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 CREMONA

483

CREMONA

timps of epidemic. In answer it has been urged that cemeteries are not a cause of the infection of the air. In any well-ordered cemeterj- putrefaction takes place six or seven feet below the surface. In the open air, with abundance of o.Yj-gen, corruption proceeds more quickly, with continuous discharge of noxious gases in large quantities highly deleterious to health, but it is not so in the grave. Mantegazza, a celebrated bacteriologist, has shown ("Civilta Cattolica", Ser. IX, Vols. X-XII) that, where there is but a small supply of o.xygen, bodies will decompose without the cni.mation of any odour whatever. Often, too, the human body is so reduced before death that in the earth it suffers little or no corruption at all, but is first mummified and then slowly reduced to dust. Again, earth-pressure prevents chemical decomposi- tion to a great extent, producing in the place of gas a liquid which enters into various combinations with the materials in the soil, without the slightest danger to the living. Earth is a powerful agent of disinfec- tion. Even were noxious gases to escape in any quantity, they would be absorbed on their way up- wards, so that a very small part would ever reach the surface, or were the soil not fit for absorption (as was said to be the case at Pere-Lachaise, Paris) the process would be taken up by the vegetable matter on the surface. It is held, also, that, it is no more true to say that cemeteries are a menace to water wells. Charnock, Delacroix, and Dalton have proved that of three parts of rain water only one penetrates the soil, the other two either evaporating or flowing into rivers. Now corpses in cemeteries are not so placed as to form continuous strata, but a moderate distance intervenes between any two bodies or rows of bodies. Of the third part of rain, then, which penetrates the soil of a graveyard a very little will touch the bodies at all, and what does will not all reach the water streams, but will be absorbed by the earth, so that the remaining drops that would ultinmtely trickle into the stream would have absolutely no effect, were the stream large or small. Two experiments have proved this. The doctors above mentioned selected a tank 6i feet high, filled it with sand, and for many month.s filtered through it sewer water taken from the drain- age pipes of Paris. The water received at the bottom of the vessel was always found pure, clear and drink- able. .\ like experiment was made with a smaller vessel with like results. To anticipate the difficulty, that what held for an experiment with small quanti- ties would prove untrue were the amoimt of water verj- great, a large tract of ground near Genvillers w.as inundated for many months with the same putrid and reeking waters of the Seine after they had passed through the sewers of Paris. The result was the same. Wells were dug in the inundated portion, and the water was again found pure and clear, purer, as it chanced, than that of other wells outside the boundary of the place of experiments. In like manner, the waters in the cemeteries of Leipzig, Hanover, Dresden, and Merlin were examined and found purer and freer from organic matter than the wells of the town.

In conclusion, it must be remembered that there is nothing directly oppo.sed to any dogma of the Church in the practice of cremation, and that, if ever the leaders of this sinister movement so far control the governments of (he world as to make this custom uni- versal, it would not be a lapse in the faith confided to her were she obliged to conform.

In .iddilion to tlip authorities cited in the body of this artide, con.-ull Corpus Jtirin Cnnonin: HARnoriN, Coll. Cone, VI, 44.1; Wkhvz, Juh Dicrrliilium, III, 405; Howe, Sli,du.i in Ihc Ch'it

Law, :i02.

WiLLUM Devlin.

succumbed, however, to Hannibal. After the vic- tory of Octavian over Antony, the territory was di- vided among the veterans of the conqueror. Caius ViteUius defended it unsuccessfully against Vespasian, by whom it was pillaged, but it rose again from its ruins. About a. d. 600 Cremona, until then Byzan- tine, was captured by the Lombard king, Agilulf. Under the Emperors Otto (I-III) its bishops ac- quired temporal sovereignty, but in 990 the people expelled Bishop Olderico and adopted a republican form of government. The Emperor Henry IV (10.56- 1106), however, confirmed Bishop Landulf in all im- perial grants made to his predecessors. On the other hand Henry V (1106-25) restored to the people their

Cremona, DrociwE or (Cremonexsi.s), suffragan of Milan. Cremona is a city (.31,661 in 1901) in the Province of Lombardy. Italy, on the left bank of the Po. It was built by the Cenomanni Gauls, but later became a Koman colony and a frontier fortress; it

D ToRR.\zzo, Cremona

communal rights. Thenceforth Cremona became a citadel of Ghibellinism and was greatly favoured by Frederic Barbarossa and Frederick II. though for the same reason frequently at war with the neighbouring cities. In later medieval times it had many lords or "tyrants", the Pallavicini, the Bovara, the Caval- cabo, the Visconti, the Sforza, until it became part of the Duchy of Milan (132S). In 1702 it was taken by imperial troops, and in 1796 and 1800 fell into the hands of the French.

The people of Cremona venerate St. Sabinus as their first missionary and first bishop; he is said to have lived in the first century of our era. Among the better-known early bi.shops are St. Syrinus (c. 340), a vaUant apologist of the Faith against the Arians, and St. Silvinus (733); the latter is held in great veneration. Liudprand of Cremona was sent (946) as amba.s.sador to Constantinople by the Em- peror Otto II, and is the most famous historical writer of the tenth centurj'. Other important bishops were (iualtiero (lOSti), in whose time the cathedral was be- gun; Sicardo (1185), author of a chronicle; Caccia- conte da Somma (1261), under whom wtus erected the belfrj' of the cathednil; Nicolo Sfondrati (1.560), later Pope Gregory XIV; his nephew Paolo (1607); also the zealous and charitable Omobonodi Offredi (1791). The cathedral of Cremona is a splendid specimen of