In 1207, Pope Innocent III (Pope 1198-1216) issued an order to Henry Kietlicz, the archbishop of the Polish Gniezno province, and to his team, in which letter the Pope called the Polish clerics attention to the introduction, especially during the Christmas feasts held by deacons, priests and sub-deacons, of masks and theatrical games into churches, and ordered the discontinuance of the practice. Innocent III’s decretal was included as part of the permanent canon law in the Decretales of Gregory IX in 1234.
You can read more about this in Edmund Kerchever Chambers’s “The Medieval Stage” volume 1, (pages 274-335 regarding the so-called “Feast of Fools”) or look at the more recent scholarship by Meg Twycross and Sarah Carpenter in their “Masks and Masking in Medieval and Early Tudor England.” 
The order seem to have been originally printed in L.G.O. Feudrix de Bréquigny & F.J.G. La Porte du Theil’s Diplomata (Diplomata, Chartae, Epistolae et alia Documenta Ad Res Francicas Spectantia, etc. volume II, ed. 1791, pp. 1037-8). It was then reprinted in the Diplomatic Codex of Greater Poland (Codex diplomaticus majoris Poloniae volume I, ed. 1877, document number 55, page 58). From there, because of the potential that such practices were rooted in pre-Christian paganism, Karl Meyer reprinted the order in his Historic Sources of Slavic Religion (Fontes historiae religions slavicae).
There is a question, of course, whether and to what extent these practices were pagan or were merely variations on the Christian feasts. Although the letter was sent to the archbishop of Gniezno, there is also a question as to whether the letter referred to practices that the Papacy found specifically in Poland or that were found all over Europe (indeed, it was perhaps because of the universality of its application that it found its way into the Decretales of Gregory IX). On that topic you can read (in Polish) the excellent article by Maksymilian Kawczyński “Regarding the Beginnings of Polish Poetry” (O początkach poezyi polskiej, Kwartalnik Historyczny, 1889).
All that said, it seems that the customs were reported on to the Pope by the archbishop himself during his visit to Rome (Ad nostram siquidem noveritis audientiam pervenisse) and similar “Christmas” practices were reported in Poland many times over as in:
- Constitutio Synodalis Uniejoviensis (1326)
- Cracow Diocese Statutes (1408)
- Synodal Statutes of Bishop Andrew of Poznan (circa 1420)
- Sermons of Michał from Janowiec (late 15th century)
The letter is also rather clear as to who exactly was doing all this “caroling”. It was the children of various priests who led these plays and excesses. In fact, it seems that priests back then had many children and it was these priest clans that led the plays and festivals dressed up in “monstrous” masks. Whether these festivities were merely “mockeries” of Christian rituals and dignitaries (archbishop Kietlicz?) or were instead something more, perhaps relics of pagan customs, is an open question.
We present the order here based on the from found in the Diplomatic Codex but also show its source (that is the Diplomata print of Bréquigny and du Theil). Some of the translation comes from the Twycross and Carpenter book. The green text indicates the portion of the secrete that comes from the Meyer reprint and is translated immediately below.
“…Due to their [that is, the clerics’] insolence, sometimes theatrical entertainments are made in these same churches, and not only are monstrosities [in the form] of terrifying apparitions [masks?] introduced to [produce] misguided shows, but also in the three feasts of the year which follow immediately after the Nativity, deacons, priests and subdeacons in turn, indulging in demented mockery, by the unseemly intoxication of their gestures [made] in full view of the public, bring the honor of the clergy into disrepute, [and] who should rather have been soothingly preaching the word of God at such time… However fun these playful customs or rather corruptions [may be], strive to root them out thus from your churches, for you are the guardians of the temple of worship and of the holy order.
Innocent III Pope (January 5,1207)
Letter to the Archbishop of Gniezno
Epistula ad archiepiscopum Gneznensem
“… Gneznensi archiepiscopo et suffraganeis eius. Cum decorem domus Domini et locum tabernaculi glorie sue diligere vos oporteat, accurata vobis est sollicitudine precavendum, ne in commissis vobis ecclesiis illa temere presumantur, que vel in eis lampadem religionis extinguere, vel munditiam videantur ministrorum Domini maculare. Ad nostram siquidem noveritis audientiam pervenisse, quod quidam in vestris diocesibus constituti, publice cum mulieribus contrahentes ecclesiasticas non verentur suscipere dignitates, et nonnullarum ecclesiarum canonici, quorum lumbos iuxta verbum evangelice veritatis deceret esse precinctos ac in eorum manibus lucernas bone operationis ardere, usque adeo luxurie sordibus putruerunt, quod nec etiam ignominiam suam velint turpitudinemque velare, quin immo filios ex infami generatione susceptos, ad ministerium altaris, quo se reddunt indignos, indignius secum trahunt; ac si non satis in opprobrium ordinis clericalis eorum incontinentia foret cognita, nisi natorum, in publicum deductorum loquentiumque testimonium, contra ipsos esset ostensione sedula comprobata. Cumque in ecclesiis in quibus huiusmodi clerici locum habent multa enormiter attententur, dum in eisdem fermentata patrum et filiorum, nepotum etiam et affinium parentela inordinate ministrat, quia videlicet amore predominante carnali reverentia spiritualis tepuit inter ipsos, unde nequaquam unus quodlibet facere propter alium pretermittit: per insolentiam eorundem [sc. clericorum] interdum ludi fiunt in eisdem ecclesiis theatrales, et non solum ad ludibriorum spectacula introducuntur in eas monstra larvarum, verum etiam in tribus anni festivitatibus que continue Natalem Christi sequuntur, diaconi, presbyteri ac subdiaconi vicissim insanie sue ludibria exercentes, per gesticulationum suarum debacchationes obscenas in conspectu populi decus faciunt clericale vilescere, quem potius illo tempore verbi Dei deberent predicatione mulcere. Quia igitur ex officio nobis iniuncto zelus domus Dei nos comedit et opprobria exprobrantium ei super nos cadere dignoscuntur, fraternitati vestre per apostolica scripta mandamus, quatenus, ne per huiusmodi turpitudinem Ecclesie inquinetur honestas, eos qui sunt publice uxorati non admittatis de cetero ad ecclesiasticas dignitates, et admissos repellatis ab eis quas non possunt sine pravo exemplo et gravi scandalo retinere. Filiis quoque canonicorum, prebendas in eisdem conferri ecclesiis non sinatis quarum sunt canonici patres eorum: cum indecorum sit, ut in altaris officio illegitimus filius impudico patri ministret, in quo unigenitus Filius eterno Patri pro salute humani generis victimatur. Prelibatam vero ludibriorum consuetudinem vel potius corruptelam, curetis ab ecclesiis vestris taliter extirpare, quod vos divini cultus et sacri comprobetis ordinis zelatores. Datum Rome apud sanctum Petrum VI Idus Ianuarii, anno nono.“
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