CEMETERY. 



6f>7 



Cemetery, duction of Christianity. Many contained fragments 



N "^*V *' of bones, and some teeth very entire. 



The cemeteries in this kingdom are either public 

 or private, and frequently in the centre of crowd- 

 ed cities. Formerly it appears, that fairs and mar- 

 kets were held in public cemeteries. A Scotish law 

 of 1594- ordains, that each is to be surrounded by a 

 wall two ells in height. Within the precincts por- 

 tions generally belong to individuals, which are private 

 property. This was very recently decided by the su- 

 preme court of Justice in Scotland, in the case of an 

 officer who had been accidentally killed, being, with- 

 out authority, interred in a private burying place. 

 The owner having complained of this invasion of his 

 rights, the body was ordered to be dug up and in- 

 terred elsewhere. 



Long ago, the superstitions of mankind converted 

 churches to cemeteries, a practice which is yet per- 

 petuated. But this indefensible custom was not in- 

 troduced without resistance ; and about the year 381, 

 there is one rescript in the Theodosian Code, which 

 may be interpreted. " .Let none suppose, that the 

 churches of the apostles or martyrs are to be render- 

 ed ordinary places of sepulture ;" and another ex- 

 plicit prohibition, that " no one shall bury in a church." 

 Constantine, the first Christian emperor, had previ- 

 ously been interred in the porch of a church which 

 he had erected to the apostles A. D. 337, on which 

 St Chrysostom observes, that " The emperor was 

 greatly honoured in the interment of his body be- 

 ing permitted at the door of the temple,, and that he 

 should be porter to fishermen." Various ecclesias- 

 tical canons contain decrees on the subject. The 

 Spanish Council of Bracara, in 563, ordained, that 

 every cemetery should be without the church. The- 

 odore, patriarch of Antioch, in 1180, decreed, that 

 it should never be lawful to bury in churches, ac- 

 cording to the civil law of the Grecian empire. The 

 Council of Nantes permitted the porch of the church 

 to be converted to a cemetery, but prevented inter- 

 ment in the interior : and an ecclesiastical council 

 held at Tribur in Germany, prohibited the laity only 

 from finding a cemetery within its walls. 



But interment in churches gradually came into 

 universal use in Roman Catholic countries, fint, from 

 the anxiety of devotees to have their remains deposit- 

 ed near the relics of some favourite saint ; and, se- 

 condly, from the benefit which theuce resulted to 

 the ecclesiastics who officiated there. All sacred 

 things were rendered the subject of traffic ; sepulture 

 in a consecrated place, the remission of past sins, and 

 indemnity for those to be committed, had their fixed 

 and appointed prices. Certain perquisites were due 

 to ecclesiastics for interment in the cemetery within 

 their boundaries, which were rigorously exacted, and 

 which it was dangerous to refuse. The heir of the 

 deceased declining compliance, was in hazard of ex- 

 communication. Such perquisites were called mor- 

 tuaries, a remnant of which may still be recognised in 

 the hire of the pall or mortcloth at funerals. 



The danger of burying in churches, and of having 

 cemeteries in large towns, has sometimes been fa- 

 tally exemplified. Some years ago, on preparing a 

 grave for a person of rank in a church near Nantes, 

 the body of a near relation, who had died nine months 

 pr c'-ding, was displaced. The coffin was acciden- 

 tal!) shattered, and an infectious principle instantly 

 diffused itself around, with such virulence, that no 



less than fifteen persona of those attending the fuoe- Cemetery, 

 ral died within eight days. * f*^ 



Cemeteries, in Christian countries, are consecrated 

 ground : and as such, infants dying before baptism 

 are with us denied sepulture in it, along with others. 

 Roman Catholic*, however, do not esteem the ceme- 

 teries of Protestants sufficiently sacred to receive 

 their ashes. The origin or cause of consecration is 

 extremely obscure : in the fifth century, it it said to 

 have been unknown, and, according to Gregory of 

 Tours, was introduced about the year 590. Per- 

 haps it has been preserved, to demonstrate the right 

 of ecclesiastics to the mortuaries of the deceased per- 

 sons deposited there : and though these are abrogated, 

 the clergyman of the parish in this kingdom is entitled 

 to the grass that grows in the church-yard, though it 

 has been decided by courts of law, that he cannot 

 pasture his cattle there. 



In most nations a custom has prevailed, of plant- 

 ing public cemeteries with trees, though one of the 

 continental councils pronounced a decree against it 

 in 1565. Ex cimeteriis, arbores frugi/crce. ct alia 

 etiani infntgiferce cujtisvis generis, out arLutta stir~ 

 pesve omnino conveUnntur atque cxcidantur. The 

 cypress was an emblem of mourning among the Ro- 

 mans : it was seen at the pile of the deceased, and in 

 the cemeteries; and to warn priests who were defiled 

 by the sight of a corpse against entering for the cele- 

 bration of religious rites, it appeared on the outside of 

 the door of a house, whenever a dead body was within. 

 The cemeteries of the Turks and Chinese are planted 

 with cypress trees : in Britain, for centuries past, the 

 yew has been chosen. An opinion has been entertain- 

 ed, though with little reason, that an evergreen has 

 thus been selected as an emblem of the immortality of 

 the soul ; and hence the practice of decking the coffin 

 with bays, and carrying branches before the bier. 

 Perhaps it may have been designed as a more perma- 

 nent mode of testifying that attention to the decea- 

 sed, which was practised by the ancients. They 

 scattered flowers on the pile, on the urn, and in the 

 cemeteries of their departed friends Thus Virgil, 

 in describing funeral ceremonies, says, 



Purpureos jacit floret, ac tntiu fatur.JEsiio, lib. v. 



Manibus date lilia plenit : 

 Purpureos spargam Jloret .*BID, lib. vi. 



The same ceremony was known to the ancient 

 Christians ; whence, St Ambrose, in his eulogy on 

 Valentiuian, says, Nee ego flvribus tumulum ejus as- 

 per gum sed spirit um cjns Christi odore pcrfundam . 

 spargant alii plcnis lilia cai.it/iis. *' I will not strew 

 his grave with flowers, but pour on his spirit the 

 odour of Christ : let others scatter baskets of lilies." 

 St Jerome, in a consolotary epistle to a surviving 

 husband, observes, that while " other husbands 

 strewed the graves of their wives with violets, roses, 

 lilies, and purple flowers, Pammachius bedewed the 

 ashes of his with the balsam of alms." 



Those pious customs are not altogether oblitera- 

 ted among ourselves. In some parts of Wales, the 

 graves are adorned with certain flowers, denoting the 

 age of the deceased : the violet, the rose, or plants 

 ol rue, being appropriated to the three different sta- 

 ges of life. Fences or borders are made of them, 

 which are carefully preserved from decay, and clear- 

 ed of obtrusive weeds by the nearest surviving rela- 

 tives. Each Saturday afternoon is devoted to this 

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