Note 175 — Chapter XIX · LITURGICAL PLAYS (continued)

Text in Gasté, 49; Du Méril, 153; Davidson, 176; from Rouen MS. Y. 110 (fourteenth-century Ordinarium); Coussemaker, 242, from Bibl. Nat. Lat. MS. 904 (thirteenth-century Gradual, with notation); P. L. cxlvii. 135, from B. N. 904 and B. N. Lat. 1213 (fifteenth-century Ordinarium); cf. Gasté, 3. The rubric begins ‘Officium regum trium secundum usum Rothomagensem. Die epyphaniae, tercia cantata.’ John of Avranches (†1070) describing the Epiphany service, probably of Rouen, says, after mentioning the Evangelium genealogiae, which follows the ninth responsorium of Matins, ‘Deinde stellae officium incipiat’ (P. L. cxlvii. 43). Gasté, 53, quotes some Rouen chapter orders. In 1379 Peter Chopillard, painter, was paid ‘pro pingendo baculos quos portant Reges die Apparitionis.’ In 1507 the chapter after ‘matura deliberatio’ ordered the ‘representatio trium Regum’ to be held. In 1521 they suppressed it.