Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/99

 BURIAL

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BURIAL

For the public ecclesiastical history of Burgundy see articles Besancon, DlJON, Lyons. Macon. Also Antoine Millc. " Abregej chronologique de 1'histoire ecclesiastique civile et litteraire de Bourgogne, depuis I'eTablissemenl des Bourguignons dans les Gaules jusqu'a I'annee 1772" (Dijon, 1771-73); and the his- torie ol various religious orders established in Bur- gundy, e. g. J. 1 ■'nilere, "Narration historique et topographique des couvents de l'ordre de St-Francois el de Ste-Claire eriges en la province anciennement appelee de Bourgogne", etc. (Lyons, 1619); Lavi- rotte, "Memoire statistique sur les eTablissements des Templiers et des Hospitallers de St-Jean de Jerusalem en Bourgogne" (Paris, 1S.53); "Peferinages en Bour- gogne" in "Congres scient. France" (Autun, L876 78), II. 90; Quantin, "Memoire sur ['influence des monasteres des ordresde St-Benotl el de Ctteaux en Bourgogne", in same collection (Auxerre L858-59), II, 39(1; .1. Simonnet, "Le clerg4 en Bourgogne" (XIV, XV siecles) in "Mem de I V.d. de Dijon" (1866), XIII. 21-143; ('. Seignobos, "Le regime feodal en Bourgogne jusqu'en 1360, etude sur la soci6t£ et les institutions d'une province franchise au moyen-age", etc. (Paris, 1881).

ECERTTN Di 1.1 [TENBiOVE, I ' ' >8 a Ih ::■:! , r „- HiOTi. Ill: VON l.Miii h. Jal.nlin'i r,ii itiiin Krimi.

Burial, CHRISTIAN, the interment of a deceased

person with ecclesiastical rites in consecrated ground.

Tin' Jews and most of the nations of antiquity buried their dead. Amongst the ('.reeks ami Romans both cremation and interment were practised indifferently. That the early Christians from the beginning used only burial seeiiis certain. This conclusion may be inferred not only From negative arguments but from tin direct testimony of Tertullian, "De Corona" (P, I... II. :i_>, 795; ci. Minuciua Felix, "Octavius", xi in P. I... Ill, 266), and from the stress laid upon the analogy between the resurrection of the body and the Resurrection of Christ (I Cor. \v. -12; ef. Ter- tullian. "De Anima". lv; Augustine, "De civitate Dei", I, xiii). In the light of this same dogma of the resurrection of the body as well as of Jewish tradition (ef, To!>.. i. 21 ; xii. 12; Ecclus., xxxviii. Hi; II Made, xii. 39), it w easy to understand how the interment of the mortal remains of the Christian dead has always been regarded as an act of religious import and has been surrounded at all times w ith some measure of re- ligious ceremonial. The motives of Christian burial will be more fully treated in the article CREMATION.

\- i" the latter practice, it will be sufficient to say

herc> that, while involving no necessary contradiction article of faith, it is opposed alike to the law ot the Church and to the usages of antiquity. In de- fense of the Church's recent prohibitions, it may be urged that the revival of cremation in modern times prai tice been prompted less by considerations of improved hygiene or psychological sentiment than by avowed materialism and opposition to Catholic teaching. The Law oi mi Church Regarding Burial. —

\i < i irding to the canon law every man is free to eii

lor himself the burial ground in which he wishe interred. It is not necessary that this choice should be formally registered in his will. Any reasonable

legal proof is sufficient as evidence of his wishes in the matter, and it has been decided th it the testimony of one witness, for example his confessor, may In- ac-

cepted, if there be no suspicion of interested motives. (S. C. Cmieilii, 21 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 winch may have belonged to the deceased or his family, and failing this the remains should be buried in the cemetery of the parish in which the deceased had his domicile or quasi-domicile. Certain excep- tions, however, are recognized in the case of cardinals, bishops, canons, etc. Formerly monastic and other churches claimed and enjoyed under certain condi- tions 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 parish. If a man die in a parish which is not, his own, the canon law pre- scribes that the body should be conveyed to his own parish for interment if this is reasonably possible, but the parish priest 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 tin parish priest to bury his own parishioners. The canon law recognizes for regular orders the right to be buried in the cemetery of their own monastery (Sag- muller, 453; L. Wagner in "Archiv f. kath. Kirchcn- recht ". 1873, XXXIX, 385; Kohn, ibid., XL, 329).

Originally, as burial was a spiritual function, it was laid down that no fee could be exacted for this with- out simony (Decretum Gratiani, xiii, q. ii; e. viii, ix; Extrav, de sim., V, 3). But the custom of making gifts to the Church, partly as an acknowledgment of the trouble taken by the clergy, partly for the bene- fit of the soul of the departed, gradually became gen- eral, and such offerings were recognized in time as jiirn stolee which went to the personal support of the parish priest or his curates. It was, however, dis- tinctly insisted upon that the carrying out of the riles of the Church should not be made conditional upon the payment of the tee being made beforehand, though the parish priest could recover such fee after- wards 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 parish, a certain proportion, generally a fourth part, of the fee paid or the gifts that might be made in behalf of the deceased on oc- casion of the burial was to go to the priest of his own parish. Where an old custom existed, the contin- uance of (lie payment of this fourth part under cer- tain conditions was recognized by the Council of Trent (Soss. XXV, De ret, c. xiii). Nowadays the princi- ple is still maintained, but generally the payment to the proprivs parochus takes the form of the fourth part of a definite burial-ice which is determined ac- cording to some fixed tariff (S. C. Ep. et Reg., 19 Jan- uary. 1866; S. C. Cone, Hi February, 1889),and which may be exacted by the parish priest for every burial which takes place in his district. He has, however, no right to any compensation if a non-parishioner dies and is taken back to his own parish for burial, nor again when one of his own parishioners dies away from home and has to be buried in the place of his denii.se.

Only baptized persons have a claim to Christian burial and the riles of the Church cannot lawfully be performed over those who are not. baptized. More- Over no strict claim can be allowed in the case of those persons who have not lived in communion with the

Church, according to the maxim which comes down from the time of Pope Leo the (beat (448) "quibus viventibus nun communicavimus mortuis communi-

e ire eii possum us" (i. e. we cannot hold communion in death with those who in life were not in communion with us). It has further been recognized asa principle

that the last rites of the ( 'liurch constitute a mark of respect which is not to be show n to those who in their

lives have proved themselves unworthy of it. In this