“Border of Wickedness?”

IN BAMPTON, WESTMORELAND, A GROUP OF CATHOLICS ISSUED A PUBLIC challenge to Protestant ritual and authority. In 1615, at Christmas, a group of tenants and servants of Lord William Howard of Naworth entered their Protestant parish church, disrupting services. ¹ A Protestant reporter described with derision the raucous scene as the group “did erect a Christenmas lord” in the middle of the service. ² Some of “these Christenmas misrule men” drank toasts to the Protestant minister while he was in the midst of reciting prayers. Others climbed into the pulpit and asked the parishioners for a special offering to help pay for their celebration. Revelers rolled pies and puddings down the church aisles. Some carried flags and banners. Some came in costume while still others discharged their guns inside the church. Certain of the carousers even brought their dogs into the church, turning them on the parishioners and pretending that they were herding sheep. The Protestant cleric tolerated the misrule, and there is no indication that Protestant parishioners challenged the revelers. ³