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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Christian Burial</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03071a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="The interment of a deceased person with ecclesiastical rites in consecrated ground"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="03071a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/b.htm">B</a> > Christian Burial</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Christian Burial</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>The interment of a deceased <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> with <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> rites in <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> ground. The <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> and most of the nations of antiquity buried their dead. Amongst the Greeks and Romans both <a href="../cathen/04481c.htm">cremation</a> and interment were practised indifferently. That the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> from the beginning used only burial seems certain. This conclusion may be inferred not only from negative arguments but from the direct testimony of <a href="../cathen/14520c.htm">Tertullian</a>, "De Corona" (P.L., II, 92, 795; cf. <a href="../cathen/10336a.htm">Minucius Felix</a>, "Octavius", xi in P.L., III, 266), and from the stress laid upon the analogy between the <a href="../cathen/12792a.htm">resurrection of the body</a> and the <a href="../cathen/12789a.htm">Resurrection of Christ</a> (<a href="../bible/1co015.htm#vrs42">1 Corinthians 15:42</a>; cf. <a href="../cathen/14520c.htm">Tertullian</a>, "De Animâ", lv; <a href="../cathen/02084a.htm">Augustine</a>, <a href="../fathers/120101.htm"><em>City of God</em> I.13</a>). In the light of this same <a href="../cathen/05089a.htm">dogma</a> of the <a href="../cathen/12792a.htm">resurrection of the body</a> as well as of Jewish tradition (cf. <a href="../bible/tob001.htm#vrs21">Tobit 1:21</a>; <a href="../bible/tob012.htm#vrs12">12:12</a>; <a href="../bible/sir038.htm#vrs16">Sirach 38:16</a>; <a href="../bible/2ma012.htm#vrs39">2 Maccabees 12:39</a>), it is easy to understand how the interment of the mortal remains of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> dead has always been regarded as an act of religious import and has been surrounded at all times with some measure of religious ceremonial. The motives of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> burial will be more fully treated in the article <a href="../cathen/04481c.htm">CREMATION</a>. As to the latter practice, it will be sufficient to say here that, while involving no <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> contradiction of any <a href="../cathen/01755d.htm">article of faith</a>, it is opposed alike to the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> and to the usages of antiquity. In defense of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church's</a> recent prohibitions, it may be urged that the revival of <a href="../cathen/04481c.htm">cremation</a> in modern times has in practice been prompted less by considerations of improved hygiene or <a href="../cathen/12545b.htm">psychological</a> sentiment than by avowed materialism and opposition to <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">Catholic teaching</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h2>The law of the Church regarding burial</h2> <p>According to the canon law every man is free to choose for himself the burial ground in which he wishes to be interred. It is not <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> that this choice should be formally registered in his will. Any reasonable legal <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proof</a> is sufficient as evidence of his wishes in the matter, and it has been decided that the testimony of one witness, for example his confessor, may be accepted, if there be no suspicion of interested motives. (S.C. Concilii, 24 march, 1871, Lex, 189.) Where no wish has been expressed it will be assumed that the interment is to take place in any vault or burial place which may have belonged to the deceased or his <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>, and failing this the remains should be buried in the cemetery of the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> in which the deceased had his domicile or quasi-domicile. Certain exceptions, however, are recognized in the case of <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a>, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, canons, etc. Formerly monastic and other churches claimed and enjoyed under certain conditions the privilege of interring notable benefactors within their precincts. It may be said that no such privilege is now recognized as a matter of right to the detriment of the claim of the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a>. If a man die in a <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> which is not his own, the canon law prescribes that the body should be conveyed to his own <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> for interment if this is reasonably possible, but the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> of the place where he died may claim the right of attending the corpse to the place of burial. In fine, the principle is recognized that it belongs to the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> to bury his own parishioners. The canon law recognizes for regular orders the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to be buried in the cemetery of their own <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> (Sägmäller, 453; l. Wagner in "Archiv f. kath. Kirchenrecht", 1873, xxxix, 385; Kohn, ibid., xl, 329).</p> <p>Originally, as burial was a spiritual function, it was laid down that no fee could be exacted for this without <a href="../cathen/14001a.htm">simony</a> (Decretum Gratiani, xiii, q. ii; c. viii, ix; Extrav. de sim., V, 3). But the custom of making gifts to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, partly as an acknowledgment of the trouble taken by the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, partly for the benefit of the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> of the departed, gradually became general, and such offerings were recognized in time as <em>jura stoloe</em> which went to the personal support of the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> or his <a href="../cathen/04570a.htm">curates</a>. It was, however, distinctly insisted upon that the carrying out of the rites of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> should not be made conditional upon the payment of the fee being made beforehand, though the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> could recover such fee afterwards by process of law in case it were withheld. Moreover in the case of the very poor he is bound to bury them gratuitously. If a parishioner elected to be buried outside his own <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a>, a certain proportion, generally a fourth part, of the fee paid or the gifts that might be made in behalf of the deceased on occasion of the burial was to go to the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> of his own <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a>. Where an old custom existed, the continuance of the payment of this fourth part under certain conditions was recognized by the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> (Sess. XXV, De ref., c. xiii). Nowadays the principle is still maintained, but generally the payment to the <em>proprius parochus</em> takes the form of the fourth part of a definite burial-fee which is determined according to some fixed tariff (S. C. Ep. et Reg., 19 January, 1866; S.C. Conc., 16 February, 1889), and which may be exacted by the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> for every burial which takes place in his district. He has, however, no <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to any compensation if a non-parishioner dies and is taken back to his own <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> for burial, nor again when one of his own parishioners dies away from home and has to be buried in the place of his demise.</p> <p>Only <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptized</a> <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> have a claim to <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> burial and the rites of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> cannot lawfully be performed over those who are not <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptized</a>. Moreover no strict claim can be allowed in the case of those <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> who have not lived in communion with the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> according to the maxim which comes down from the time of <a href="../cathen/09154b.htm">Pope Leo the Great</a> (448) "quibus viventibus non communicavimus mortuis communicare non possumus" (i.e. we cannot hold communion in death with those who in life were not in communion with us). It has further been recognized as a principle that the last rites of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> constitute a mark of respect which is not to be shown to those who in their lives have <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> themselves unworthy of it. In this way various classes of <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> are excluded from <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> burial  <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagans</a>, <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a>, infidels, <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a>, and their adherents (Rit. Rom., VI, c. ii) schismatics, <a href="../cathen/01624b.htm">apostates</a>, and <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> who have been <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunicated</a> by name or placed under an <a href="../cathen/08073a.htm">interdict</a>. If an <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunicated</a> <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> be buried in a church or in a <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> cemetery the place is thereby <a href="../cathen/04748c.htm">desecrated</a>, and, wherever possible, the remains must be exhumed and buried elsewhere. Further, Christian burial is to be refused to <a href="../cathen/14326b.htm">suicides</a> (this prohibition is as old as the fourth century; cf. Cassian in P.L., XL, 573) except in case that the act was committed when they were of unsound mind or unless they showed signs of repentance before death occurred. It is also withheld from those who have been killed in a <a href="../cathen/05184b.htm">duel</a>, even though they should give signs of repentance before death. Other <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> similarly debarred are <a href="../cathen/11126b.htm">notorious</a> sinners who die without repentance, those who have openly held the <a href="../cathen/13295a.htm">sacraments</a> in contempt (for example by staying away from Communion at <a href="../cathen/11516a.htm">Easter time</a> to the <a href="../cathen/13506d.htm">public scandal</a>) and who showed no signs of sorrow, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> and <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> who are found to have died in the possession of money or valuables which they had kept for their own, and finally those who have directed that their bodies should be <a href="../cathen/04481c.htm">cremated</a> after death. In all such cases, however, the general practice of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> at the present day has been to interpret these prohibitions as mildly as possible. Ordinarily the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> is directed to refer <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a> cases to the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, if any favourable construction can be found, allows the burial to proceed.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Many complications are caused in the administration of the canon law by the political conditions under which the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> exists in modern times in most countries of the world. For instance, the question may often arise whether a non-Catholic can be buried in a <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> cemetery belonging, not to the civil administration, but to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, and perhaps adjoining the sacred building itself; or again in such a case whether non-Catholic worshippers can perform their own rites at the interment. As it often happened that a <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> graveyard was the only available place of burial in a large district, it has been decided as a matter of necessity that in such cases it was possible to allow <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestants</a> to be buried in a <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> graveyard (S. C. Inquis., 23 July, 1609). In some instances a special portion of ground has been set aside for the purpose and non-Catholic ritual is permitted to be used there. In cases of necessity the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> may preside at such an interment, but he must not use any ritual or <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> that would be recognized as distinctively <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a>. It hardly needs saying that at the present day in almost every part of the world the prescriptions of the canon law regarding burial are in conflict with secular legislation in more than one particular. In such cases the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> is often compelled to waive her right, in order to prevent greater evils. On the other hand, we may notice that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church's</a> claim to exercise control over the burial of her members dates back to an age anterior even to the freedom given to <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> under Constantine. From the beginning the principle seems to have been insisted upon that the faithful should be buried apart from the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagans</a>. Thus <a href="../cathen/04583b.htm">St. Cyprian of Carthage</a> makes it a matter of reproach against a <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spanish</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> Martial that he had not sufficiently attended to this, and that he had tolerated "filios exterarum gentium more apud profana sepulchra depositos et alienigenis consepultos" (Cyprian, Ep. lxvii, 6). In the same way St. Hilary, a century later, considers that <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Our Saviour</a> warned His disciples against a similar profanation "Admonuit non admisceri memoriis sanctorum mortuos infideles" (Hilary, in S. Matt., vii). So also the <a href="../cathen/05121a.htm">Donatists</a> when they gained the upper hand were so deeply imbued with this principle of exclusive sepulture that they would not allow the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> to be buried in the cemeteries they had seized upon. "Ad hoc basilicas invadere voluistis ut vobis solis coemeteria vindicetis, non permittentes sepeliri corpora Catholica" (Optatus, VI, vii). With regard to the exclusion of <a href="../cathen/14326b.htm">suicides</a> from the <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> burial grounds it would appear that some similar practice was familiar to the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagans</a> even before <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> had spread throughout the empire. Thus there is a well-known <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> inscription of Lanuvium of the year 133: "Quisquis ex quâcunque causâ mortem sibi asciverit eius ratio funeris non habebitur." Probably this was not so much a protest of outraged morality as a warning that in the matter of burial no man had a <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to make himself prematurely a charge upon the community. The time of burial is, generally speaking, between sunrise and sunset; any other hour requires the permission of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> (Ferraris, s.v., 216, 274, 279). For the rest the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a> <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">statutes</a>, regulations of the local <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> authority, and custom are to be considered, also the <a href="../cathen/09066a.htm">civil law</a> and the public sanitary regulations.</p> <h2>The ritual of burial</h2> <p>Speaking first of the usages of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> at the present day it will probably be convenient to divide the various religious observances with which the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> surrounds the mortal remains of her faithful children after death into three different stages. The <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> and <a href="../cathen/02599b.htm">blessings</a> which are provided by the "Rituale" for use before death will best be considered under the heading Death, Preparation for, but in the rites observed after death we may distinguish first what takes place in the house of the deceased and in bringing the body to the church, secondly the function in the church and thirdly the <a href="../cathen/03538b.htm">ceremony</a> by the grave side. In practice, it is the exception for the whole of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church's</a> ritual to be performed, especially in the case of the burial of the <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">laity</a> in a large <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a>; but in <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">religious houses</a> and where the facilities are at hand the service is generally carried out completely.</p> <p>With regard to the observances prescribed before the body is conveyed to the church it may be noted that according to the <a href="../cathen/13216a.htm">rubrics</a> prefixed to the title "De exsequiis" in the "Rituale Romanum" a proper interval (<em>debitum temporis intervallum</em>) ought to elapse between the moment of death and the burial, especially where death has occurred unexpectedly, in order that no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> may remain that life is really extinct. In southern climates it is not unusual to celebrate the funeral the day after the decease or even upon the day itself, but the practice both in <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> and <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> times has varied greatly. Among the ancient Romans it would seem that the bodies of <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> of distinction were commonly kept for seven days, while the poor were interred the day after death. In these matters the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> has generally been content to adopt the usages which were already in possession. The washing of the corpse is so frequently spoken of both in secular and monastic rituals as to wear almost the aspect of a religious <a href="../cathen/03538b.htm">ceremony</a>, but no special <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> are assigned to it. Minute directions are given as to the clothing of the dead in the case of all <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>. They are to be attired in ordinary <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> costume and over this they are to wear the vestments distinctive of their order. Thus the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> or <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> must be clad in <a href="../cathen/01428c.htm">amice</a>, <a href="../cathen/01251b.htm">alb</a>, girdle, <a href="../cathen/09601b.htm">maniple</a>, stole and <a href="../cathen/03639a.htm">chasuble</a>. His <a href="../cathen/02577a.htm">biretta</a> should be placed upon his head and the <a href="../cathen/14779a.htm">tonsure</a> should be renewed. The <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacon</a> similarly wears his <a href="../cathen/04608a.htm">dalmatic</a> and stole, the <a href="../cathen/14320a.htm">subdeacon</a> his tunicle, and the cleric his <a href="../cathen/14343d.htm">surplice</a>. In practice it is usual in the case of a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> to place upon the coffin lid a <a href="../cathen/03561a.htm">chalice</a> and <a href="../cathen/11541b.htm">paten</a> at one end with the <a href="../cathen/02577a.htm">biretta</a> at the other; but this is not ordered in the <a href="../cathen/13216a.htm">rubrics</a> of the "Rituale". For the <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">laity</a> it is directed that the body should be decently laid out, that a light should be kept burning, that a small cross should, if possible, be placed in the hands, failing which the hands are to be arranged in the form of a cross, and that the body should occasionally be sprinkled with <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a>. The burning of more than one candle beside the body is not directly enjoined for all, but it is mentioned in the <a href="../cathen/03133a.htm">"Caeremoniale"</a> in the case of a <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> and is of general observance. On the other hand, it is mentioned that the <em>debita lumina</em>, the candles which according to ancient custom are carried in the procession, ought to be provided by the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> gratuitously in the case of the very poor, and it is very distinctly enjoined that in exacting such fees as custom prescribes on these occasions the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> ought sedulously to avoid all appearance of <a href="../cathen/02148b.htm">avarice</a>. It is also laid down that the <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">laity</a>, even in the case of <a href="../cathen/04380a.htm">crowned</a> heads, are never to be carried to the grave by the hands of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>  a prescription which can be traced back to a synod of Seville in 1512 and is probably much older. But in the Early Church this does not seem to have been observed, for we have several recorded instances in which ladies who died in repute of <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">sanctity</a>, as for example <a href="../cathen/11582a.htm">St. Paula</a> or St. Macrina, were carried to the grave by <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>.</p> <p>The first stage in the obsequies of a deceased <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> according to the rite now in use is the conveyance of the body to the church. At an appointed hour the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> are directed to assemble in the church, a signal being given by the tolling of a bell. The <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> in <a href="../cathen/14343d.htm">surplice</a> and black stole, or if he prefer it wearing a black cope as well, goes to the house of the deceased with the rest of the company, one cleric carrying the cross and another a <a href="../cathen/07433a.htm">stoup</a> of <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a>. Before the coffin is removed from the house it is sprinkled with <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a>, the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> with his assistants saying beside it the psalm De Profundis with the antiphon Si iniquitates. Then the procession sets out for the church. The cross-bearer goes first, religious confraternities, if such there be, and members of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> follow, carrying lighted candles, the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> walks immediately before the coffin and the friends of the deceased and others walk behind. As they leave the house the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> intones the antiphon Exsultabunt Domino, and then the psalm Miserere is recited or chanted in alternate verses by the cantors and <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>. On reaching the church the antiphon Exsultabunt is repeated, and as the body is borne to its place "in the middle of the church" the <a href="../cathen/12787a.htm">responsory</a> Subvenite (Come to his assistance ye Saints of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, come to meet him ye <a href="../cathen/01476d.htm">Angels of the Lord</a>, etc.) is recited. The present <a href="../cathen/13216a.htm">rubric</a> directs that if the corpse be that of a <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">layman</a> the feet are to be turned towards the altar; if on the other hand the corpse be that of a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>, then the position is reversed, the head being towards the altar. Whether this exceptional treatment of <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> as regards position is of early <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> in the West is open to considerable <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a>. No earlier example seems so far to have been quoted than the reference to it in Burchard's "Diary" noted by Catalani. Burchard was the master of ceremonies to <a href="../cathen/08019b.htm">Innocent VIII</a> and <a href="../cathen/01289a.htm">Alexander VI</a>, and he may himself have introduced the practice, but his speaking of it as the customary arrangement does not suggest this. On the other hand, the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgists</a> apparently <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> no exception to their rule that both before the altar and in the grave the feet of all <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> should be pointed to the East. This custom we find alluded to by Bishop Hildebert at the beginning of the twelfth century (P.L., CLXXI, 896), and its symbolism is discussed by Durandus. "A man ought so to be buried", he says, "that while his head lies to the West his feet are turned to the East, for thus he <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prays</a> as it were by his very position and suggests that he is ready to hasten from the West to the East" (Ration. Div. Off., VII, 35). But if Roman <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> practice seems to offer no foundation for the distinction now made between the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> and the <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">layman</a>, it is noteworthy that in the <a href="../cathen/06752a.htm">Greek Church</a> very pronounced differences have been recognized from an early <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a>. In the "Ecclesiastical Hierarchy" of <a href="../cathen/05013a.htm">Pseudo-Dionysius</a>, which belong to the fifth century, we learn that a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> or <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> was placed before the altar (<em>epiprosthen tou seiou thysiasteriou</em>), while a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> or <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">layman</a> lay outside the holy gates or in the <a href="../cathen/15387a.htm">vestibule</a>. A similar practice is observed to the present day. The corpse of a <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">layman</a> during the singing of the "Panychis" (the equivalent of the "Vigiliae Mortuorum" or Vigil of the Dead) is usually deposited in the <a href="../cathen/10704b.htm">narthex</a>, that of a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> or <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> in the middle of the church, while in the case of a <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> he is laid during a certain portion of the service in different positions within the sanctuary, the body at one point being placed behind the altar exactly in front of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop's</a> throne and the head towards the throne (Maltzew, Begrabniss-Ritus, 278) It is possible that some imitation of this practice in <a href="../cathen/04606b.htm">Dalmatia</a> or in Southern <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> may have indirectly led to the introduction of our present <a href="../cathen/13216a.htm">rubric</a>. The <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of both seems to be that the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> (or <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>) in death should occupy the same position in the church as during life, i.e. facing his people whom he taught and blessed in <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ's</a> name.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Supposing the body to have been brought to the church in the afternoon or evening, the second portion of the obsequies, that carried out in the church, may begin with the recital of the <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a> for the Dead. This, however, is not prescribed in the "Rituale Romanum", which speaks only of <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">Matins</a> and <a href="../cathen/09038a.htm">Lauds</a>, though <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a> are mentioned in the <a href="../cathen/03133a.htm">"Caeremoniale Episcoporum"</a> in the case of a <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>. If the <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a> for the Dead are said they begin with the antiphon Placebo, and the Office of <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">Matins</a>, if we exclude the invitatory, begins with the antiphon Dirige. For this reason the "Placebo and Dirige," of which we so constantly find mention in <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> English writers, mean simply the <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a> and <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">Matins</a> for the Dead. It is from the latter of these two words that the English term <em>dirge</em> is derived. Candles are lighted round the coffin and they should be allowed to burn at least during the continuance of the Office, Mass, and Absolutions. Throughout the Office for the Dead each psalm ends with Requiem aeternam (Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them) in the place of the Gloria Patri. It is interesting perhaps to note here that the liturgist, Mr. Edmund Bishop, after minute investigation has come to the conclusion that in this familiar formula, <em>Requiem oeternam dona eis, Domine; et lux perpetua luceat eis</em>, we have a blending of two distinct <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> currents' "the second member of the phrase expresses the aspiration of the mind and <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> of the Roman, the first the aspiration of the mind and <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> of the Goth" (Kuypers, Book of Cerne, 275). It is <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> that it has been maintained that the words are borrowed from a passage in IV Esdras (Apocrypha), ii, 34-35, but we may <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> if the resemblance is more than accidental.</p> <p>With regard to the <a href="../cathen/11219a.htm">Office</a> and <a href="../cathen/09790b.htm">Mass</a> which form the second portion of the Exsequioe, the <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">Matins</a> after a preliminary <em>invitatorium</em>: "Regem cui omnia vivunt, venite adoremus", consist of nine psalms divided as usual into three nocturns by three sets of lessons and responsories. The first nocturn, as already noted, begins with the antiphon "Dirige, Domine Deus meus, in conspectu tuo vitam meam", and is made up of the three psalms, Verba mea, <a href="../bible/psa005.htm">Psalm 5</a>, Domine ne in furore, <a href="../bible/psa006.htm">Psalm 6</a>, and Domine Deus meus, <a href="../bible/psa007.htm">Psalm 7</a>, each having its own antiphon, which is duplicated. The lessons both in this and in the following nocturns are all taken from the Book of Job, chapters <a href="../bible/job007.htm">7</a>, <a href="../bible/job010.htm">10</a>, <a href="../bible/job013.htm">13</a>, <a href="../bible/job014.htm">14</a>, <a href="../bible/job017.htm">17</a> and <a href="../bible/job019.htm">19</a>, in which the sufferer expresses the misery of man's lot, but above all his unalterable trust in <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>. The lessons are read without the usual <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> and blessing, but each is followed by a <a href="../cathen/12787a.htm">responsory</a>, and some of these responsories in their picturesque conciseness deserve to be reckoned among the most striking portions of the liturgy. We may quote for example the last <a href="../cathen/12787a.htm">responsory</a> of the third nocturn which occurs again before the <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a>. It is this translated in the <a href="../cathen/16013a.htm">Roman Breviary</a> of the late <a href="../cathen/03089b.htm">Marquess of Bute</a>:</p> <blockquote><p>Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death in that awful day when the heavens and earth shall be shaken, and Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.</p> <p><em>Verse.</em> Quaking and dread take hold upon me, when I look for the coming of the trial and the wrath to come.</p> <p><em>Answer.</em> When the heavens and the earth shall be shaken.</p> <p><em>Verse.</em> That day is a day of wrath, of wasteness and desolation, a great day and exceeding bitter.</p> <p><em>Answer.</em> When Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.</p> <p><em>Verse.</em> O Lord, grant them eternal rest, and let everlasting light shine upon them.</p> <p><em>Answer.</em> Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death in that awful day, when the heavens and the earth shall be shaken and Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.</p></blockquote> <p>There seems reason to believe that this <a href="../cathen/12787a.htm">responsory</a> is not of Roman origin (Batiffol, <a href="../cathen/16013a.htm">Roman Breviary</a>, 198) but it is of considerable antiquity. At present, if the whole three nocturns (the second of which consists of <a href="../bible/psa022.htm">Psalms 22</a>, <a href="../bible/psa024.htm">24</a>, <a href="../bible/psa026.htm">26</a>; and the third of <a href="../bible/psa039.htm">Psalms 39</a>, <a href="../bible/psa040.htm">40</a> and <a href="../bible/psa041.htm">41</a>) are not said owing to lack of time or for any other cause, then another <a href="../cathen/12787a.htm">responsory</a>, Libera me de viis inferni, is sung in place of that just quoted. <a href="../cathen/09038a.htm">Lauds</a> follow immediately, in which the psalms Miserere and Te decet hymnus replace those usually said at the beginning and the Canticle of Ezechias is sung instead of the Benedicite. The Benedictus is recited with a special antiphon from <a href="../bible/joh011.htm">John 11:25-26</a>. This is familiar to many as having been retained in the burial service of the <a href="../cathen/01498a.htm">Church of England</a>, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">believeth</a> in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">believeth</a> in Me shall never die". Finally after certain <em>preces</em> follows the impressive collect Absolve, which is also said in the Mass, "Absolve, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the soul of thy servant N. that being dead to this world he may live to Thee, and whatever sins he may have committed in this life through human frailty, do Thou of Thy most merciful goodness forgive; through <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">our Lord Jesus Christ</a>", etc.</p> <p>The "Rituale" directs that if all three nocturns of the office cannot be said, it would be desirable to say at least the first. But it is even more emphatic in urging that Mass should not be omitted except on certain privileged festivals of the highest class which exclude a Mass for the dead <em>proesente cadavere</em>, i.e. even when the body is present. These days include the feasts of <a href="../cathen/03724b.htm">Christmas</a>, the Epiphany, <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">Easter</a>, the <a href="../cathen/01767b.htm">Ascension</a>, <a href="../cathen/15614b.htm">Whitsunday</a>, <a href="../cathen/04390b.htm">Corpus Christi</a>, The Annunciation, Assumption and Immaculate Conception, Nativity of <a href="../cathen/08486b.htm">St. John Baptist</a>, <a href="../cathen/13356b.htm">St. Joseph</a>, Sts. Peter and Paul, All Saints, the last three days of <a href="../cathen/07435a.htm">Holy Week</a>, the Quarant' Ore, or Forty Hours, and certain patronal feasts. On all other days, roughly speaking, the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> not only permits but greatly desires that the <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">Holy Sacrifice</a> should be offered for the deceased as the most solemn part of the rite of interment. To secure this the severer regulations of earlier centuries have in many respects been greatly relaxed in recent times. For example it is not now of <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a> that the Mass should be sung with music. In the case of poor people who cannot defray the expenses incident to a Mass celebrated with solemnity, a simple low <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">Mass</a> of Requiem is permitted even on <a href="../cathen/14335a.htm">Sundays</a> and other prohibited days, provided that the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parochial</a> Mass of the Sunday be also said at another hour. Moreover this one <em>Missa in die obitus seu depositionis</em> may still be offered in such cases, even when on account of contagious disease or other serious reason the body cannot be brought to the church. As in the case of the Office, the Mass for the Dead is chiefly distinguished from ordinary Masses by certain omissions. Some of these, for example that of the Psalm Judica and of the <a href="../cathen/02599b.htm">blessings</a>, may be due to the fact that the <em>Missa de Requie</em> was formerly regarded as supplementary to the Mass of the day. In other cases, for instance in the absence of <a href="../cathen/07595a.htm">hymns</a> from the Office for the Dead, we may perhaps suspect that these funeral rites have preserved the tradition of a more primitive age. On the other hand, the suppression of the Gloria in excelsis, etc., as of the Gloria Patri seems to point to a sense of the incongruity of joyful themes in the presence of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> searching and inscrutable judgments. Thus a tractate of the eighth or ninth century printed by Muratori (Lit. Rom. Vet., II, 391) already directs that in the Vigils for the Dead "Psalms and lessons with the Responsories and Antiphons belonging to <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">Matins</a> are to be sung without <a href="../cathen/01319b.htm">Alleluia</a>. In the Masses also neither <a href="../cathen/06583a.htm">Gloria in exelsis Deo</a> nor <a href="../cathen/01319b.htm">Alleluia</a> shall be sung." (Cf. Ceriani, Circa obligationem Officii Defunctorum, 9.)</p> <p>In the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> ages, however, it would seem that the <a href="../cathen/01319b.htm">Alleluia</a>, especially in the East, was regarded as specially appropriate to funerals. Another omission from the ordinary ritual of high Mass is that of the <a href="../cathen/11595a.htm">kiss of peace</a>. This <a href="../cathen/03538b.htm">ceremony</a> was always associated in <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> with <a href="../cathen/07402a.htm">Holy Communion</a>, and as Communion was not formerly distributed to the faithful at Masses for the Dead, the <a href="../cathen/11595a.htm">kiss of peace</a> was not retained. A conspicuous feature of the Requiem Mass is the singing of the sequence, or <a href="../cathen/07595a.htm">hymn</a>, "Dies irae". This masterpiece of <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> <a href="../cathen/07596a.htm">hymnology</a> is of late introduction, as it was probably composed by the <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a> <a href="../cathen/14694a.htm">Thomas of Celano</a> in the thirteenth century. It was not designed for its present <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> use but for private devotion  note the singular number throughout <em>voca me cum benedictis, quid sum miser tunc dicturus</em>, etc., as also the awkwardness of the added <em>pie Jesu Domine dona eis requiem</em>, but the <a href="../cathen/07595a.htm">hymn</a> appears printed in the "Missale Romanum" of 1485, though apparently not in the earlier edition of 1474. However the use of the "Dies irae" in connection with the <em>exsequioe mortuorum</em> is much more ancient, and Dr. Ebner has found it, musically noted as at present, in a <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a> <a href="../cathen/10354c.htm">Missal</a> of the thirteenth century. (Ebner, Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte des Missale Romanum, 120). During the Mass it is customary, though not a matter of precept, to distribute tapers of unbleached wax to the congregation or at least to those assisting within the sanctuary. These are to be lighted during the Gospel, during the latter part of the <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">Holy Sacrifice</a> from the <a href="../cathen/05380b.htm">Elevation</a> to the Communion, and during the <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> which follows the Mass. As already remarked the association of lights with <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> obsequies is very ancient, and <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgists</a> here recognize a symbolical reference to <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptism</a> (the illumination, <em>photismos</em>) whereby <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> are made the children of Light, as well as a concrete reminder of the oft repeated <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> <em>et lux perpetua luceat eis</em>. (Cf. <a href="../cathen/14554a.htm">Thalhofer</a>, Liturgik, II, 529.)</p> <p>After Mass follows the <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> or <em>Absoute</em>, to use the convenient term by which the French designate these special <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> for pardon over the corpse before it is laid in the grave. These <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> of the <em>Absoute</em>, like those said by the grave side, ought never to be omitted. The <a href="../cathen/14320a.htm">subdeacon</a> bearing the processional cross, and accompanied by the <a href="../cathen/01106a.htm">acolytes</a>, places himself at the head of the coffin (i.e. facing the altar in the case of a <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">layman</a>, but between the coffin and the altar in the case of a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>), while the celebrant, exchanging his black <a href="../cathen/03639a.htm">chasuble</a> for a cope of the same colour, stands opposite at the foot. The assisting <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> are grouped around and the celebrant without preamble begins at once to read the <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> <em>Non intres in judicium cum servo tuo</em>, <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">praying</a> that the deceased "may deserve to escape the avenging judgment, who, whilst he lived, was marked with the seal of the holy Trinity". This is followed by the <a href="../cathen/12787a.htm">responsory</a> "Libera me Domine", which, as occurring in the <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">Matins</a> for the Dead, has already been quoted above. Then after the <a href="../cathen/08714a.htm">Kyrie eleison</a>, Christe eleison, <a href="../cathen/08714a.htm">Kyrie eleison</a> the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> says aloud the <a href="../cathen/09356a.htm">Pater Noster</a> and while this is repeated in silence by all, he makes the round of the coffin, sprinkling it with <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a> and bowing profoundly before the cross when he passes it. After which, taking the thurible, he <a href="../cathen/07716a.htm">incenses</a> the coffin in like manner; where we may note that the use of <a href="../cathen/07716a.htm">incense</a> at funerals is derived from the earliest <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> centuries, though no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> our manner of waving the <a href="../cathen/03519c.htm">censer</a> towards <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> and objects is relatively modern. Moreover it is possible that the <a href="../cathen/07716a.htm">incense</a> was originally employed on such occasions for sanitary reasons. Finally after finishing the <a href="../cathen/09356a.htm">Pater Noster</a> and repeating one or two short versicles to which answer is made by the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, the celebrant pronounces the <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> of <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a>, most commonly in the following form:</p> <blockquote><p>O <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, Whose attribute it is always to have mercy and to spare, we humbly present our <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> to Thee for the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> of Thy servant N. which Thou has this day called out of this world, beseeching Thee not to deliver it into the hands of the enemy, nor to forget it for ever, but to command Thy <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">holy</a> <a href="../cathen/01476d.htm">angels</a> to receive it, and to bear it into <a href="../cathen/14519a.htm">paradise</a>; that as it has believed and hoped in Thee it may be delivered from the pains of <a href="../cathen/07207a.htm">hell</a> and inherit eternal life through Christ our Lord. <a href="../cathen/01407b.htm">Amen</a>. </p></blockquote> <p>Although this <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> in its entirety cannot be surely traced to an earlier date than the ninth century, it contains several elements that recall the phraseology of primitive times. It is to be found in most of our existing <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> of the Gregorian Sacramentary. At the burial of <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a>, sovereigns, etc., not one but five absolutions are pronounced according to the forms provided in the "Pontificale Romanum". These are spoken by five <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> or other "prelates", each <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> being preceded by a separate <a href="../cathen/12787a.htm">responsory</a>. In these solemn functions the <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> just quoted is not said, but most of the responsories and <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> used are borrowed from the Office for the Dead or from the Masses in the Roman <a href="../cathen/10354c.htm">Missal</a>. It may be noted that all these absolutions are not in the declaratory but in the deprecatory form, i.e. they are <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> imploring <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> mercy upon the deceased.</p> <p>After the <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> the body is carried to the grave and as the procession moves along the antiphon "In paradisum" is chanted by the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> or the choir. It runs thus: "May the <a href="../cathen/01476d.htm">angels</a> escort thee to <a href="../cathen/14519a.htm">paradise</a>, may the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> receive thee at thy coming and bring thee into the holy city <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>. May the choir of <a href="../cathen/01476d.htm">angels</a> receive thee, and with Lazarus, who once was poor, mayst thou have eternal rest." According to the <a href="../cathen/13216a.htm">rubric</a> "the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a> (sepulchrum) is then blessed if it has not been blessed previously"; which has been ruled to mean that a grave newly dug in an already <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> cemetery is accounted blessed, and requires no further <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecration</a>, but a mausoleum erected above ground or even a brick chamber beneath the surface is regarded as needing blessing when used for the first time. This blessing is short and consists only of a single <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> after which the body is again sprinkled with <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a> and <a href="../cathen/07716a.htm">incensed</a>. Apart from this the service at the grave side is very brief. The <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> intones the antiphon: "I am the Resurrection and the Life", after which the coffin is lowered into the grave and the Canticle Benedictus is meanwhile recited or sung. Then the antiphon is repeated entire, the <a href="../cathen/09356a.htm">Pater Noster</a> is said secretly, while the coffin is again sprinkled with <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a>, and finally after one or two brief responses the following ancient <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> is said: "Grant this mercy, O Lord, we beseech Thee, to Thy servant departed, that he may not receive in punishment the requital of his deeds who in desire did keep Thy will, and as the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> here united him to the company of the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a>, so may Thy mercy unite him above to the choirs of <a href="../cathen/01476d.htm">angels</a>. Through <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Jesus Christ our Lord</a>. <a href="../cathen/01407b.htm">Amen</a>."</p> <p>Then with the final petition: "May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace", the little procession of cross-bearer, <a href="../cathen/14343d.htm">surpliced</a> <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerics</a>, and <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> return to the <a href="../cathen/13322b.htm">sacristy</a> reciting the De Profundis as they go. In some places the custom prevails that the officiating <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> before retiring should offer the holy-water sprinkler to the relatives of the deceased who are present, in order that they may cast <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a> upon the coffin in the grave. In others it is usual for the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> himself and for all present to throw down upon the coffin a handful of earth. This custom symbolical no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> of "dust to dust" is certainly ancient and even in the "Rituale Romanum" a <a href="../cathen/13216a.htm">rubric</a> is to be found prescribing that "in obsequies which have of necessity to be performed only in private and at the house of the deceased, blessed earth is put into the coffin while the Canticle Benedictus is being said". This no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> is to be regarded as the nearest available equivalent to interment in a <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> grave. In other localities, more particularly in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, it i[s] customary for the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> to deliver a short discourse (<em>Leichenrede</em>) before leaving the cemetery. This is the more appropriate because nearly everywhere in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> the <a href="../cathen/09066a.htm">civil law</a> forbids the corpse to be taken to the church except in the case of <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and other exalted personages. The result is that <a href="../cathen/09790b.htm">Mass</a> and <a href="../cathen/11219a.htm">Office</a> are performed with a catafalque only, and seem even in those rare cases in which they are retained to have nothing to do with the burial, instead of forming, as they should do, its most essential feature. On the other hand the service at the grave side is apt to appear strangely brief and perfunctory unless impressiveness be given to it by the discourse of the officiating <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>. It may be noted that many local customs are still allowed to continue without interference in the ritual observed by the grave side. Before the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a> there was an extraordinary variety of <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> and responsories commonly recited over the grave especially in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>. The extreme simplicity of the "Rituale Romanum" represents no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> a reaction against what threatened to become an abuse. Of the peculiar rites which so long survived locally, the Ritual of <a href="../cathen/02793d.htm">Brixen</a> may be taken as an illustration. In this when the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> <a href="../cathen/02599b.htm">blesses</a> the corpse with <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a>, he is directed to say: "Rore coelesti perfundat et perficiat animam tuam Deus". As the body is lowered into the ground he says: "Sume terrâ quod tuum est, sumat Deus quod suum est, corpus de terrâ formatum, spiritus de coelo inspiratus est". Then the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> scatters earth upon the body with a shovel three times, saying, "Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris". After this the Magnificat is recited and the psalm Lauda anima mea Dominum, with various <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a>, and then with a wooden cross the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> signs the grave in three places, at the head, in the middle, and at the feet, with the words; "Signum Salvatoris Domini nostri Jesu Christi super te, qui in hac imagine redemit te, nec permittat introire, [and here he plants the wooden cross at the head of the grave] angelum percutientem in aeternum". It is interesting to note that after once more blessing the grave with <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a> he recites a <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> over the people in the vernacular. The <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> and all others present also sprinkle <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a> on the grave before they depart.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h2>The burial of little children</h2> <p>The "Rituale Romanum" provides a separate form of burial for infants and children who have died before they have reached years of discretion. It directs that a special portion of the cemetery should be set aside for them and that either the bells should not be tolled or that they should be rung in a <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">joyous</a> peal. Further, custom prescribes that white and not black should be used in token of mourning. The <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> is bidden to wear a white stole over his <a href="../cathen/14343d.htm">surplice</a> and a crown of flowers or sweet foliage is to be laid upon the child's brow. The processional cross is carried, but without its staff. The body may be borne to and deposited temporarily in the church, but this is not prescribed as the normal arrangement and in any case no provision is made for either Office or Mass. One or two psalms of <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">joyous</a> import, e.g. the Laudate pueri Dominum (Ps. cxii), are appointed to be said while the body is borne to the church or to the cemetery, and <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a> and <a href="../cathen/07716a.htm">incense</a> are used to <a href="../cathen/02599b.htm">bless</a> the remains before they are laid in the ground. Two special <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> are included in the ritual, one for use in the church, the other by the grave side. The former, which is certainly ancient, runs as follows: "Almighty and most compassionate <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, Who upon all little children that have been born again in the fountain of Baptism, when they leave this world without any merits of their own, straightway bestowest everlasting life, as we believe that Thou has this day done to the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> of this little one, grant we beseech Thee, O Lord, by the intercession of Blessed Mary ever Virgin and of all Thy <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>, that we also may serve Thee with pure hearts here below and may consort <a href="../cathen/05551b.htm">eternally</a> with these blessed little ones in <a href="../cathen/14519a.htm">paradise</a>, Through Christ our Lord, <a href="../cathen/01407b.htm">Amen</a>." On the way back to the church the Canticle Benedicite is recited, and the <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> "Deus qui miro ordine angelorum ministeria hominumque dispensas", which is the collect used in the Mass of <a href="../cathen/10275b.htm">St. Michael's</a> day, is said at the foot of the altar. The cross without the handle which is carried in the procession is considered to be symbolical of an incomplete life. Many other peculiarities are prevalent locally. Thus in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> in the eighteenth century, as we learn from Catalani, the dead child was generally clothed in the habit known as <a href="../cathen/12018b.htm">St. Philip Neri's</a>. This is black in colour but sprinkled all over with gold and silver stars. A tiny <a href="../cathen/02577a.htm">biretta</a> is placed upon the child's head and a little cross of white wax in its hands. Miniature habits of the different <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders are also commonly used for the same purpose.</p> <h2>History of our present ritual</h2> <p>With regard to the burial of the dead in the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> centuries we <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> very little. No <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> the first <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> followed the national customs of those peoples amongst whom they lived, in so far as they were not directly <a href="../cathen/07636a.htm">idolatrous</a>. The final <a href="../cathen/08663a.htm">kiss</a> of farewell, the use of crowns of flowers, the intervals appointed for recurring funeral celebrations, the manner of laying out the body and bearing it to the grave, etc., show nothing that is distinctive of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian Faith</a>, even though later ages found a <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">pious</a> symbolism in many of these things. Moreover the use of <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a> and <a href="../cathen/07716a.htm">incense</a> (the latter originally as a sort of disinfectant) was also no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> suggested by similar customs among the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagans</a> around them. Perhaps we should add that the funeral banquets of the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagans</a> were in some sense imitated by the <em>agapoe</em> or love-feasts of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> which it seems to have been usual to celebrate in early times (see Marucchi, Eléments d'archéologie chrétienne, I, 129), also that the anniversary Masses and "months minds" of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> undoubtedly replaced a corresponding <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> usage of <a href="../cathen/13309a.htm">sacrifices</a>. (See Dublin Review, July, 1907, p. 118.) But of the existence of some distinctively religious service we have good evidence at an early <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a>. <a href="../cathen/14520c.htm">Tertullian</a> refers incidentally to the corpse of a <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">woman</a> after death being laid out <em>cum oratione presbyteri</em>. <a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a> in his account of the death of <a href="../cathen/11590b.htm">St. Paul the Hermit</a> speaks of the singing of <a href="../cathen/07595a.htm">hymns</a> and psalms while the body is carried to the grave as an observance belonging to ancient <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> tradition. Again <a href="../cathen/07016a.htm">St. Gregory of Nyssa</a> in his detailed description of the funeral of St. Macrina, <a href="../cathen/02084a.htm">St. Augustine</a> in his references to his mother St. Monica, and many other documents like the Apostolical Constitutions (Bk. VII) and the "Celestial Hierarchy" of <a href="../cathen/05013a.htm">Pseudo-Dionysius</a> make it abundantly clear that in the fourth and fifth centuries the offering of the <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">Holy Sacrifice</a> was the most essential feature in the last solemn rites, as it remains to this day. Probably the earliest detailed account of funeral ceremonial which has been preserved to us is to be found in the Spanish Ordinals lately published by Dom Ferotin. It seems to be satisfactorily established that the ritual here described represents in substance the Spanish practice of the latter part of the seventh century. We may accordingly quote in some detail from "the Order of what the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerics</a> of any city ought to do when their <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> falls into a mortal sickness". After a reference to Canon iii of the seventh Council of Toledo (646) enjoining that a neighbouring <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> should if possible be summoned, the directions proceed:</p> <blockquote><p>At what hour soever the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> shall die whether by day or night the bell (<em>Signum</em>) shall at once be rung publicly in the <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a> (ecclesia seniore) and at the same time the bell shall ring in every church within a distance of two miles.</p><p>Then while some of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> in turn recite or chant the psalms earnestly and devoutly, the body of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> deceased is stripped by <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> or <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacons</a>. After washing the body . . . it is clothed with his usual vestments according to custom, i.e. his tunic, his breeches, and his <a href="../cathen/03087b.htm">stockings</a>, and after this with cap (<em>capello</em>) and face-cloth (<em>sudario</em>). Thereupon is put upon him an <a href="../cathen/01251b.htm">alb</a>, and also a stole (<em>orarium</em>) about his neck and before his breast as when a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> is wont to say <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">Mass</a>. Also a <a href="../cathen/04543a.htm">cruet</a> is placed in his hand. Then the thumbs of his hands are tied with bands, that is with strips of linen or bandages. His feet are also fastened in the same way. After all this he is robed in a white <a href="../cathen/03639a.htm">chasuble</a> (<em>casulla</em>). Then after spreading beneath a very clean white sheet, the body is laid upon the bier and all the while the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacons</a> and all the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> keep continually reciting or chanting and <a href="../cathen/07716a.htm">incense</a> is always burned. And in this wise he is laid in the choir of the church over which he ruled, lights going before and following behind and then a complete text of the gospels is laid upon his breast without anything to cover it, but the gospel itself rests upon a cloth of lambswool (<em>super pallium agnavum</em>  this can hardly be the <a href="../cathen/11427a.htm">archiepiscopal pallium</a> in its technical sense) which is placed over his heart. And so it must be that whether he die by night or day the recitation of <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> or chanting of psalms shall be kept up continuously beside him until at the fitting hour of the day Sacrifice may be offered to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> at the principal altar for his repose. Then the body is lifted up by <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacons</a>, with the gospel book still lying on his breast, and he is carried to the grave, lights going before and following after, while all who are of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> sing the <a href="../cathen/01575b.htm">antiphons</a> and responsories which are <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> to the dead (<em>quoe solent de mortuis decantare</em>).</p> <p>After this when Mass has again been celebrated in that church in which he is to be buried, salt which has been <a href="../cathen/05709a.htm">exorcised</a> is scattered in the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a> by <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacons</a>, while all other religious <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> present sing the antiphon, In sinu Abrahae amici tui conloca eum Domine. And then when <a href="../cathen/07716a.htm">incense</a> has a second time been offered over his body, the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> who has come to bury him advances and opening the dead man's mouth he puts <a href="../cathen/03696b.htm">chrism</a> into it, addressing him thus: 'Hoc pietatis sacramentum sit tibi in participatione omnium beatorum'. And then by the same <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> is intoned the antiphon: In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam. And this one verse is said, "Expectans, expectavi Dominum et respexit me'; and the chanting is so arranged that the verses are said one by one while the first is repeated after each. When Gloria has been said the antiphon is repeated but not a second time.</p></blockquote> <p>Two impressive collects are then said and another <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> which is headed "Benedictio". After which "the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a> is closed according to custom and it is fastened with a seal".</p> <p>Probably this rather elaborate <a href="../cathen/03538b.htm">ceremony</a> was a type of the funerals celebrated throughout <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> at this epoch even in the case of the lower <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> and the <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">laity</a>. Of the final <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> we are expressly told that in may also be used for the obsequies of a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>. Further it is mentioned that when the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> is laid out he should be clothed just as he was wont to celebrate <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">Mass</a>, in tunic, shoes, breeches, <a href="../cathen/01251b.htm">alb</a>, and <a href="../cathen/03639a.htm">chasuble</a>.</p> <p>The rite of putting <a href="../cathen/03696b.htm">chrism</a> into the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop's</a> mouth, as mentioned above, does not seem to be known elsewhere, but on the other hand, the anointing the breast of a dead <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> with <a href="../cathen/03696b.htm">chrism</a> was formerly general in the <a href="../cathen/06752a.htm">Greek Church</a>, and it seems to have been adopted at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> at an early <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a>. Thus in certain directions for burial and for Masses for the dead contained in the Penitential of <a href="../cathen/14571a.htm">Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury</a> (c. 680) we meet the following: "(1) According to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, it is the custom, in the case of <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> or religious men, to carry them after their death to the church, to anoint their breasts with <a href="../cathen/03696b.htm">chrism</a>, and there to celebrate Masses for them; then to bear them to the grave with chanting, and when they have been laid in the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a>, <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> is offered for them; afterwards they are covered in with earth or with a slab. (2) On the first, the third, the ninth, and also the thirtieth day, let Mass be celebrated for them, and furthermore, let this be observed after a year has passed, if it be wished."</p> <p>It seems natural to conjecture that the Spanish custom of putting the <a href="../cathen/03696b.htm">chrism</a> into the mouth of the dead may have been meant to replace the practice which certainly prevailed for a while in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> of administering the Blessed Eucharist either at the very moment of death or of leaving it with the corpse even when life was extinct. A clear example of this is forthcoming in the "Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great" (II, xxiv,) and see the Appendix on the subject in Cardinal Rampolla's "Santa Melania Giuniore" (p. 254). There is some reason to believe that the inscription <em>Christus hic est</em> (<a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a> is here), or its equivalent, occasionally found on tomb-stones (see Leblant, Nouveau Recueil, 3) bears reference to the Blessed Eucharist placed on the tongue of the deceased. But this practice was soon forbidden.</p> <p>The custom of watching by the dead (the wake) is apparently very ancient. In its origin it was either a <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> observance which was attended with the chanting of psalms, or if in a measure adopted from <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">paganism</a> the singing of psalms was introduced to <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianize</a> it. In the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> among the monastic orders the custom no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> was <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">pious</a> and salutary. By appointing relays of <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> to succeed one another orderly provision was made that the corpse should never be left without <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a>. But among secular <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> these nocturnal meetings were always and everywhere an occasion of grave abuses, especially in the matter of eating and drinking. Thus to take a single example we read among the Anglo-Saxon canons of <a href="../cathen/01171b.htm">Ælfric</a>, addressed to the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>: "Ye shall not rejoice on account of men deceased nor attend on the corpse unless ye be thereto invited. When ye are thereto invited then forbid ye the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">heathen</a> songs (haethenan sangas) of the <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">laymen</a> and their loud cachinnations; nor eat ye nor drink where the corpse lieth therein, lest ye be imitators of the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">heathenism</a> which they there commit" (Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, 448). We may reasonably suppose that the Office for the Dead, which consists only of <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a>, <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">Matins</a>, and <a href="../cathen/09038a.htm">Lauds</a>, without Day-hours, originally developed out of the practice of passing the night in psalmody beside the corpse. In the tenth Ordo Romanus which supplies a description of the obsequies of the Roman <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> in the twelfth century we find the Office said early in the morning, but there is no mention of <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">praying</a> beside the corpse all night. In its general features this Roman Ordo agrees with the ritual now practised, but there are a good many minor divergences. For example the Mass is said while the Office is being chanted; the <em>Absoute</em> at the close is an elaborate function in which four <a href="../cathen/12386b.htm">prelates</a> officiate, recalling what is now observed in the obsequies of a <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, and the service by the grave side is much more lengthy than that which now prevails. In the earliest Ambrosian ritual (eighth or ninth century) which Magistretti (Manuale Ambrosianum, <a href="../cathen/10298a.htm">Milan</a>, 1905, I, 67 sqq.) pronounces to be certainly derived from <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> we have the same breaking up of the obsequies into stages, i.e. at the house of the deceased, on the way to the church, at the church, from the church to the grave, and at the grave side, with which we are still familiar. But it is also clear that there was originally something of the nature of a wake (<em>vigilioe</em>) consisting in the chanting of the whole <a href="../cathen/12543b.htm">Psalter</a> beside the dead man at his home (Magistretti, ib., I, 70).</p> <p>A curious development of the <em>Absoute</em>, with its reiterated <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> for pardon, is to be found in the practice (which seems to have become very general in the second half of the eleventh century) of laying a form of <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> upon the breast of the deceased. This is clearly enjoined in the monastic constitutions of <a href="../cathen/08784c.htm">Archbishop Lanfranc</a> and we have sundry historical examples of it. (Cf. Thurston, Life of <a href="../cathen/07519c.htm">St. Hugh of Lincoln</a>, 219.) Sometimes a rude leaden cross with a few words scratched thereupon was used for the purpose and many such have been recovered in opening <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tombs</a> belonging to this period. In one remarkable example, that of Bishop Godfrey of <a href="../cathen/03657a.htm">Chichester</a> (1088), the whole formula of <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> may be found in the same indicative form which meets us again in the so-called "Pontifical of Egbert". It is noteworthy that in the <a href="../cathen/06752a.htm">Greek Church</a> to this day a long paper of <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a>, now usually a printed form, is first read over the deceased and then put into his hand and left with him in the grave.</p> <p>The only other point among the many peculiar features of <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> ritual which seems to claim special notice here is the elaborate development given to the offertory in the funeral of illustrious personages. Not only on such occasions were very generous offerings made in money and in kind, with a view, it would seem, of benefiting the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> of the deceased by exceptional generosity, but it was usual to lead his war-horse up the church fully accoutred and to present it to the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> at the <a href="../cathen/01356c.htm">altar rails</a>, no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> to be afterwards redeemed by a money payment. The accounts of solemn obsequies in early times are full of such details and in particular of the vast numbers of candles burned upon the hearse; this word hearse in fact came into use precisely from the resemblance which the elaborate framework erected over the bier and bristling with candles bore to a harrow (<em>hirpex, hirpicem</em>). Of the varying and protracted services by the grave side, which at the close of the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> were common in many parts of <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> and which in some cases lasted on until a much later period, something has already been said.</p> <h2>Ritual of the Greek Church</h2> <p>The full burial service of the <a href="../cathen/06752a.htm">Greek Church</a> is very long and it will be sufficient here briefly to call attention to one or two points in which it bears a close resemblance to the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Latin Rite</a>. With the Greeks as with the Latins we find a general use of lighted candles held by all present in their hands, as also <a href="../cathen/07432a.htm">holy water</a>, <a href="../cathen/07716a.htm">incense</a> and the tolling of bells. With the Greeks as in the Western Communion, after a relatively short service at the house of the deceased, the corpse is borne in procession to the church, and deposited there while the <em>Pannychis</em>, a mournful service of psalmody, is recited or sung. In the burial of a <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> the <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">Holy Sacrifice</a> or <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">divine liturgy</a> is offered up, and there is in any case a solemn <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> pronounced over the body before it is borne to the grave. Black vestments are usually worn by the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, and again, as with us, the dead man, if an ecclesiastic, is robed as he would have been robed in life in assisting at the altar. There are, however, a good many features peculiar to the <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm">Eastern Church</a>. A crown, in practice a paper band which represents it, is placed upon the dead <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">layman's</a> head. The <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> is anointed with oil and his face is covered with the <em>aer</em>, the veil with which the sacred species are covered during the <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">Holy Sacrifice</a>. Also the open Gospel is laid upon his breast as in the early Spanish ordinal. The <a href="../cathen/01319b.htm">Alleluia</a> is sung as part of the service and a symbolical farewell is taken of the deceased by a last <a href="../cathen/08663a.htm">kiss</a>. Upon the altar stands a dish with a cake made of wheat and honey, emblematic of the grain which falling to the ground dies and bringeth forth much fruit. Moreover many difference are made in the service according as the dead <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> is <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">layman</a>, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a>, <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>, or <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, and also according to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> season, for during <a href="../cathen/11516a.htm">paschal time</a> white vestments are worn and another set of <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> are said. The burial rite of the Greeks may be seen in Goar, "Euchologium Graecorum" (Paris, 1647), 423 sqq.; also in the new Russian edition by Al. Dmitrieoski (Kiev, 1895-1901). For the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of the <a href="../cathen/01498a.htm">Church of England</a> concerning burial, see Blunt-Phillimore "The Book of Church Law" (London, 1899), 177-87, and 512-17, text of Burial Laws Amendment Act of 1880.</p> <h2>Burial confraternities</h2> <p>It would take us too far to go into this subject at length. Even from the period of the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">catacombs</a> such associations seem to have existed among the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> and they no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> imitated to some extent in their organization the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> <em>collegia</em> for the same purpose. Throughout the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> it may be said that the guilds to a very large extent were primarily burial confraternities; at any rate the seemly carrying out of the funeral rites at the death of any of their members together with a provision of Masses for his <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> form an almost invariable feature in the constitutions of such guilds. But still more directly to the purpose we find certain organizations formed to carry out the burial of the dead and friendless as a work of charity. The most celebrated of these was the "Misericordia" of Florence, believed to have been instituted in 1244 by Pier Bossi, and surviving to the present day. It is an organization which associates in this work of mercy the members of all ranks of <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a>. Their self-imposed task is not limited to escorting the dead to their last resting-place, but they discharge the functions of an ambulance corps, dealing with accidents as they occur and carrying the sick to the <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospitals</a>. When on <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> the members wear a dress which completely envelops and disguises them Even the face is hidden by a covering in which only two holes are left for eyes. See <a href="../cathen/03504a.htm">CEMETERY</a>; <a href="../cathen/04481c.htm">CREMATION</a>; REQUIEM.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">Catalani, Commentarius in Rituale Romanum (1756); Thalhofer, Liturgik, II, Pt. II; Idem, in Kirchenlex., s.v.; Binterim, Denkwurdigkeiten (Mainz, 1838), VI, Pt. III, 362-514; Martene, De antiquis Ecclesioe ritibus, II and IV; Ruland, Geschichte der kirchlichen Leichenfeier (Ratisbon, 1902); Alberti, De sepultura ecclesiastica (1901); Proces, La sepulture dans l'église catholique, in Precis historiques (Brussels, 1882); Murcier, La sepulture chretienne en France (Paris, 1855); Probst, Die Exsequien (Mainz, 1856); Marucchi, Elements d' archeologie chret, (Rome, 1899), I, 129-131; Petrides, in Dict. d' arch. et lit. s.v. Absoute. On the Canon Law of burial, see especially Lex, Das kirchliche Begrabnissrecht (Ratisbon, 1904); also Sagmuller, Kirchenrecht (Freiburg, 1904), Pt. III; Ferraris, Bibliotheca, s.v. sepultura; Von Scherer, Kirchenrecht, II, 601. On Burial in the Greek Church: Maltzew, Begrabniss-Ritus (Berlin, 1896). On Absolution Crosses: Chevreux, in Bulletin archeol. (Paris, 1904), 391-408; Cochet, La Normandie souterraine; Idem, Sepultures gauloises (Paris, 1855 and 1857), 71 sqq.; Kraus, Kunst und Alterthum in Lothringen (Strasburg, 1889), 604-612. See also the bibliography of the article Cemetery.</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Thurston, H.</span> <span id="apayear">(1908).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Christian Burial.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03071a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Thurston, Herbert.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Christian Burial."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 3.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1908.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03071a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Larry Trippett.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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