BURIAL. 



Burial, superstitious notion that the deceased would have oc- 

 V casion for it in the other world. Hence, arms and 

 various other utensils are still discovered in old 

 tombs. The practice of raising barrows over the 

 bodies of the deceased, which was almost universal 

 in the earlier ages of the world, prevailed also among 

 the Britons. Beneath these barrows both arms and 

 skeletons are frequently discovered i (See BARROW.) 

 At what precise period the use of coffins was intro- 

 duced into this country, has not been ascertained ; but 

 in its rudest form, the kist-vaen, or coffin composed 

 of rough stones set edgewise at the sides and ends, 

 appears to have been a very ancient receptacle of 

 the dead in Britain. The great improvement of the 

 stone coffin, by forming it of a single stone, with 

 mallet and tool, has been ascribed to the Romans ; 

 who appear, however, to have made use of brick 

 coffins, or sarcophagi, in their earliest periods. The 

 practice of cremation ceased upon the introduction of 

 Christianity ; and the Britons, after the example of 

 the Romans, had recourse to interment and the use 

 of coffins. See Cough's Sepiil. Momtm ; Pennant's 

 Tour in Wales ; Stukely's Abury ; Archceol. vol. ii. 



3. In ancient times, it does not appear that any 

 thing was determined particularly with regard to the 

 place of burying the dead. There were graves in 

 the town and country, upon the highways, in gar- 

 dens, and on mountains. The tombs of the king's 

 of Judah were in Jerusalem, and in the royal gar- 

 dens. The sepulchre which Joseph of Arimathea 

 had provided for himself, and wherein he placed our 

 Saviour's body, was in his garden ; that of Rachel 

 was upon the highway from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. 

 The kings of Israel had their burying places in Sa- 

 maria; Samuel and Joab were interred in their own 

 houses ; Moses, Aaron, Elcazer, and Joshua, in 

 mountains ; King Saul and Deborah under trees ; 

 Manasseh and Amon in the garden of Uzza. The 

 sepulchres of the people of Jerusalem are said to have 

 been in the valley of Kidron, where were likewise the 

 burying places for foreigners. See Calmet's Dic- 

 tionary of the Bible, \. BUKIAJL. 



Both the Jews and Heathens usually buried their 

 dead without the city. By a law of the twelve tables, 

 the Romans were prohibited from burying within 

 the city : Hominem mortmtm in urbe ne sepelito, neve 

 urito. Cic. De Leg. ii. 23. But a special privilege 

 was sometimes granted by the senate to particular 

 persons, that they might be buried within the walls ; 

 as in the case of Julius Caesar, who obtained the right 

 of making a sepulchre for himself within the Pomce- 

 rinm. Other illustrious families likewise possessed 

 the privilege of being interred within the walls ; and 

 the vestal virgins were always buried in the city. 

 The burial places among the Romans were either 

 private or public. The former tvere in fields or gar- 

 dens, generally near the highway : hence the fre- 

 quent inscriptions, Siste viator, Aspice viator, &c. on 

 the Via Appia, Aurelia, Flaminia, &c. The public 

 places of interment for great men were commonly in 

 the Campus Martins, or Campus Esquilinus, which 

 were granted by a decree of the senate ; and for poor 

 people, without the Esquiline gate, in pits or holes 

 dug perpendicularly, called pniicidce. The tombs of 

 the rich were generally built of marble, the ground 



inclosed with a wall, or iron rail, and planted round 

 with trees. Common sepulchres were usually built 

 below ground, many of which still exis f in Italy under 

 the name of catacombs. See Adams' Roman Antiq. 



The Greeks, in general, followed the same prac- 

 tice of burying without the city walls. Lycurgus, 

 however, introduced the contrary practice among the 

 Lacedaemonians, with the view, it is said, of render- 

 ing the youth of Sparta familiar with the spectacle 

 of death. 



The Turks, we are told, bury not at all within 

 the walls of the city, excepting the great Turkish 

 emperors, with their wives and children, and some few 

 other of their great Bassaes, and those only in chapels 

 by themselves built for that purpose. All the rest 

 of the Turks are buried in the fields ; some of the 

 better sort in tombs of marble ; but the rest with 

 tomb-stones laid upon them, or with two great stones, 

 one at the head, and the other at the foot of every 

 grave. The greatest part of these are of white 

 marble brought from the Isle of Marmora. ( Knolles* 

 Hist. of the Turks.} They are in the habit of burying 

 by the way-side, believing that passengers will pray 

 for the soul's of the de#d. Tavernier's Travels. 



Among the primitive Christians, burying in cities 

 was not permitted for the first 300 years, nor in 

 churches for many ages afterwards ; the bodies of 

 the dead being first deposited in the church-yard, 

 and porches and porticoes of the church. Upon the 

 introduction of Christianity into this country, a re- 

 gular mode of disposing of dead bodies took place. 

 The people, during worship, were taught to look 

 towards the altar, and the dead were buried with 

 their faces the same way, excepting the priests, who, 

 for a similar reason, were ordered to face the congrega- 

 tion. The reason given by Gregory the Great, for the 

 custom of burying in churches, or in places adjoining 

 to them, was, that the tombs of the dead might re- 

 call them to the recollection of their friends and re- 

 lations, who might thus be led to offer up prayers 

 for them ; and this reason was afterwards tranfe rred 

 into the body of the canon law. Hence also the 

 striking and solemn address which distinguished the 

 epitaphs of the monkish ages : Orate pro auima mi- 

 serrimi peccatoris. In the eighth century, the peo- 

 ple began ro be admitted into the church-yards, and 

 some princes and distinguished persons into the 

 church. The practice, first introduced into the Ro- 

 mish church by Gregory the Great, was brought 

 into England by Cuthbert, archbishop of Canter- 

 bury, about the year 750; and the custom of erecting 

 vaults in chancels, and under the altnrs, was com- 

 menced by Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, 

 when .he had rebuilt the cathedral there, about 1075. 



4. By the common law of England, the granting 

 of burial within the church is the exclusive privilege 

 of the incumbent ; excepting those cases where a 

 place of burial is prescribed for, as belonging to a 

 manor-house. The church wardens, however, have 

 by custom a fee for every burial there, because the 

 parish is at the expence of repairing the floor. Wat- 

 son's Clergyman's Law. 



The 68th canon <.f the church enjoins, that " no 

 minister shall refuse to bury any corpse that is brought 

 to the church, or church-yard, (convenient warning 



Burial. 



