Two Sermons Preached by the Boy Bishop at St. Paul's, Temp; Henry VIII., And at Gloucester, Temp; Mary With an Introduction Giving an Account of the Festival of the Boy Bishop, in England (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Two Sermons Preached by the Boy Bishop at St. Paul's, Temp; Henry VIII., And at Gloucester, Temp; Mary: With an Introduction Giving an Account of the Festival of the Boy Bishop, in England IN the middle ages festivities were a part of human existence into which all classes entered with hearty interest. The song and the dance, and the rude drama, were not confined within the walls of the hall or theatre, but they were familiar to the public ear and the public gaze in the open market-place and at the corners of the streets. They were attendant on the processions of the Church and the pageantry of the guilds, and regularly succeeded the more important business of life as one day followed another. Throughout the year, except during Lent, there was a constant series of holidays, kept in commemoration of the saints; and those days, by religion and by custom, were divided between sacred rites and secular discussions, each portion of such celebration combining a large amount of ceremonial, pomp, and parade. The saints were all invested with special attributes and special claims to worship and adoration. They were intercessors not only in mental distresses and anxieties, in physical pains and diseases, and in accidental misfortunes and losses, - not to speak of the aspirations of ambition or worldliness, upon which Erasmus has in icted such amusing satire, - but to each of them, according to their respective character and merits, was attributed a tutelary in uence over localities, seasons, and circumstances; over every variety of worldly occupation, and Over even sports and pastimes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."