Remarkable Days. 6. SAINT NICHOLAS. NICHOLAS was Bishop of Myra in Lycia, and died about the year 392. He was of so charitable a disposition, that he portioned three young women, who were reduced in circumstances, by secretly conveying a sum of money into their father's house. The antient annual ceremony of a boy-bishop (episcopus puerorum), on this day, is thus described by SIR JOHN HAWKINS in his elaborate History of Music, vol. i, pp. 5-7. The boy-bishop was elected from among the choristers of the Cathedral of Sarum, on the anniversary of St. Nicholas, being the sixth day of December: he was invested with great authority, and had the state of a diocesan bishop from the time of his election until Innocents' Day, as it is called, the 28th of the same month. It seems that the original design of this singular institution was to do honour to the memory of St. Nicholas, who, even in his infancy, was remarkable for his piety, and, in the language of St. Paul to Timothy, is said to have known the scriptures of a child. Ribadeneyra has given his life at large; but the following extract from the English festival contains as much about him as any reasonable man can be expected to believe. "It is sayed that his fader hyght Epiphanius, and his moder, Joanna, &c. And whan he was born, &c. they made hym chrysten, and called him Nicholas, that is a mannes name; but he kepeth the name of a chyld; for he chose to kepe vertues, meknes, and symplenes, and without malyce. Also we rede, whyle he lay in his cradel, he fasted Wednesday and Friday: these days he would souke but ones of the day, and therewyth held him plesed. Thus he lyved all his lyf in vertues, with this chyldes name, and therefore chyldren don him worship before all other saynts." "The ceremonies attending the investiture of the episcopus puerorum are prescribed by the statutes of the church of Sarum, which contain a title, "de episcopo choristarum;" and also by the processional. From these it appears, that he was to bear the name and maintain the state of a bishop, habited with a crosier or pastoral staff in his hand, and a mitre on his head. His fellows, the rest of the children of the choir, were to take upon them the stile and office of prebendaries, and yield to the bishop canonical obedience; and, farther, the same service as the very bishop himself, with his dean and prebendaries, had they been to officiate, were to have performed, the very same, mass excepted, was done by the chorister and his canons, upon the eve and the holiday. The use of Sarum required also, that upon the eve of Innocents' Day the chorister bishop, with his fellows, should go in solemn procession to the altar of the Holy Trinity, in copes, and with burning tapers in their hands; and that, during the procession, three of the boys should sing certain hymns mentioned in the rubric. The procession was made through the great door at the west end of the church, in such order that the dean and canons went foremost, the chaplain next, and the bishop with his little prebendaries last; agreeable to that rule in the ordering of all processions, which assigns the rearward station to the most honourable. In the choir was a seat or throne for the bishop; and as to the rest of the children, they were disposed on each side of the choir, upon the uppermost ascent. And so careful was the church to prevent any disorder which the rude curiosity of the multitude might occasion in the celebration of this singular ceremony, that their statutes forbid all persons whatsoever, under pain of the greater excommunication, to interrupt or press upon the children, either in the procession or during any part of the service directed by the rubric; or any way to hinder or interrupt them in the execution or performance of what it concerned them to do. Farther it appears, that this infant bishop did, to a certain limit, receive to his own use rents, capons, and other emoluments of the church. In case the little bishop died within the month, his exequies were solemnized with great pomp; and he was interred, like other bishops, with all his ornaments. The memory of this custom is preserved, not only in the ritual books of the cathedral church of Salisbury, but by a monument in the same church, with the sepulchral effigies of a chorister bishop, supposed to have died in the exercise of his pontifical office, and to have been interred with the solemnities above noted.' In the statutes of St. Paul's School, framed by its venerable founder, Dean Colet, it is expressly or dered that the scholars shall every Childermas [Innocents] day, come to Pauli's churche, and hear the CHYLDE-BISHOP's [of St. Paul's Cathedral] sermon. And after be at the high masse; and each of them offer a penny to the chylde-bishop, and with them the maysters and surveyors of the Scole! This singular custom was abrogated by HENRY VIII, in 1542; but it was restored, by MARY, to all its antient splendour in 1554; and an edict issued by the Bishop of London, to all the clergy in his diocese, to have a boy-bishop in procession. On the accession of ELIZABETH, this silly mockery was set aside, we hope, FOR EVER'. 8.-CONCEPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY. This festival was instituted by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, because William the Conqueror's fleet, being in a storm, afterwards came safe to shore. The Council of Oxford, however, held in 1222, permitted every one to use his discretion in keeping it. The celebration of the Eton Montem is supposed by Mr. Brand to be, merely, a modification of this antient ceremony. 13.-SAINT LUCY. ว This virgin martyr was born at Syracuse. She refused to marry a young man who paid his addresses to her, because she had determined to devote herself to religion, and, to prevent his importunites, gave her whole fortune to the poor. The youth, enraged at this denial, accused her before Paschasius, the heathen judge, of professing Christianity; and Lucy, after much cruel treatment, fell a martyr to his revenge, in the year 305. 16.0 SAPIENTIA, This is the beginning of an anthem in the Latin service to the honour of Christ's advent, which used to be sung in the church from this day until Christmas Eve. 21.-SAINT THOMAS THE APOSTLE. Thomas, surnamed Didymus, or the Twin, was a Jew, and in all probability a Galilean. There are but few passages in the gospel concerning him. After our Lord's ascension, the province assigned to Thomas was Parthia. Jerome says, that he preached the gospel of our Lord to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, Bactrians, and Magians, and died in the city of Calamin, in India. Thomas is said to have suffered martyrdom in the same city, being killed by the lances of some people instigated by the Bramins. This is the shortest day, and is at London 7 h. 44 m. 17 s., allowing 9 m. 5 s. for refraction. Shortest of all the varying days, "That fill the circling round of Time,' The feast of our Saviour's nativity was undoubtedly celebrated in the early ages of Christianity; for we are told that under the persecution of Maximinus, that emperor burnt a church at Nicomedia, which was filled with Christians assembled to keep this festival St. Gregory terms it the festival of festivals ; and St. Chrysostom, the chief of all festivals. It is named Christmas-day, from the Latin Christi Missa, the Mass of Christ, and thence the Roman Catholic Liturgy is termed their Missal or Mass-Book. About the year 500, the observation of this day became general in the Catholic church. In the primitive church, Christmas-day was always preceded by an Eve or vigil. When the devotion of the Eve was completed, our forefathers used to light up candles of an uncommon size, which were called Christmas candles, and to lay a log of wood upon the fire called the yule-clog or log. A kind of baby or little image intended to represent Jesus, and called the yule-dough, was formerly made at this season, and presented by the bakers to their customers; and in some parts of the northern counties, the people, after service on Christmas-day, cry Ule, ule, ule, as a token of rejoicing; the lower orders running about the streets, vociferating, Üle, ule, ule, ule, Three puddings in a pule, From the following circumstance may be dated the origin of Christmas-boxes, now almost forgotten. The Romish priests had masses said for almost every thing. When a ship went on a voyage, the priests had a box in her under the protection of some saint, and the poor were desired to contribute to this box, that masses might be said for them. This treasury was not to be opened until the ship's return. The mass, at that time, was called Christmas; the box, Christmas-box, or money collected against that time, that the priests might say masses to the saints, and entreat the forgiveness of the debaucheries of the people at this season; and from this, servants had the liberty to get box-money, that they, too, might |