Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/569

 CEMETERY

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CEMETERY

with accoutrements (Boulanger, op. cit., 41). Still Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims, in 8.57, found it nec- essary to issue a whole series of instructions De sepulcris non violandis. In all these early Christian cemeteries the orientation of the tombs was carefully attended to. Each corpse was laid with its feet to the east, though it has been remarked as a curious fact that pagan Prankish sepultures also commonly exhibit the same peculiarity (Boulanger, op. cit., 32). With regard to England it may probably be assumed, though clear evidence is lacking, that separate Chris- tian graveyards were formed almost from the begin- ning in all those places where the faithful were numerous. It would seem that even before a church was built it was the practice of our Saxon forefathers to Bet up a cross, which served as a rendezvous for the Christians of the district. An instance may be quoted from the almost contemporary life of St. Willibald, born in 699, who when he was three years old was consecrated to God at the foot of such a cross in a remote part of Hampshire. The suggestion has been recently made with much plausibility that round such a cross the Christian converts loved to be laid to rest, and that these primitive crosses marked a site upon which church and churchyard were established at a later time (see Baldwin Brown, Arts in Early England, I, 254-266). Certain it is that the churchyard cross was always a conspicuous feature of the consecrated enclosure and that the churchyard usually afforded sanctuary as secure as that of the church itself for those who were fleeing from justice or private vengeance. Numerous ecclesiastical ordinances enjoin that the churchyard was to be surrounded by a wall or other boundary sufficient to keep out straying cattle and to secure the area from profanation. As a specimen we may take the following ordinance of the Bishop of Lincoln in 122!': — " Regarding the arrangements of a church-yard [rirnnicrium] let the ground be properly enclosed with a wall or a ditch, and let no part of it be taken up with buildings of any kind, unless during time cif war. There should be a good and well-built cross erected in the church-yard to which the proces- sion is made on Palm Sunday, unless custom pre- scribes that the procession should be made elsewhere" (Wilkins, Concilia, I, 623). This churchyard pro- cession on Palm Sunday, in which, as early as the time of Lanfrane, the Blessed Sacrament was often carried in a portable shrine, as well as all the relics of the church, was a very imposing ceremony. Many descriptions of it have been left us, and traces still survive even in Protestant countries, where, as for example, in Wales, the country people to this day often visit the churchyard on Palm Sunday and scatter flowers on the graves (see Thurston, Lent and Holy Week. 213-230; The Month, April, 1896, 378). Less admirable was the use of the churchyard in medieval times as a sort of recreation ground or market-place. Numerous decrees were directed against abuses, but it was difficult to draw a clear line between what was legitimate and permissible and what was distinctly a profanation of the sacred pre- cincts. The very fact that people congregated in the churchyard on the way to and from service on Sun- days and holidays made it a convenient place of assembly. Down to modern times the day <>f the village feast or fair is often found to coincide with the

sometimes forgotten original dedication "i the church

or with the festival of its patron saint. Moreover,

there was a tendency t'> regard the church and its

precincts as a sort of neutral ground or place of

security for valuables. Hence ancient contracts

often include a clause that such and such a sum of money is to be paid on a certain date in a particular church or churchyard. In any case it cannot be denied that the erection of stalls and booths for fairs in the churchyard persisted in spite of all prohibitions (Baldwin Brown, op. cit., 274, 364).

A curious feature found in many churchyards from the twelfth to the fourteenth century, especially in France, is the so-called lantcrne des marts, a stone erection sometimes twenty or thirty feet high, sur- mounted by a lantern and presenting a general resem- blance to a small lighthouse. The lantern seems to have been lighted only on certain feasts or vigils and in particular on All Souls' Day. An altar is commonly found at the foot of the column. Various theories have been suggested to explain these remarkable objects, but no one of them can be considered satis- factory. Besides the churchyard cross and the lan- ter?w des nwrts, cemeteries, especially when not attached to the parish church, frequently contained a mortuary chapel similar to those with which modern usage is still familiar. Here, no doubt, Mass was offered for the souls of the departed, and the dead were on occasion deposited, when for some reason the service at the graveside was delayed. These mortuary chapels seem usually to have been dedicated to St. Michael, probably from the function attributed to him of escorting the dead to and from the judgment seat (cf. the Offertory in the requiem Mass: "Signifer sanctus Michael repra?sentet eas in lucem sanetam". In other graveyards a " lych-gate", i. e. a roofed gate-

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way to the cemetery, served to afford shelter to the coffin and mourners when waiting to proceed to the graveside. Provision was also generally made, and some such arrangement is recommended by the de- crees of more modern times, for the bestowal of bones which might be dug up in making new graves. Most churchyards possessed something in the nature of a charnel house or ossuary, and in many parts of the world, where for various reasons space had to be economized, a principle was recognized that after a certain term of years graves might be emptied to make room for new occupants, the remains thus removed being consigned to the charnel house. This was and is particularly the case in regions where, owing to the unsuitable nature of the soil, e. g. in the City of Mexico, the dead are built into oven-like chambers of solid masonry. When these chambers are cleared at intervals to receive another occupant, it is not unusual to find here and there a body which instead of falling to dusl has become naturally desic- cated or mummified. Such gnu some specimens have

not unfrequently beet; Bold and without a particle of foundation exhibited as " walled up nuns" or "victims of the Inquisition". (See rhe Month, Jan., 1894, pp. 14, 323, .'.71, and April. 1904, p. 334.) Among the Capuchins and some other orders in Southern Europe charnel houses are often constructed with the most fantastic elaboration, the bodies, dried to the con- sistency of parchment, being arranged around the