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granted not only to bury perfons who died excòmmuni- Sect. I. cate, but in fome cafes to abfolve them, in order to Chriftian Burial 7. But the rubric speaks indefinitely of all that die excommunicate, and fo feems to include all whose sentence was not reverfed in their life-time, without fuppofing any benefit to be obtained by an abfolution afterwards.

III. The laft perfons mentioned in the rubric we are Thirdly, to difcourfing of, are fuch as have laid violent hands upon fuch as lay violent themfelves; to whom all Chriftian churches, as well as hands upon our own, have ever denied the use of this office 68. And themselves. indeed none have been so justly and fo univerfally deprived of that natural right which all men feen to have in a grave, as those who break this great law of nature, the law of felf-prefervation. Such as thefe were forbid both by Jews and Heathens to be put under ground, that their naked bodies might lie expofed to public view 9. And the indignity which (if I mistake not) our own laws enjoin to the bodies of thofe that murder themselves, viz. that they fhall be buried in the high-way, and have a ftake drove through them, though it is fomething more modeft, yet is not lefs fevere.

felf, being

ed by this

rubric.

§. 2. This indignity indeed is to be only offered to whether a those who lay violent hands upon themselves, whilst they person that are of found sense and mind: for they who are deprived kills himof reafon or understanding cannot contract any guilt, and Non Comtherefore it would be unreasonable to inflict upon them pos Mentis, any penalty. But then it may be queftioned, whether be excludeven these are not exempted from having this office faid over them; fince neither the rubric nor our old ecclefiaftical laws make any exception in favour of those who may kill themselves in diftraction, and fince the office is in feveral parts of it improper for fuch a cafe. As to the Coroner's warrant, I take that to be no more than a certificate that the body is not demanded by the law, and that therefore the relations may difpofe of it as they please. For I cannot apprehend that a Coroner is to determine the sense of a rubric, or to prescribe to the Minifter when Chriftian Burial is to be used. The fcandalous practice of them and their inquests, notwithstanding the ftrictness

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Chap.
XII.

of their oath, in almost constantly returning every one they fit upon to be Non Compos Mentis, (though the very circumftances of their murdering themfelves are frequently a proof of the foundness of their senses,) fufficiently fhew how much their verdict is to be depended on. It is not very difficult indeed to account for this: we need only to be informed, that if a man be found Felo de fe, all he was poffeffed of devolves to the King, to be difpofed of by the Lord Almoner, according to his difcretion: and no fee being allowed out of this to the Coroner, it is no wonder that the verdict is generally for the heirs, from whom a gratuity is feldom wanting. They plead indeed, that it is hard to give away the fubfiftence of a family: but these gentlemen fhould remember, that they are not fworn to be charitable, but to be juft; that their business is to enquire not what is convenient and proper to be done with that which is forfeited, but how the perfon came by his death; whether by another or himself; if by himself, whether he was Felo de fe, or Non Compos Mentis. As the Coroner indeed fummons whom he pleases on the Jury, and then delivers to them what charge he pleases, it is eafy enough for him to influence their judgments, and to inftil a general fuppofition, that a felf-murderer must needs be mad, fince no one would kill himfelf, unless he were out of his fenfes. But the Jury should confider, that if the cafe were fo, it would be to no purpose for the law to appoint fo formal an inquiry. For, according to this fuppofition, fuch inquiry must be vain and impertinent, fince the fact itself would be evidence fufficient. It is true indeed, there may be a moral madness, i. e. a mifapplication of the understanding, in all felf-murderers: but this fort of madness does not come under the cognizance of a Jury; the question with them being, not whether the understanding was mifapplied, but whether there was any underftanding at all. In fhort, the best rule for a Jury to guide themselves by in fuch a cafe, is to judge whether the figns of madness, that are now pretended, would avail to acquit the fame perfon of murdering another_man: if not, there is no reason why they fhould be urged as a plea for acquitting him of murdering himself. But this is a little wide from my fubject: however, it may be of use to fhew, what little heed is to be given to a Coroner's warrant, and that there is no reason, because a Coroner proftitutes his oath, that the Clergy should be so complaisant as to prostitute their office.

SECT.

SECT. II. Of the fecond Rubric.

Sect. II.

BEFORE the Burial a fhort Peal is to be rung", to A peal to be give the relations and neighbours notice of the time, and rung before to call them to pay their last attendance to their deceafed friend.

the Burial.

rals.

§. 2. The Time generally appointed for this is late in The Time the Evening, from whence the Bearers had the name of for FuneVefpillones. And as Death is a Sleep, and the Grave a Refting-Place, the Night is not improper for thefe folemnities. The primitive Chriftians indeed, by reafon of their perfecutions, were obliged to bury their Dead in the night: but when afterwards they were delivered from these apprehenfions, they voluntarily retained their old custom; only making use of lighted Torches, (which we still continue,) as well, I fuppofe, for convenience, as to exprefs their hope of the departed's being gone into the regions of light 72.

ner of the

§. 3. The friends and relations being affembled together, The manthe body is brought forth, and in fome places is ftill, as Proceffion. anciently it was every where, laid upon the fhoulders of fome of the most intimate friends of the deceased 73: though there have generally been some particular Bearers appointed for this office, who were called by the Greeks KOTITES, or Koniara 74, and Vefpillones by the Latins, for the reafons before named. The Body being in a readiness, and moving towards the church, the chief Mourners first, and then all the company follow it in order, intimating, that all of them muft fhortly follow their deceased friend in the fame path of Death 75.

at Funerals.

§. 4. But to express their hopes that their friend is not Rosemary, loft for ever, each perfon in the company ufually bears in why given his hand a fprig of Rosemary: a custom which feems to have taken its rife from a practice among the Heathens, of a quite different import. For they having no thoughts of a future Resurrection, but believing that the bodies of those that were dead would for ever lie in the grave, made ufe of Cypress at their Funerals, which is a tree,

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Chap.
XII.

The Prieft

to meet the

Corpfe at the entrance of the Churchyard.

that being once cut never revives, but dies away 76. But Christians, on the other fide, having better hopes, and knowing that this very body of their friend, which they are now going folemnly to commit to the grave, fhall one day rife again, and be reunited to his foul, instead of Cypress, diftribute Rofemary to the company, which (being always green, and flourishing the more for being cropt, and of which a sprig only being fet in the ground, will fprout up immediately, and branch into a tree) is more proper to exprefs this confidence and trust 77; a custom not unlike that practifed by the Jews, who, as they went with a corpfe to the grave, plucked up every one a handful of grafs, to denote that their brother was but fo cropt off, and should again fpring up in his proper season 78.

§. 5. The Corpfe having been brought in this manner and Clerks or proceffion to the entrance of the Church-yard, or to the Church-ftile, (as it was expreffed in King Edward's firft book,) the Prieft in his Surplice", and the Clerks, of whom I have spoken before", are ordered by the rubric there to meet it: fo that the attendance of the Minister at the houfe of the deceased, and his accompanying it all the way from thence, is a mere voluntary refpect, which he is at liberty to pay or refufe as he pleafes. For, as it was expreffed in the Injunctions of King Edward VI. Forafmuch as Priefts be public Minifters of the Church, and ироть the Holy-days ought to apply themselves to the common adminiftration of the whole Parish; they are not bound to go to Women lying in Child-bed, except in time of dangerous Sicknefs, and not to fetch any corfe before it be brought to the Church-yards. And fo by our prefent canons 2, the Corpse must be brought to the Church or Church-yard, and convenient warning too must be given the Minifter beforehand, or elfe there is no penalty lies upon him for either delaying or refufing to bury it.

And to go

82,

§. 6. But the Corpfe being capable of Chriftian Burial, before it to and having been brought in due form, and after due noor Grave. tice given, to the entrance of the Church-yard; there the Minister must meet it 83, and, as the prefent rubric farther

the Church

76 Plin. l. 16. c. 33. et Serv. in Æneid. 3. v. 70. See alfo Kennet's Roman Antiquities, page 343.

77 Durand. Rational. Divin. Offic. 1. 7. c 35. num. 38. fol. 457.

78 See Mr. Gregory's Sermon on the Refurrection, among his Pofthumous Works, p. 70. and Leo Modema's Rites of the prefent Jews, pub

lished by Mr. Ockley, page 228.

79 See Chap. II. Sect. IV. p. 100. 80 See page 153.

81 Bp. Sparrow's Collection, p. 11. 82 See Canon LXVIII.

83 Under pain of Sufpenfion from his Miniftry by the space of three Months. See Canon LXVIII.

directs,

directs, go before it either into the Church, or towards the Sect. II. Grave; i. e. (if I rightly understand the words) if the Corpse be to be buried within the Church, he shall go directly thither; but if in the Church-yard, he may first go to the Grave: for now, according to the general custom, every one is at liberty to be buried in which he pleases.

Dead were

And indeed all nations whatfoever, Jews, Heathens, In what and Chriftians, have ever had folemn places fet apart for places the this ufe; but in permitting their Dead to be buried either ufed to be in or near their places of worship, the Chriftians differ from buried. both the former. For the Jews, being forbid to touch or come near any dead body, and it being declared that they who did fo were defiled, had always their fepulchres without the city 5: and from them it is probable the Greeks and Romans derived, not only the notion of being polluted by a dead Corpfe, but the law alfo of burying without the walls. For this reafon the Chriftians, fo long as the law was in force throughout the Roman Empire, were obliged, in compliance with it, to bury their Dead without the gates of the city 7: a custom which prevailed here in England till about the middle of the eighth century, when Archbishop Cuthbert of Canterbury obtained a difpenfation from the Pope for making Church-yards within the walls. However, that the Christians did not do this out of any belief that the body of a dead Chriftian defiled the place or perfons near it, may be inferred from their confecrating their old places of Burial into places of divine Worship, and by building their Churches, as foon as they had liberty, over fome or other of the Martyrs' Graves 9. After Churches were built indeed, they fuffered no body to be buried in them; but had distinct places contiguous to them appropriated to this ufe, which, from the metaphor of Sleep, by which Death in Scripture is often defcribed, were called Koyunlýpia, i. e. Cœemeteries, or Sleeping-Places. The first that we read of, as buried any where elfe, was Conftantine the Great, to whom it was indulged, as a fingular honour, to be buried in the Church-Porch. Nor were any of the Eastern Emperors, for feveral centuries afterwards, admitted to be buried any nearer to the church: for several canons had been

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84 See more of this below in Sect. IV.

85 See Luke vii. 12.

86 L. L. 12. Tabul. ut in Alex. ab Alex. 1. 3. c. 2.

87 Eufeb. Hift. Eccl. 1. 10. Vide et

113

Baron. Annal. tom. ii. ad Ann. 130.
88 See Godwin's Life of Cuthbert.
89 Chryf. tom. v. Hom. 3.

90 Chryf. Hom. 26. in 2 Cor. tom,
iii. pag. 687. Callifth. Hift. Eccl. 1.
14. c. 58. tom. ii. pag. 582. B.
made

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