Middle Ages and Renaissance

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Middle Ages and Renaissance
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Catafalque

• raised platform (with or without a canopy) used
  for a body to lie in state

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Catafalque

• President Ronald Reagan lying in state

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Readings Question 1

• Describe what was done from the time of death for
  an Anglo-Saxon to the interment.
• soul shot mortuary fee paid to insure entrance
  of the decedents soul into heaven

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Readings Question 2

• Describe the funeral process for rich Englishmen
  following the Norman Conquest in 1066.

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Constantines Edict of Toleration(313 AD)

• burial within city walls
• Christians worshipped in churches
• Christians buried near their churches
• Constantine buried in vestibule sepulture in
  church became widespread
• Churchyard burial for overflow

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10th 18th Century

• intramural burial became a nuisance
• churches and churchyards becoming overcrowded
• use of incense and myrrh
• Black Death (14th Century) killed 2/3 - ¾ of
  the population of England
• uncoffined burial

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Edward the Confessor1004-1066

• King of England from 1042-1066
• Entombed at Westminster Abbey

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Purgatorial Doctrine

• Catholic belief that those whose souls are not
  perfectly cleansed undergo a process of cleansing
  before they enter heaven.
• fraternities, guilds, brotherhoods, leagues of
  prayer

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Readings Question 3

• What were the duties of the Steward of the
  Guild and the Death Crier?

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The Wake

• vigil of the dead
• 1008- 1012 riotous behavior, drinking and
  dancing
• 14th Century rousing the ghost

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Readings Question 4

• The wake served as an occasion for praying for
  the dead. What were some of the other functions
  of the wake? What is the communion with the
  dead?

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Effigy

• a lifesized, waxen recreation (dummy) of the
  deceased often used at state funerals because
  the body of the deceased should be present for
  the funeral, but could not be preserved for that
  length of time

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Wax Effigy of Sarah Hare(1744)

• Hare Mausoleum in Stow Bardolph England

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Sepulchral Monuments

• earliest were stone coffins
• effigy
• tops of tombs rose above the floor
• canopy
• increase in size
• placed at the east end of the church or separate
  chapels

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The Plagues

• 6th Century AD
• Bubonic Plague 542
• Black Death 14th Century
• Great Plague of London 1664 1665
• 1547 no burial from 600 p.m. 600 a.m.
• 1665 reversed
• trench burial

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Coffined Burial

• kofinos (Greek)
• arca or loculus (Roman)
• 695 English stone coffins
• 6th century wood coffin
• 1066-1166 leather, bulls hide
• generally coffins reserved for the wealthy and
  important

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15th Century

• public funerals for the rising middle class
• increased costs for funerals

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Readings Question 5

• What was the purpose of the burial clubs? What
  would they provide? What were the duties of the
  club members?

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Linen to Wool Shroud

• cerecloth
• expanding paper industry
• Burial in Woolen Act of 1666 required that
  woolen cloth be substituted for linen in the
  shroud and lining of the coffin heavy fines were
  assessed for violation it was not repealed until
  1814

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Mourning Clothes

• weed
• mourning colors
• brown Persians and Abyssinians
• light blue Armenians and Syrians
• white Chinese
• white early Rome and Middle Ages

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Widow

• barbe

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Widows Weeds 1666

• Margaret of Spain (Empress of Austria)

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Local Customs

• Protestants sprinkle earth
• Jews bag of earth, mourners fill in grave
• Irish sprinkle blessed earth
• England rosemary
• Clergy buried with feet toward the East
• Wales east wind Wind of the Dead Mens
  Feet

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Preoccupation with Physical Side of Death

• executed prisoners suspended from trees
• songs of death
• statues and woodcuts displayed putrefaction
• morality plays
• death dance
• death was commonplace
• less focus on spiritual nature of death
• tremendous fear of dying

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Sexton

• the result of churchyard burials
• underofficer of the church
• cared for church property, rang the bells and dug
  the graves

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Readings Question 6

• What is independent heart burial? What is
  visceral embalming?
• King Edward I (1272 1307) Queen Eleanores
  body deposited in 3 tombs

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Independent Bone Burial

• Bodies of the wealthy cut up, boiled and bones
  extracted
• Bones placed in chest and returned home
• Soft tissue buried with ceremony near the place
  of death
• Hundred Years War (1337-1453)
• Embalming in the Middle Ages will be taught in
  Embalming I.

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Readings Question 7

• What influence did the Reformation have on
  Christian funeral beliefs and practices?
  Describe the Protestant funeral and interment
  service following the Reformation.
• Martin Luther (1483-1546)
• Counter Reformation of the Catholic Church