Chapter V: Of Cemeteries and Other Places, Sacred and Religious

Holiness of Places; its Origin--Difference between Sacred, Holy, and Religious--Different Names for Cemetery--First use of Cemeteries--Who are not to be Buried in the Church--Ancient Method of Burial--Who are to be Buried in a Cemetery.

1. Now we will Speak of cemeteries and other sacred and religious places. Of consecrated places, some be appropriated to human necessity, others to prayers. Those of the first sort be a _xenodochium_ or _xenostorium_, which is the same: a _vasochonium_, a _gerontocomium_, an _orphanotrophium_, a _brephotrophiuin_. For holy fathers and religious princes have founded places of this kind, where the poor, the pilgrims, old men, orphans, infants, men past work, the halt, the weak, and the wounded should be received and attended. And note that _geronta_ in Greek is the same as _senex_ in Latin.

But of places appropriated to prayer, there be that are _sacred_, there be that are _holy_, and there be that are _religious_.

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2. _Sacred_ be they which by the hands of the bishop have duly been sanctified and set apart to the Lord, and which be called by various names, as hath been said in the section on Churches. _Holy_ be they which have immunity or privilege: and be set apart for the servitors or ministers of the Church, concerning which, under threat of condign punishment, either by the canon law or by special privilege, it is ordained that no man shall presume to violate them. Such be the courts of churches, and in some places the cloisters, within which be the houses of the canons. To which when criminals of whatever kind betake themselves they have safety. And so according to the statutes of the civil law be the gates and theatres of cities.

3. _Religious_ places be they where the entire body of a man, or at least the head is buried: because no man can have two sepulchres. But the body or any member without the head doth not make the place wherein it is buried religious. But according to the civil law the corpse of a Jew, or paynim, or unbaptised infant maketh the place of its sepulchre religious: yet by the Christian religion and the canonical doctrine the body of a Christian alone maketh it so. And note that whatever is _sacred_ is _religious_; but the contrary holdeth not. But the afore-named religious place hath divers appellations: such be _cemetery, polyandrum_, or _andropolis_ (which is the same thing), _sepulchrum, mausoleum_ (which is also the same), _dormitorium, tumulus, monumentum, ergastulum, pyramid, sarcophagus, bustum, urna, spelunca_.

4. _Cemetery_ hath its name from _cimen_ which is _sweet_, and _sterion_, which is a _station_: for there the bones of the departed rest sweetly, and expect the advent of their Saviour. Or because there be therein _cimices_, that is reptiles of intolerable odour.

5. _Poliantrum_, from _pollutum antrum_, on account of the carcases of men therein buried. Or _poliantrum_ signifieth a multitude of men, from _polus_, which is a _plurality_, and _andros_, which is a man; and therefore a cemetery is so called on account of the number of men therein buried.' [Footnote 368]

[Footnote 368: It has been thought right to give a few of the
bishop's derivations, lest his translators should be accused of
concealing a circumstance which may weaken, with some, his testimony
on other points (though, as we have before shown, most unjustly): it
has not, however, been thought necessary to follow him through all
his names of a cemetery: since to do so would be a mere waste of the
reader's time.]

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[Sections 6 to 10 elided.]

11. Cemeteries are said to have their beginning from Abraham, who bought a field from Hebron: in which was a double cave, [Footnote 369] where he and Sarah were buried: there also Isaac and Jacob were buried: there also Adam and Eve. [Footnote 370] Therefore there was a double cave there: since they who buried therein were placed side by side, every man and his wife; or the men in the one, and their wives in the other: or because everyone there interred had a double cave, after the fashion of a chair. Whence saith Hierome, Three patriarchs are buried in the city Hebron, with their three wives. But they were buried as it were in a sitting posture: the upper part of the cave held the trunk from the loins: the lower the thighs and legs.

[Footnote 369: Genesis xxiii, 9: 'We take this word Machpelah for a
proper name, as many others do: but the Talmudists generally think
it to have been a double cave, as the lxx also, with the vulgar
Latin, understand it. Yet they cannot agree in what sense it was so:
whether they went through one cave into another, or there was one
above the other.'--Bishop Patrick, s.l.]

[Footnote 370: One might almost have thought that this is a false
reading for _Leah and Rebecca_. For the common tradition was that
Adam and Eve were buried in Mount Calvary: so that where the first
Adam fell before death, the second Adam triumphed over death. And
the bishop speaks below of _three_ patriarchs, and their _three_
wives buried in Machpelah: which is at variance with the text as it
stands: but would agree with the proposed emendation.

Yet S. Isidore says, 'De morte Abrahae,' fol. 295: 'Sepultusque est
in spelunca duplici; in cujus interiore parte Adam esse positum
traditio Hebraeorum testatur.' S. Victor upon Spelunca duplex:
'Domus quaedam fuit subterranea, in qua erat solarium, et multi
fuerant sepulti, in ea et diversis foveis et subter et supra;' and
in another place, 'Spelunca in qua est sepulta spiritualem designat
vitam, quae est occulta: quae recte duplex vocatur; propter bonam
actionem et contemplationem.']

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12. But all men ought not to be buried promiscuously in the church: for it seemeth that that place of sepulchre profiteth not. Lucifer was thrown down from Heaven, and Adam cast out of Paradise; and what places be better than these? Also Joab was slain in the Tabernacle, and Job triumphed in the dunghill. Nay rather, it is to his hurt if a man unworthy or a sinner be buried in a church. We read in the 'Dialogues' of Blessed Gregory, book the fourth, chapter the fifty-sixth, that when a certain man of notorious wickedness [Footnote 371] had been buried in the church of S. Faustinus at Brescia, in the same night Blessed Faustinus appeared to the warden of the church, saying, Speak unto the bishop that he cast out the body; otherwise he shall die in thirty days. Now the warden feared to tell the thing to the bishop: and the bishop on the thirtieth day suddenly departed out of this life. It is also written in the same book, chapter the fifty-seventh, that another wicked man was buried in a church, and that afterwards his body was found outside the church, the cerecloths remaining in their own place. And Austin says, they who are guilty of notorious sins, if they be buried in the church by their own desire, shall be judged for their presumption; for the sacredness of the place doth not free those whom the accusation of temerity condemns.

[Footnote 371: A similar story has been parodied in the 'Ingoldsby
Legends': a work which for irreverence and profanity has hardly an
equal. Disgraceful as it would be to any author, it is trebly so, if
(as it is said) that author is a clergyman.]

No body, therefore, ought to be buried in a church, or near an altar, where the Body and Blood of our Lord are made, except the bodies of holy fathers, who be called patrons, that is defenders, who defend the whole country with their merits, and bishops, and abbots, and worthy presbyters, and laymen of eminent sanctity. But all ought to be buried about the church, or in the court of the cloisters, or in the porch: or in the exedroe and apses which are joined to the church, or in the cemetery. {85} Some also say that a space of thirty feet round the church ought to be set apart for that purpose. But others say that the space enclosed by the circuit which the bishop makes around the church must suffice for this. S. Augustine saith in his book 'On the Care of the Dead,' towards the end, that to be buried near the tombs of martyrs advantageth the dead in this, that by commending him to the guardianship of the martyrs, the earnestness of our supplication for him may be increased.

13. Of old time men were buried in their own houses: but on account of the stench thereby engendered, it was decreed that they should be buried without the city, and certain places should be set apart by sanctification for that purpose. But noblemen were buried in mountains, both in the middle of them and at the foot: and also under mounds raised of their own expense. [Footnote 372] But if anyone be slain in besieging a town, where there is no cemetery, let him be buried where he can. But if a merchantman or pilgrim die by sea, and any inhabited land be near, let him be buried in it: but if no port be near, let him be buried in some island. If, however, land cannot be seen, let a little house of timbers (if they can be had) be made for him, and let him be cast into the sea.

[Footnote 372: _Sub propriis podiis_. For some account of the
curious word _podium_, whence _pew_ or _pue_ is derived, see the
Cambridge Camden Society's 'History of Pews' (or the 'Supplement,'
pp. 6, 7).]

14. In a Christian cemetery none may be buried but a baptised Christian: nor yet every such an one neither: one, namely, slain in the act of sin, if it be mortal sin, as if he were slain in adultery, or theft, or some forbidden amusement. And also where a man is found dead, there let him be buried, on account of the doubtful cause of his death. {86} But if anyone dieth suddenly in games accustomably used, as the game of ball, he may be buried in the cemetery, because it was not his desire to injure anyone: but because he was occupied in worldly matters, some say that he ought to be buried without psalms and the other obsequies of the dead. But if anyone attacking another in a strife or tumult dieth impenitent, and hath not sought the priest, he ought not, as some say, to be buried in the cemetery: nor yet he who hath committed suicide. But if anyone dieth, not from any manifest cause, but from the visitation of God alone, he can be buried in a cemetery. For the just man, in what hour soever he dieth, is saved. The rather if he were following some lawful occupation. To defenders of justice and those who are engaged in a pious fight, the cemetery and the office of burial are freely conceded: yet they who come to a violent death are not borne into the church, lest the pavement be polluted with blood. But if anyone returning from any place of fornication be slain in the way, or be slain anywhere, where by unforeseen case, he hath tarried, he is not to be buried in the common cemetery; and this if it can be proved, by evidence sufficient for a court of law, that he had not confessed after the act of fornication nor was contrite: otherwise he ought to be buried.

15. Again, a woman who dieth in child-birth ought not to be carried into the church, as some say, but her obsequies must be said without the church, to which I agree not: otherwise it would be as if she died in fault. Whence she may allowably be borne into the church.

16. But stillborn and unbaptised children are to be buried without the cemetery. Some say, however, that they should be buried with the mother as being a part of her body.

17. A man and wife are to be buried in the same sepulchre, after the example of Abraham and Sarah (unless a wish be specially expressed to the contrary). {87} Whence also Tobias commanded his son, that when his mother had accomplished her days, he should bury her in the same grave with himself. [Footnote 373] Also everyone is to be buried in the sepulchre of his fathers, unless from a principle of devotion he hath chosen another sepulchre. But it was decreed in the Moguntine Council, that they who have paid the extreme penalty for their crimes, if they have confessed, or have desired to confess and have communicated, may be buried in the cemetery, and the Mass and oblations may be offered for them. How the human body is to be buried, shall be said under the section of the Office for the Dead.

[Footnote 373: Tobit xiv, 10]

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