medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Chris,
Although the ground of for such battlefield burials was unconsecrated - i.e. had not been formally consecrated by a bishop - I presume that the graves were blessed by a priest. Blessing the grave is part of the Catholic burial rite, and I have seen film of twentieth century mass burials after natural disasters and military action with a priest (in black cope in one instance) sprinkling the bodies or coffins with holy water. Speed may have been important in clearing a battlefield of the dead, but medieval armies would certainly have had clergy with them, and the burial of the dead was one of the corporal acts of mercy.
The case ot Towton is slightly complicated by the later removal of many of the dead to the nearby churchyard at Saxton and the reburial if the dead in consecrated ground - this suggests that the local man who organised this considered that a more appropriate place for the dead to lie than graves out on the
battlefield.
John Whitehead
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear listmembers
I wonder if I may try once more with the following query (I tried several
weeks ago with no response, not surprising as it was the middle of the
holidays)
Does anyone know details about the theology and liturgy concerning
battlefields and battlefield chapels, in particular in relation to the
burial of the dead?
The reason I ask is that battlefield chapels (for example at Towton and
Shrewsbury) were built many years after the respective battles.
Therefore, originally the bodies of the dead - which were buried on the
battlefield - would have been buried in unconsecrated ground.
This is made more vivid by the mass grave found at Towton where there was
no consistency of alignment: some burials were prone; some reversed and
two even north-south!
Later a battlefield chapel was built, giving rise to the following
questions:
As consecration can presumably be retospective, was this an attempt to
consecrate the previous burial ground? (As an aside - are there examples
of Anglo-Saxon priests consecrating pagan burial grounds?)
As the chapel was located in a defined space (presumably with a defined
boundary) was it assumed/thought that the consecrated nature of the chapel
ground flowed across the whole of the battlefield (ie incorporating
burials outside its boundaries)
I assume that the liturgy of consecration was no different to 'normal'
chapels / churches, but I may be wrong.
Any help gratefully received
Chris
Daniell
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