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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture The Rationale divinorum officiorum of Guillelmus Durantis the Elder might be worth checking too. The papal decretals I have read are mostly concerned with choice of burial site (parish cemetery or elsewhere) & what the other church might owe the parish in canonical portion. Tom Izbicki John Shinners wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > > You might try Jean Beleth's 12th-century "Rationale divinorum officiorum" (or "Summa de ecclesiasticis officiis"). In a sermon for the dedication of a church, John Myrc's "Festial" attributes this explanation to him for burying inside churches (in my modernized English version. I don’t have the original handy, which is in Early English Text Society, Extra Series 96 [1905], pp. 277-81): “For when someone has died, then he is brought to the church to his final home. For, as St. John Beleth says, in past times rich men were buried on hilltops or at their foot or in their sides in tombs made in the rocks of the hill. But the smell and the odor of the corpses were too grievous to the living, so the holy fathers ordained that churchyards be made and the corpses be brought there to be buried for two reasons: first, so that they could be prayed for forever, since holy church prays for everyone buried inside the church or in the churchyard; second, so that the bodies of the dead should rest without being bothered or vexed by the fiend. Thus, the devil has no power to do anything to any body buried in a Christian grave. But sometimes it happens that someone has done such wrong that he is not worthy to be buried there. For John Beleth tells how no one should be buried inside the church except the patrons who defended the church, or priests or clerics who defended the church from spiritual enemies with their prayers, and other patrons who defended the church from bodily enemies. Thus, some people have been buried in a church and the next day their corpse has been found cast out of the church and all their clothes left in the grave." > > Best, > John > > ------------------------------------------ > John Shinners > Professor of Humanistic Studies > Saint Mary's College > Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 > Phone: 574-284-4494 or 574-284-4534 > Fax: 284-4855 > www.saintmarys.edu/~hust > > "Learn everything. Afterwards you will see that nothing is superfluous." -- Hugh of St. Victor (d. 1141) > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Laura Jacobus <[log in to unmask]> > To: [log in to unmask] > Sent: Sun, 12 Apr 2009 09:10:29 -0400 (EDT) > Subject: [M-R] burials in church > > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > > Happy Easter and Passover to all. > > Can anyone tell me what regulations or customs existed regarding burials in churches (thirteen and fourteenth century Italy being my main concerns)? I'm working on a private church (the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua), and my sense is that c.1300 it was still quite rare for lay-people to be buried in churches, though the practice was gaining in popularity and Italian churches began to sprout private family chapels for the purpose around this time. I'd be particularly interested to know whether private churches or family chapels within churches might have needed a special license for burials, or whether it was simply assumed that patrons had the right to be buried in them. > > All best > > Laura > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] > To send a message to the list, address it to: > [log in to unmask] > To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion > to: [log in to unmask] > In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: > [log in to unmask] > For further information, visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] > To send a message to the list, address it to: > [log in to unmask] > To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion > to: [log in to unmask] > In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: > [log in to unmask] > For further information, visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html > ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html