In The Tudor Period

13. Boy bishops’ were given power, which they often wielded mischievously, in place of adult bishops

Following medieval custom, ‘boy bishops’ replaced adult prelates (high-ranking members of the clergy), and were allowed the same privileges as Lords of Misrule. Appointed on St Nicholas Day, 6 December, and allowed to hold office until Holy Innocents’ Day on 28/29 December, they were chosen from cathedral choirs and invested with costly miniature vestments, mitres and croziers. Deferred to as if they were real bishops; they enjoyed actual episcopal power, and took all the services the adult bishop would have taken, apart from Mass. When they preached sermons, they were given gifts in reward. They could appoint cathedral canons from their chorister friends, and if they died in office, they would be buried with the full honours of a real bishop. But there were many complaints that boy bishops carried out their duties mischievously and without due respect, and practised what amounted to extortion when collecting alms. Nevertheless, they were protected by a law that forbade anyone to disrupt their services or throw things at them.