Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/100

 BURIAL

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BURIAL

way various classes of persons are excluded from Chris- tian burial — pagans, Jews, infidels, heretics, and their adherents (Rit. Rom., VI, c. ii) schismatics, apostates, and persons who have been excommunicated by name or placed under an interdict. If an excommuni- cated person be buried in a church or in a consecrated cemetery the place is thereby desecrated, and, wher- ever possible, the remains must be exhumed and buried elsewhere. Further, Christian burial is to be refused to suicides (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 re- pentance before death occurred. It is also withheld from those who have been killed in a duel, even though they should give signs of repentance before death. Other persons similarly debarred are notorious sin- ners who die without repentance, those who have openly held the sacraments in contempt (for example by staying away from Communion at Easter time to the public scandal) and who showed no signs of sor- row, monks and nuns 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 di- rected that their bodies should be cremated after death. In all such cases, however, the general prac- tice of the Church at the present day has been to interpret these prohibitions as mildly as possible. Ordinarily the parish priest is directed to refer doubt- ful cases to the bishop, and the bishop, if any favour- able construction can be found, allows the burial to proceed.

Many complications are caused in the administra- tion of the canon law by the political conditions un- der which the Church 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 consecrated cemetery belonging, not to the civil administration, but to the Church, and perhaps ad- joining 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 hap- pened that a Catholic graveyard was the only avail- able place of burial in a large district, it has been de- cided as a matter of necessity that in such cases it was possible to allow Protestants to be buried in a consecrated 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 Catholic parish priest may preside at such an inter- ment, but he must not use any ritual or prayers that would be recognized as distinctively Catholic. 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 leg- islation in more than one particular. In such cases the Church is often compelled to waive her right, in order to prevent greater evils. On the other hand, we may notice that the Church's claim to exercise control over the burial of her members dates back to an age anterior even to the freedom given to Chris- tianity under Constantine. From the beginning the principle seems to have been insisted upon that the faithful should be buried apart from the pagans. Thus St. Cyprian of Carthage makes it a matter of reproach against a Spanish bishop Martial that he had not sufficiently attended to this, and that lie had tolerated " filios exterarum gentium more apud pro- fana sepulchra depositos et alienigenis consepultos" (Cyprian, Ep. lxvii, 6). In the same way St. Hilary, a century later, considers that Our Saviour warned His disciples against a similar profanation "Ad- monuit non admisceri memoriis sanctorum mortuos infideles" (Hilary, in S. Matt., vii). So also the Do- natists when they gained the upper hand were so deeply imbued with this principle of exclusive sepul-

ture that they would not allow the Catholics to be buried in the cemeteries they had seized upon. "Ad hoc basilicas invadere voluistis ut vobis solis cceme- teria vindicetis, non permittentes sepeliri corpora Catholica" (Optatus, VI, vii). With regard to the exclusion of suicides from the consecrated burial grounds it would appear that some similar practice was familiar to the pagans even before Christianity had spread throughout the empire. Thus there is a well-known pagan inscription of Lanuvium of the year 133: "Quisquis ex quacunque causa 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 right 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 bishop (Ferraris, s. v., 21(3, 274, 279). For the rest the diocesan statutes, regulations of the local ecclesiastical authority, and custom are to be considered, also the civil law and the public sanitary regulations.

The Ritual op Burial. — Speaking first of the usages of the Catholic Church at the present day it will probably be convenient to divide the various re- ligious observances with which the Church surrounds the mortal remains of her faithful children after death into three different stages. The prayers and blessings 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 anil thirdly the ceremony by the grave side. In practice it is the exception for the whole of the Church's ritual to be performed, especially in the case of the burial of the laity in a large parish; but in religious houses ami where the facilities are at hand the service is generally carried out completely.

With regard to the observances prescribed before the body is conveyed to the church it may be noted that according to the rubrics prefixed to the title "De exsequiis" in the "Rituale Romanum" a proper interval (debit um temporis intervallum) ought to elapse between the moment of death and the burial, especially where death has occurred unexpectedly, in order that no doubt 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 pagan and Christian times has varied greatly. Among the ancient Romans it would seem that the bodies of persons of distinction were commonly kept for seven days, while the poor were interred the day after death. In these matters the Church has gen- erally 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 ceremony, but no special prayers are assigned to it. Minute directions arc given as to the clothing of the dead in the case of all clergy. Tiny arc to be attired in ordinary ecclesiastical costume and over this they are to wear the vestments distinctive of their order. Thus the priest or bishop must be clad in amice, alb, girdle, maniple, stole ami chasuble. His biretta should be placed upon his head and the tonsure should be renewed. The deacon similarly wears his dalmatic and stole, the subdeaeon bis tunicle, and the cleric his surplice. In practice it is usual in the case of a priest to place upon the coffin lid a chalice and paten at one end with the biretta at the other; but this is not ordered in the rubrics of the " Rituale". For the laity it is directed that the body should be decently laid out, that a light should be kept burning thai a small cross should, if possible, be placed in the