Boy bishop or Chorister Bishop is the title of a tradition in the Middle Ages, whereby a boy was chosen, for example, among cathedral choristers, to parody the adult bishop, commonly on the feast of Holy Innocents on 28 December. This tradition links with others, such as the Feast of Fools and the Feast of Asses.
Reputed tomb of a Boy bishop in Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire, England
19th-century depiction of a medieval boy bishop, attended by his canons
Massacre of the Innocents
The Massacre of the Innocents is a myth recounted in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (2:16–18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Some Christians venerate the Holy Innocents as the first Christian martyrs, but modern scholarship finds no evidence that it happened outside the passages in Matthew.
The Virgin and Child Surrounded by the Holy Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens
Herod orders the Massacre of the Innocents; the Flight of Elizabeth; the martyrdom of Zachariah (illumination from a 9th-century manuscript)
10th-century illuminated manuscript
Giotto, Massacre of the Innocents
