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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture On 03/08/2012 18:01, Christopher Crockett wrote: > 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. >> >> 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. Everyone's a comedian. The windows are in the ringing chamber. John Briggs ********************************************************************** 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