CEMETERY
507
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
