-day, come to Paule's churche, and hear the Childe Byshop's sermon, and after be at hygh masse, and each of them offer a penny to the childe byshop

From Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, 2nd ed., p. 305. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Childermas Lore and belief Cornwall, EnglandHoly Innocents' Day, or Childermas, was reckoned the unluckiest day of the year, and no one who could help it began any work or undertaking on it.
The King of Cockneys at Lincoln’s Inn No longer kept LondonDugdale printed an order of Lincoln's Inn from the ninth year of Henry VIII that the King of Cockneys should sit and have due service on Childermas Day.
Gawby Day at Wrexham No longer kept DenbighshireOn 28 December, Wrexham filled with country men and women servants for Gawby Day.
The weekday of Childermas unlucky all year Lore and belief EnglandIt was thought very unlucky to begin any work on Childermas, Holy Innocents' Day, and whatever day of the week it fell on was held unlucky for starting anything for the whole of the following year.

Colet’s scholars and the child bishop’s sermon

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