medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Anne Willis <[log in to unmask]>
>> The passing bell, summoning the Psychopomp (wonderful term - the role
shared by Michael and Charon), was rung from bell chambers newly fashionable
in the period and detectable where surviving by the diagnostic openings.
> The openings being positioned so that the exact moment that the body was
lowered into the grave could be observed, and the bell silenced.
> John Briggs
> Mmm... OK if they bury everybody in the same place, but one opening would
give a very limited view of the whole graveyard. Maybe as it filled up
they kept cutting out more stonework?
of course that would be one way to do it, Anne.
but even the English were able (by trial and error) to stumble upon the fact
that there is a limit to how much stone one can cut out of the ground floor of
a tower.
i believe the more common solution to the problem (at least in England --i
know of no French examples) was to have successive burials in a straight
line-of-sight, proceeding from the tower door (say, what about churches that
didn't have doors in their towers?) right out through the churchyard, as far
as necessary, as long as there were parishioners in need of Planting, and thus
sometimes stretching in a narrow line for hundreds of yards out into the
surrounding fields.
this was, apparently, just another of the Curious Customs which characterized
the Western Fringe, always noted for its endless little Idiosyncrasies.
c
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