this decree. Even the king’s brother, when he assumed possession of
the country, took the same oath for himself and his subjects. The
Inquisition soon appeared to be unnecessary in France, and, with the
consent of the Holy See, it suspended its action in the countship of
Toulouse in 1237.

In Spain, the Inquisition was royal rather than papal. If we would
understand the part played by this remarkable tribunal, it must be
remembered that Spain took seven centuries to conquer its independence
against the Moors and the Jews. These latter, while feigning a
readiness to be converted, none the less maintained their antipathy for
the Christian religion and their hatred of the Christians. Thus, when
Ferdinand and Isabella had the whole of Spain under their authority,
they considered it necessary to establish religious unity, in order
to preserve national unity, and the Moors and Jews were ordered to
quit the country or abjure their creeds (Figs. 332 and 333). The two
sovereigns, who looked at the question in a political light, had
established in their dominions a special Inquisition placed under their
immediate control. The popes protested at once against the pretension
of the Catholic monarchs to themselves superintend the Inquisition,
and, on the tribunal being formed, Pope Sixtus IV. recalled his
legate from the Spanish Court, which latter in turn withdrew its
ambassador from Rome. A reconciliation, however, was effected, and a
bull legalising the Spanish Inquisition was granted; but Pope Sixtus
IV. soon regretted what he had done when he came to know of its
excesses. The Spanish sovereigns, upon the other hand, did all they
could to prevent the appeals made by condemned heretics from being
heard at the Court of Rome, while the popes were obliged to employ
stratagem in order to protect the penitent heretics from the merciless
severity of the Inquisition. Llorente tells us that on many occasions
a great number of heretics received secret absolution by order of the
pope, but he further adds that these papal amnesties were not always
approved of by the Spanish government. Leo X. actually excommunicated
the Inquisitors of Toledo, and Charles V., when he became emperor,
pretended to lean in favour of the Lutheran reform in order to prevent
Leo from interfering any further with the Spanish Inquisition. This
Inquisition was assisted by three corporate bodies, namely, the Holy
Hermandad, the Cruciata, and the Militia of Christ.

  [Illustration: Fig. 333.--Interior of the Ancient Mosque at
  Cordova, now a Catholic Cathedral; built in the Eighth Century
  by Abderhaman I., and altered for Catholic worship after the
  conversion of the Moors; it is one of the largest and most
  splendid monuments of Moorish architecture.]

The Holy Hermandad (a corruption of the Latin word _germanitas_,
confraternity) was at first an association of police officers employed
in the protection of the streets and highways. Originally established
in the three royal residences of Toledo, Cuidad-Real, and Talavera, it
eventually became a military force, whose chief mission was to put into
execution the orders of the Inquisition.

The Cruciata, a society composed of archbishops, bishops, and other
personages of mark, was entrusted, under various circumstances, with
the task of seeing that the laws of the Church were obeyed and carried
out amongst Catholics.

The Family of the Inquisition, or the Militia of Christ, created during
the pontificate of Honorius III., and analogous to the Order of the
Templars, placed its forces at the service of the Inquisitors, and its
pious zeal earned for it the good opinion of Pope Gregory IX.

As we have already mentioned, it was in 1481, during the reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella, that the Inquisition, provided with a new code
of regulations, acquired a formidable power. Chiefly intended to bring
to trial the Jews and the Moors who had again relapsed into paganism,
it was then that it got the name of _The Holy Office_, and was
superintended by a grand inquisitor-general and a council, termed
_The Supreme_, consisting of forty-five members. When the Holy
Office had a heretic, or any one suspected of being one, arrested, its
agents stripped the accused person of all he had about his person, and
took a detailed inventory of his clothing and furniture, in order that
they might be restored to him intact should he prove to be innocent.
The money so seized, whether in gold or silver, belonged by right
to the tribunal, and went to pay the costs of the procedure. These
formalities over, the accused person was taken to prison.

Of prisons, the Inquisition had several kinds: 1st, the _common_
prison, in which were confined persons accused merely of ordinary
misdemeanour, and who, consequently, were allowed to communicate with
their families and friends; 2nd, the _prison of mercy_ or _of
penitence_, which was set apart for those who were to be detained
only temporarily; 3rd, the _intermediate prison_, reserved for
those who had committed some ordinary delinquency which brought
them within the jurisdiction of the Holy Office; 4th, the _secret
prison_, the inmates of which were kept in solitary confinement.
The dungeons of the Inquisition were like all those constructed in the
Middle Ages.

After an incarceration which varied in length, the prisoner was
conducted, when the day of trial arrived, to the large audience hall,
which was hung with black, and adorned with a figure of Christ upon the
cross, the body being of ivory and the cross of ebony. At the extreme
end, before a circular table, sat the Inquisitor-general in a raised
chair covered with black velvet and surmounted by a canopy of the same
material. To his right and left, seats placed at a lower elevation were
reserved for the Inquisitors, who, with the secretary, composed the
tribunal. Two clerks of the court took down the questions put by the
president and the answers made by the accused; behind them stood the
spies of the Inquisition, and four men wearing long black robes, with
their faces concealed by a mask with openings for the mouth, the nose,
and the eyes.

The prisoner was seated upon a kind of raised stool placed opposite
the Inquisitor; when, after a long interrogatory, he failed to avow
his guilt, he was taken to the _torture-chamber_, preceded by the
Inquisitor and the four mysterious men in black who had been present
at the trial. Here he was again exhorted to abjure his errors, and,
if these fresh entreaties were powerless to move him, he was handed
over to the torturer, who put him to the torture with one of the four
agencies employed by justice--the cord, the scourge, fire, or water
(see the chapter on “Punishments,” in MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE
MIDDLE AGES).

The torture as used by the tribunals of the Inquisition did not
differ from that employed by the civil tribunals, which, using it
as unsparingly, scarcely attained a more satisfactory result, for
the victim steeled himself against the pain and generally refused
to reply to this interrogatory, though accompanied by inconceivable
tortures. The solemn delivery of the judgment of the Inquisition
and the execution of its sentences were preceded by a peculiar
ceremony, designated in Spain and its dependencies by the name of
_Auto-da-fé_, or Act of Faith. In most Auto-da-fés, the dismal
procession was headed by a double file of Dominican brothers, before
whom was carried the banner of the Holy Office (Fig. 334), with the
device, “_Justitia et misericordia_.” Behind them came the
condemned, followed by the spies of the Inquisition and the executioner.

  [Illustration: Fig. 334.--An Auto-da-fé Procession, in Spain,
  according to the ceremonial observed from the Fourteenth
  Century.--Fac-simile of a large Engraving on copper in the work
  of Philip of Limborch, entitled “Historia Inquisitionis:” folio,
  Amsterdam, 1692.]

There were many kinds of _san-benito_ for different classes of
penitents. The first, for heretics who were reconciled to the Church
before sentence had been passed, consisted of a yellow scapulary,
with large reddish-coloured St. Andrew’s cross, and of a round
pyramid-shaped cap called _coroza_, of the same material as the
san-benito and with similar crosses; but no flames were represented
on the garments, as the accused by timely repentance had escaped the
punishment of burning (Fig. 335).

The second, for those who, sentenced to be burnt, had subsequently
recanted, was made up of a san-benito and a coroza of the same
material. The scapulary was covered with tongues of fire pointing
downwards, to indicate that the wearer (Fig. 336) would not be burnt
alive, inasmuch as he was to be strangled before being placed upon the
burning pile.

  [Illustration: Fig. 335.--_San-benito._ Garment worn by
  those who escaped burning by making a confession before being
  sentenced.

  Fig. 336.--_Fuego revolto._ Garment worn by those who
  escaped being burnt alive by making a confession after they had
  been condemned.

  Fig. 337.--_Samarra._ Garment worn by those who, refusing to
  confess, were about to be burnt.

  Fac-simile of Engravings on Copper in the work of Philip of
  Limborch, entitled “Historia Inquisitionis:” in folio, Amsterdam,
  1592.]

The third, worn by those who died impenitent, had at the lower end the
head of a man in the midst of fire and enveloped in flames. The other
parts of the garment were covered with forked flames shooting upwards,
as a token that the heretic would actually be burnt alive. Grotesque
figures of demons were also represented upon the san-benito and upon
the coroza as well.

At the church whither the cortége repaired, chanting prayers on
its way, ten white tapers were alight in silver candlesticks upon
the high altar, which was hung in black; to the right, there was a
kind of raised dais for the Inquisitor and his councillors; to the
left, another such a one for the king and his court. Facing the high
altar was a scaffolding covered with black cloth upon which the
_reconciled_ stood to make their abjurations upon missals which
had been opened and arranged beforehand.

After the reconciliation of these latter, the impenitent heretics were
handed over to the secular power, together with the prisoners who had
been guilty of ordinary misdemeanour. The Auto-da-fé was then over, and
the Inquisitors withdrew. An historian, in giving a detailed account
of a trial before the tribunals of the Inquisition, tells us that the
civil punishment was not inflicted until the day after the Auto-da-fé.
Nor was it always the case that it was followed by execution, for
Llorente cites that of February 12th, 1486, at Toledo, when there were
seven hundred and fifty heretics brought up for punishment, not one of
whom was put to death, though they had to do public penance. At another
great Auto-da-fé, also held at Toledo in April of the same year, out
of nine hundred repentant or condemned persons none underwent the
extreme penalty. A third, on the 1st of May, comprised seven hundred
and fifty persons; and at a fourth, on the 10th of December, there
were nine hundred and fifty, but in both these instances no blood was
shed. Out of a total of three thousand three hundred persons who had
to do penance for transgressing the rules of the Church at this epoch,
Llorente states that only twenty-seven were put to death. It must be
remembered that the Spanish Inquisition, in conformity with the royal
decree, had to try not only heretics, but those accused of unnatural
crimes, brigands, lay or clerical seducers, blasphemers, persons guilty
of sacrilege, usurers, and even murderers and rebels. In addition to
this, those who supplied the enemy with horses and stores in time of
war, together with the then frequent cases of sorcery, magic, and
other similar frauds, were also brought within the jurisdiction of the
tribunals of the Inquisition. Thus the twenty-seven individuals who
were executed in 1486 may have been made up of malefactors of every
class.

The political aim of the kings of Spain was attained, for the
maintenance of religious unity preserved the kingdom from the bloody
catastrophes which at that period spread desolation throughout France
and England. This is admitted even by Voltaire, in his “Essai sur
l’Histoire Générale.” While deploring the horrors of the Inquisition,
he says, “In Spain there were none of those bloody revolutions,
conspiracies, or cruel reprisals which disgraced every other European
nation. Neither Count Olivarès nor the Duke of Lerma sent their enemies
to the scaffold, and sovereigns were never assassinated as in France,
nor did they suffer beneath the headsman’s axe, as in England.”

  [Illustration: Fig. 338.--Philip II., King of Spain.--From the
  work of Cesare Vecellio: 8vo, 1590.]

The Inquisition was less successful in the Netherlands, for the
Protestant cause made great progress in Holland during the reign of
Charles V. The nobility and the upper clergy, indignant at the rigorous
measures adopted by Philip II. (Fig. 338) in his efforts to put down
heresy, countenanced the general uprising against the Spaniards.
Emboldened thereby, the Protestants flew to arms, the churches were
burnt, the priests and monks were massacred, and the Catholic form of
worship suppressed in many localities. Philip dispatched thither the
notorious Duke of Alva, who, on assuming the command, instituted the
_council of troubles_, which the people nicknamed the _council
of blood_. The religious question resolved itself into a struggle
for national independence. A bitter war resulted in the definite
separation of the United Provinces, which afterwards became the kingdom
of Holland. Belgium, created an independent province, was handed over
with hereditary rights to Archduke Albert and his wife Isabella,
daughter of Philip II.

  [Illustration: Fig. 339.--Cruelties committed by the Gueux, in
  Holland. A. Master John Jerome, of Edam, and other Catholics of
  Hoorn, being put to the torture, at Scagen, in Northern Holland.
  Those who survive the first tortures are tied down upon their
  backs, a large cauldron turned upside down is placed upon their
  naked stomachs, with a number of large dormice underneath. A
  fire is lighted upon the top of the cauldron which enrages the
  dormice; and as they are unable to creep under the edges of the
  cauldron, they burrow into the entrails of the victim. B. Ursula
  Talèse, a nun of Haarlem, having refused to renounce her faith
  when made to stand beneath the gibbet upon which her father
  had been hung, is thrown into the water and drowned. C. Her
  sister, bewailing her fate and that of her father, also refuses
  to change her creed, and her skull is beaten in with a large
  stone.--Fac-simile of an Engraving on Copper in the “Theatrum
  Crudelitatum nostri Temporis” (4to, Antwerp, 1587); with a
  translation of the explanations given.]

The United Provinces were no sooner constituted than, notwithstanding
the Protestant principle of the liberty of free inquiry, they obeyed
that instinct which impels all governments to religious unity--Spain
was outdone in the refinement of punishments which they invented to use
against the Catholics who refused to change their faith (Fig. 339).
Nor was it against the Catholics only that the Protestant Inquisition
exercised its rigorous authority. In countries where Calvinists and
Lutherans were brought into juxtaposition, religious persecution broke
out between the various reformed Churches, always, too, under the
instinctive influence that religious unity was necessary to ensure
the stability of the State. A distinguished writer, Menzel, in his
“New History of the Germans since the Reformation,” gives some very
interesting details concerning this internecine struggle. At the end
of the sixteenth century, when, at the death of the Elector of Saxony,
Christian I., on September 25th, 1591, the government of Saxony fell
into the hands of Duke William of Altenburg, who was a rigid Lutheran,
the Calvinist party in Germany thought that the golden age was about
to return. Chancellor Crell, who in Christian’s lifetime had treated
the Lutherans with slight show of mercy, was cast into prison, together
with Gunderman, a Leipsic preacher. After five months’ incarceration,
the latter signed the “Formula of Concord,” in order that he might
be able to visit his wife, whom he had left _enceinte_, but he
had no sooner appended his signature than he was told that she had
hung herself in a fit of despair. The unfortunate man went out of his
mind. Other preachers were treated with almost equal severity; and at
Leipsic, in 1593, the Lutheran party set fire to the houses of the
Calvinists, who had to fly from the city to escape assassination.
Such was also the case in Silesia. Upon the 22nd of September, 1601,
Chancellor Crell was condemned to death, after having been kept ten
years in prison, and he was beheaded on the 10th of October.

At Brunswick, in 1603, the Lutheran preachers excommunicated the
captain of the burghers, one Brabant; in 1604 it was rumoured that
he had made a pact with the devil, and that the latter had been seen
following them in the form of a crow. Brabant tried to escape, but
broke his leg in the attempt. Brought back to Brunswick amidst the
hootings of the populace, who regarded him as a traitor and a magician,
he was three times put to the most cruel torture, to terminate which
he avowed himself guilty of all the crimes laid to his charge. His
companions in misfortune were treated with equal cruelty. While Zachary
Druseman was suspended by the arms in the torture-chamber, his judges
went off to their supper. The victim implored the executioner, by the
wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ, to let him down for a single moment
and loosen the screws which were crushing his feet, but the latter
replied that he must wait until the judges returned. When they came in
an hour afterwards, completely intoxicated, Druseman was dead. Menzel
goes on to tell us that on St. Michael’s Day the Lutheran preachers, at
the request of the town council, undertook to justify from the pulpit
the executions which had been incessantly going on, and that on the 9th
of December a thanksgiving service was held in all the churches, in
front of which the gibbets and scaffolds were still displayed.

  [Illustration: Fig. 340.--Tortures inflicted upon Catholics
  by the Huguenots in the South of France.--Thirty Catholics,
  imprisoned at Augoulême, in the house of a burgher of the name
  of Papin, are tortured in various ways:--A. Some, deprived of
  food, are chained together in pairs, so that, becoming delirious
  through hunger, they may tear each other to pieces. B. Some are
  dragged naked along a tightly-drawn rope, which acts like a saw,
  cutting the body in two. C. Several are attached to stakes, and
  fires lighted a short distance behind them, so that their bodies
  may burn slowly.--Fac-simile of an Engraving on copper in the
  “Theatrum Crudelitatum nostri Temporis” (4to, Antwerp, 1587);
  with a translation of the explanations given.]

In the southern provinces of France, where the party of the Reformation
acquired the upper hand, excesses were committed which were as much
reprobated by the more enlightened of the Protestants as by the
Catholics. The town of Angoulême in particular was the scene of many
such cruelties (Fig. 340).

The dominant party was everywhere guilty of extreme intolerance, but
nowhere was the persecution carried on upon so large a scale as in
unhappy England. Protestant writers cannot find expressions strong
enough to characterize the unheard-of violence to which Henry VIII. had
recourse with a view to establish religious unity in his kingdom.

  [Illustration: Fig. 341.--Punishments decreed by Henry VIII.
  against the Catholics.--A. John Fisher, Cardinal-Bishop of
  Rochester, eighty years of age, condemned to death on the 17th
  of June, 1535, is beheaded on the 22nd of the same month. B.
  Chancellor Thomas More is also beheaded on the 9th of July, 1535.
  C. The Countess of Salisbury, made to answer for the accusations
  brought against her son, who had left the country, after being
  condemned to death, is beheaded.--Fac-simile of a Copper-plate in
  the “Theatrum Crudelitatum nostri Temporis” (Antwerp, 1587); with
  a translation of the explanations given.]

Cobbett, in his “History of the English Reformation,” says, “Previous
to this reign of bloodshed not more than three persons on the average
were tried in each county at the annual assizes, but now there were
as many as sixty thousand persons in prison at a time. In a word, the
Court of Henry was a regular slaughter-house of human flesh.”

Henry VIII., from the very fact of his having broken with the principle
of authority in religious matters, found himself driven to an excess
of severity, feeling that it was by terror alone that he could put
down resistance; and, as the example of those who are placed high
in authority exercises a decisive influence upon the masses, the
king singled out for attack those who stood highest on the roll
of magistrates and bishops--the Chancellor, Thomas More, and his
illustrious friend Fisher, Bishop of Rochester (Fig. 341). They were
both cited to appear before the King’s Council, and the Chancellor
was condemned to die. More was passionately attached to his daughter
Margaret, who, when the trial was over, threw herself upon her father’s
neck, exclaiming, amidst her sobs, “My father, are you who are innocent
to die?” To which, embracing her for the last time, and giving her his
blessing, he replied, “Would you have me die guilty?” When he reached
the foot of the scaffold he called upon the populace to witness that
he died in the faith of the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church.
The executioner asked for his forgiveness, and More, embracing him,
rejoined, “You are rendering me the greatest service that can be
done to a Christian!” He met his death with joy, and his head was
exposed for a fortnight upon London Bridge. His friend, the Bishop of
Rochester, had been sent to the block a few weeks before (Fig. 341).

  [Illustration: Fig. 342.--Michael Servetus (born at Villanueva,
  Arragon, in 1509) burnt alive by order of Calvin, at Geneva, in
  1553.--After a Copper-plate in the “Historia Michaelis Serveti:”
  4to, Helmstadii, 1727.]

Switzerland suffered as much as England, for the Inquisition set up
by Calvin at Geneva defied all description. While Calvin, as it is
reported, was allowed to stigmatize those who differed from him as
rogues, dogs, and scoundrels, their emperor vermin, and their fathers
and mothers imps of Satan, the peasants who used rough language to
their cattle were thrown into prison. Three children were publicly
whipped because they had stolen away from the meeting-house to go and
eat cakes. The registers of the town record that in the course of sixty
years one hundred and fifty persons were burnt alive as sorcerers.
Another crime punishable with death was “to speak ill of Calvin,” who
made no secret of his feelings upon this point, as may be gathered from
the following sentence in a letter he sent to one of his partisans:
“Do not fail to purge the country of the fanatic scoundrels who go
about exhorting the people to withstand us, who blacken our conduct,
and who try to depict our creed as an empty dream. Such monsters
ought to be put down.” On these grounds, the poet Gruet was put to
the torture and beheaded “for having spoken ill of Calvin.” Michael
Servetus, who practised medicine, astrology, and theology, ventured
to contradict the teaching of the Reformer, especially in reference
to the doctrine of the Trinity. Calvin wrote to Farel, under date of
February 13th, 1546, the following letter, the original of which may
still be seen in the National Library of Paris: “Servetus wrote to
me the other day, and sent with his letter a large book filled with
his vain and arrogant reveries, saying that I should find it full of
wonderful and hitherto unknown subjects. He promises to come and meet
me here, if I wish, but I do not care to enter into any arrangement,
for, if he comes and I have my own way, I shall not let him escape
with his life.” The unfortunate Servetus was obliged to repair thither
under the following circumstances. He had clandestinely published at
Vienne (Dauphiny) his book entitled “Christianismi Restitutio” (“The
Restoration of Christianity”). Of this book Calvin procured a copy,
which, he forwarded to the Cardinal-Archbishop of Lyons. Servetus,
thanks to Calvin’s denunciations, was arrested and thrown into the
ecclesiastical prison of Vienne, as this book contained many obnoxious
statements tainted with heresy. It happened that the prisoner, a better
doctor than he was theologian, had formerly saved the life of the only
daughter of the bailiff of that town, and the gaoler received orders
to favour his escape, which was effected without difficulty. Servetus
unfortunately took refuge at Geneva. Calvin’s spies discovered him
there; he was imprisoned on the 13th of August, 1553, and on the 26th
of October, after a lengthened examination, during which he defended
himself energetically against the accusations of impiety and atheism,
he was condemned to be burnt alive. The sentence was carried out on
the following day (Fig. 342). Calvin witnessed the execution from
his window, and was soon after congratulated on what he had done by
the Cantons of Zurich, Schaffhausen, Basle, and Berne. The learned
Melancthon wrote to him, “Your magistrates have acted in accordance
with right and justice in having this blasphemer put to death.” These
acts of cruelty and vengeance, nevertheless, have excited the just
indignation of several Protestant historians, who deplore the loss to
Geneva of her ancient liberties and franchises. “For more than eight
hundred years,” says Fazy, “the harmony between the cause of the people
and that of religion had placed Geneva in the van of civilisation. Its
laws were mild, acts of violence were rare, confiscation was unknown,
and nowhere do we find any traces of people being persecuted for their
opinions.”

  [Illustration: Fig. 343.--Ornament from the “Historia Testamenti”
  of Pierre Comestor.--MS. dated 1229. Library of M. Ambroise
  Firmin-Didot.]

                    BURIALS AND FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

   Embalming and Incineration of Bodies amongst the
   Ancients.--Interment brought into practice by Christianity.--The
   Wrapping of the Dead in Shrouds.--The Direction in which
   the Bodies were laid.--Absolution Crosses.--Funeral
   Furniture.--Coffins and Sarcophagi in the Middle Ages.--Funereal
   Sculpture and Architecture, from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth
   Century.--The Catacombs at Rome.--Charnel-houses in the
   Churches.--Public Cemeteries.--The Cemetery of the Innocents,
   Paris.--Lanterns for the Dead.--Funerals of the Kings and Queens
   of France.--The Rolls of the Dead.--Consoling Thought of the
   Resurrection and of Eternal Life.

In the most remote epoch of the world’s history we find that the dead
were treated with respect, not to say worshipped; for a natural,
sentiment leads savage as well as civilised man to pay the last tribute
of affection to the bodies of those for whom he once felt affection,
esteem, or fear. Such is the moral principle of the various modes
of burial which have been successively practised, viz., embalming,
incineration, and interment. Many ancient nations, and especially the
Egyptians, who sought to preserve the human body for an indefinite
length of time, embalmed their dead with extreme care, or rather, we
should say, with wonderful art.

The Greeks generally burnt their dead and collected their ashes in
urns; with the Romans the custom of burning was usual, at least amongst
the rich, and lasted long after the establishment of Christianity,
which dogmatically enjoined the interment of the dead, though this mode
of sepulture had before been confined to slaves, suicides, and the poor.

The Christians introduced at the same time the old Jewish custom of
swathing the dead body in a winding-sheet, which was bound up with
long bands soaked in resinous and perfumed oil, after the fashion of
the Egyptians. Embalming was, moreover, prescribed and authorised by
divine legislation. It is said in Genesis that it took forty days to
embalm the body of Jacob, and in the sixteenth chapter of St. Mark we
read, “And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the
mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might
come and anoint Him.”

All the bas-reliefs of the fifth and sixth centuries, upon which figure
bodies prepared for burial, represent a regular mummy swathed in bands;
and this mode of wrapping the body, which seems to imply that it had
first been embalmed, was still in use at the end of the eighth century.
After this epoch we do not possess sufficiently accurate data to say
what was the general practice. We know, however, that for a certain
length of time the dead were sewn up in leather prepared from the
skins of stags or oxen. The _cervicorium_, or stag-hide, was a
kind of shroud specially used for warriors, if we may believe the war
ballads. Precious tissues were used at that time for the winding-sheets
of ecclesiastical persons; and in a tomb of the tenth century, in the
vault of St. Germain des Prés, in Paris, a skeleton was found which
was enveloped in a piece of cloth, tied at the neck and the feet with
short narrow bands. The dead bodies of the lower classes were buried in
shrouds made of some common material.

Before burial, the hands were always folded across the breast. This was
customary in the East throughout the whole of the Middle Ages, and the
doctors of the Greek Church attached so much importance to it that,
according to an author of the thirteenth century, they made it a great
reproach to the Latins that they neglected to observe this Christian
law.

  [Illustration: Fig. 344.--Christ victorious over Death; with the
  following Inscription:--

    “Hic residens solio Christus jam victor in alto
      Mortem calce premit, colligat atque fodit.
    Dumque salutiferam vult mors extinguere vitam,
      Infelix hamo deperit illa suo.”

  Fac-simile of a Miniature from the “Choir Book” of the Cathedral
  at Worms.--Manuscript of the Eighth or Ninth Century, in the
  Library of the Arsenal, Paris.]

The direction in which the body was to be buried was, moreover,
particularly specified. Thus it was enjoined that it should be laid
upon the back “with the head to the west, the feet towards the east,”
says the ancient writer John Beleth. Another liturgical writer scarcely
less famous, William Durand, Bishop of Mende, adds, in his “Rationale
Divinorum Officiorum,” that the body, when placed in this position,
seems to be engaged in prayer, and ready to rise when the first
rays of the sun shine forth. It must not be supposed, however, that
this particular direction of the body (_capite versus occidentem
et pedibus versus orientem_) was rigorously adhered to by the
Christians alone, for it is found to have been observed during the
second and third centuries, which were assuredly not Christian. The
custom of burying the dead, introduced by Christianity, was adopted in
Italy long before the Roman provinces were converted to the new faith.
Subsequent to the reign of the Antonines, who by edict authorised the
burial of the dead, there are numerous instances of pagan burials
being conducted in conformity with, this edict, especially in Gaul.

[Illustration: Fig. 345.--The Harvest of Souls: God the Father
  receiving the souls in his lap.--Miniature in the “Dialogues
  of St. Gregory,” a Manuscript of the Twelfth Century, in the
  Burgundian Library, Brussels.]

  [Illustration: Fig. 346.--Celtic Burial.--The body, bent double,
  with the head between the knees, and with two vases at the feet,
  is placed in a grotto or natural cave.]

  [Illustration: Fig. 347.--Mode of Burial among the Franks.--The
  body, laid in the grave, is surrounded with arms, implements,
  and various articles for use: the sword or the _scrama sax_
  under the right armpit, the knife or poignard upon the breast,
  the hatchet at the knee, the _framée_ or the lance at the
  feet, comb, bracelet, &c. It is thought that the vase in red or
  black clay, which is often found under the feet of the skeleton,
  had a symbolic meaning. This grave was discovered during
  excavations made in Paris.]

At a much later period the principle relating to the direction in which
bodies were laid fell into disuse at Christian burials. The persons
attached to the ecclesiastical edifices were buried with their feet
towards the west, and sometimes towards the south. There was another
exception: the body was not always laid upon its back, but in certain
cases it was placed upon its side, or even with the face downwards.
Pepin the Short was buried with his face downwards; Hugh Capet,
in accordance with his wishes, was also thus interred beneath the
rain-spout which was above the porch of St. Denis Cathedral, in order
that his sins might be washed out. This was termed _adens_ burial
(upon the teeth, _ad dentes_).

In the sixth and seventh centuries we have many instances of persons
being placed in a sitting position in their tombs, with the legs and
body upright. This exceptional mode of interment was most frequently
adopted, though not exclusively, by the barbarians; and the fact of
Charlemagne having been so interred makes it peculiarly interesting.
“Washed and laid out,” as we read in Legrand d’Aussy’s “Sépultures
Nationales,” “arrayed in his imperial robes, at his side a sword with
a golden pummel, on his head a golden crown, holding in his lap a New
Testament written in letters of gold, he was seated upon a throne of
gold. Before him were placed his golden sceptre and shield, which had
been blessed by Pope Leo. The vault was filled with perfumes and many
treasures (_thesauris multis_); it was closed, and even sealed
down, and over it was erected a golden arcade, upon which was engraved
the epitaph handed down to us by Eginhardt, and is the oldest extant of
all those which tell of our earliest kings.”

When the pagans adopted the custom of interment (Fig. 348), they
laid by the side of the dead the insignia of his profession, and any
objects which had been dear to him during his lifetime; to this they
added various vases containing food and drink, to serve him as a
_viaticum_ during his more or less prolonged journey to a better
world. In the coffins of Christians, on the contrary--even from the
earliest times--the funeral furniture appears to have been next to
nothing: a phial containing some perfume, with one, two, or perhaps
three vases, of wood, glass, or clay, filled with holy water.

  [Illustration: Fig. 348.--Gallo-Roman Tomb, representing the
  deceased laid upon a funeral bed, and surrounded by her weeping
  family and household.--Monument of the First or Second Century,
  found during excavations made in Paris. After a Plate in the
  “Statistique de Paris,” by M. Albert Lenoir.]

The perfume-phials had disappeared so early as the Merovingian period,
but the custom of placing the other vases in the coffin lasted, in
some countries, even down to the eighteenth century. Their presence
in a place of burial is not, therefore, a proof of its antiquity. The
liturgists have endeavoured to explain the origin and the meaning of a
custom so general and so long maintained; and William Durand suggests,
in his “Rationale,” that these funeral vases, of whatever shape they
might be, were intended for containing incense. A miniature of the
fourteenth century would appear to confirm this theory, for we find
that it represents, at the four corners of a coffin covered with the
pall, small pots placed in a row with the tapers (Fig. 349); and there
is reason to believe that the incense in them was burnt during the
funeral service. In fact, the pots represented in this miniature are
white; the reddish colour of the holes with which they are perforated,
and the smoke issuing from them, show that there was fire inside.
Perhaps this was only the fire of red-hot coals, since they have been
found to contain ashes mixed with pieces of coal.

   Fig. 349.--Funeral Service, in which are shown, between the
   candelabra, the incense vases which were deposited in the
   coffin.--Drawing of the Fourteenth Century.

   Fig. 350.--Absolution Cross of the Eleventh Century, in lead,
   found in a coffin in the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund’s (1855).

  From “Les Sépultures Gauloises, Romaines, et Franques,” by the
  Abbé Cochet.]

After the ceremony, these vases were placed, while still alight, in
the coffin. And this brings us to another Christian usage, which
has been ascertained to have existed in France and England from the
eleventh to the thirteenth century. During this period, a cross was
placed upon the breast of the deceased person. This cross, in wood or
in lead, sometimes in silver, was called an _absolution cross_
(Fig. 350), because the formula of absolution given to the dead man
was generally engraved upon it--and even his name was stated in the
formula. A fact related by Mabillon, in his “Annals of the Order of St.
Benedict,” sufficiently proves the importance and universal extent of
this custom. In 1142, after the death of Abelard, Eloisa, Abbess of the
Paraclete, asked Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny, for a formula
of absolution to place upon the tomb of the illustrious theologian.
This absolution was placed, as is related by a Benedictine writer,
upon Abelard’s breast. The text is so interesting that it is worth
quoting, though written in Latin. Peter the Venerable, alluding therein
to the unwillingness of the monks of St. Marcel to give up the body of
Abelard, says, “Ego Petrus, Cluniacensis abbas, qui Petrum Abaëlardum,
in monachum Cluniacensem recepi, et corpus ejus furtim delatum Heloïsæ,
abbatissæ et monialibus Paracliti concessi, auctoritate omnipotentis
Dei et omnium sanctorum absolvo eum pro officio ab omnibus peccatis
suis.” Ancient burying-places are sometimes discovered with bodies
which have been bound in chains, or, at all events, are loaded with
iron and brass fetters. Thus at Couvert, near Bayeux, a skeleton was
discovered a few years back laid upon the face (_ad dentes_),
upon a wooden cross, with a small chain round the neck. This is a
peculiarity having its origin in certain rules of penance which were
in force from the eighth to the tenth, and probably to the eleventh,
century.

The pagan rite prescribed that a piece of money should be placed in the
urn or coffin; and many antiquaries have suggested that this must have
been the _obolus_ for Charon. This custom was perpetuated by the
Christians, for, throughout the Middle Ages, a coin was always placed
on the bier; and this practice still prevails in Poitou, Alsace, and
other places.

The interments of the barbarians, even after their conversion to
Christianity, are specially characteristic, because, no matter to what
nation they belonged, they adhered to their own particular manner of
burial. They were interred in their finest clothes, with their weapons,
and, in some cases, with their war-horse. The women and children, whose
burial-place is easily discoverable, wore jewels, necklaces, rings,
fibulæ, girdles, buckles, &c., to which are still found adhering bits
of tissue, the remains of some splendid costume.

Researches and excavations made in France of late years have led to
the discovery of numerous barbarian cemeteries, and have enabled us to
ascertain what were the Merovingian, or, as it would perhaps be more
accurate to say, the Germanic funeral customs. These customs evidently
were replaced by others when the barbarian finally settled in Gaul,
that is, about the middle of the ninth century. The habit of placing in
the coffin various pieces of black, red, or white pottery (Fig. 351),
together with small vases which seem to have been intended for the same
purpose as those used in Christian burials, existed during this period.
These vases, often very numerous, no doubt contained food; they were
frequently accompanied by a small wooden jar, the handle of which was
very richly mounted, and which the _savans_ at one time took to
be a Merovingian diadem. But a chemical analysis of the solid residue
found in one of these jars, led to the discovery that they were filled
with an alimentary substance which gave out a strong odour of fermented
beer.

  [Illustration: Fig. 351.--Gallic or Gallo-Roman Pottery, dug up
  in Paris and in the neighbourhood.]

Subsequently to the period when the barbarians were no longer interred
with their weapons of war, there still remained some traces of this
primitive custom in Christian society, both in France and Germany;
thus, kings were buried in their royal robes, with sceptre and crown.
This continued to be the case throughout the Middle Ages; but, in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the sceptres and crowns deposited
in the coffins were made of brass or tin, in order that thieves might
not be tempted to steal them. Such was also the case with bishops and
abbots, as is shown by Gregory of Tours, when he speaks of Saint Gall,
the Bishop of Clermont, in Auvergne, of the Abbot Mars, of the hermits
Marian, Leobard, and Lupicin, being buried in their robes of ceremony.
They were covered at their death with the most brilliant insignia of
their dignity; but after a certain epoch nothing was placed beside them
in the coffin but a wooden crozier, a chalice, and a tin paten. They
were always dressed, however, in their pontifical vestments, the gold
lace and embroidery of which has, when these tombs have come to be
opened, often been found undecayed, while the vestments themselves have
crumbled into dust.

In the monasteries and communities, the old barbarian rite was observed
after the tenth century, and the monks were buried with all their
clothing on them; but as the woollen material of which they were
made was consumed by age, it is impossible for the archæologist to
reconstruct on opening these coffins the monastic dress as it must have
been when the body contained in it was buried.

At present we have considered only the different modes of burial during
the Middle Ages, but we may now proceed to speak of the coffin and
the tomb. No work of art is more curious, or fuller of historical and
picturesque information, than the funeral monuments of all ages. But
it must be remembered that there is a marked distinction between the
coffin and the tomb, one being the receptacle of the dead, the other
only a monument raised to mark the spot of ground in which the coffin
has been interred.

At all periods Christians have used coffins cut out of stone; and
this custom only ceased in the thirteenth century, to make way for
the use of lead coffins. The stone sarcophagi were only for persons
of a certain rank. Soldiers, townsmen, and country people were buried
in coffins made of wood. The Franks gave the name of _off_ or
_noff_ to these coffins, which are alluded to in the Salic law.
Gregory of Tours, speaking of the plague which desolated Auvergne in
571, says, “The mortality was so great at Clermont that it was found
necessary to inter as many as ten bodies in the same grave, because
there was a dearth of wooden and stone coffins.”

These ancient stone sarcophagi are met with in great numbers in those
localities which were the ordinary places of burial. They have been
found by thousands in certain towns and villages, such as Alichamps,
Drevant, and Grou, in the department of the Cher, as well as at Meunes
and Naveil, in the department of the Loir-et-Cher. The most ancient
coffins are easily to be recognised by their large dimensions, their
thickness, and their regular shape (Figs. 352 and 353). They are, so
to speak, chests with a massive stone cover, two metres and twenty
centimetres (about seven feet two inches) long, and in some cases more.
They are square, and resemble a rectangular trough. The lid, sloping in
the shape of a roof, is quite free of all decoration.

  [Illustration: Fig. 352.--Stone Coffin discovered during
  excavations made in the Rue de la Cossonnerie, Paris. In the
  Cluny Museum.]

  [Illustration: Fig. 353.--Stone Coffin of Gallo-Roman origin, in
  the Cluny Museum.]

In the sixth and seventh centuries the dimensions of the sarcophagi
began to decrease, being rarely more than two metres (six feet seven
inches) in length. Another distinctive mark of that period was that
the coffin, narrower at the foot than at the head, was covered with a
large stone, hewn like that of the antique coffins. Moreover, it was
often a trifle less deep at the foot than at the head; but this is the
special characteristic of the coffins of the eighth century. After this
period, coffins narrower at the foot than at the head, but of the same
elevation on both sides, again came into use.

In the eighth century, many coffins were found to contain a small cell
cut into the stone for holding the head of the corpse. This cell was
generally square, but sometimes round.

The further we get into the Middle Ages the more difficult it becomes
to ascertain the antiquity of a coffin. After the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, if not the tenth, the lids are ornamented with
roughly-executed sculpture work, crosses in bas-relief, triangular
facets, indistinct tracery work which have a distinct resemblance to
the Roman sarcophagi.

The ancient cemeteries of the French provinces also contain coffins
moulded in plaster; and the Cluny Museum has some interesting specimens
of these coffins, which were in use from the ninth to the fourteenth
century. Their sides are roughly decorated with very primitive
ornaments, round, lozenge-shaped, and convoluted, with emblems which
enable us to ascertain approximatively their date of execution. Thus,
when a plaster coffin is decorated with the fleur-de-lis, we may be
sure that it cannot be of earlier origin than the thirteenth century.

In the last few years of the twelfth century was invented a kind of
stone coffin, hewn outside in such a way as to produce the shape of the
head, and to represent the whole body as enveloped in its shroud, just
like a mummy.

In the early part of the fourteenth century personages of rank were
buried in stone coffins lined with lead. In the time of Charles V.
stone was altogether replaced by wood and lead, even in the burials
of the rich. The coffins of that epoch resemble boxes made in a great
hurry by joining together sheets of lead of various thicknesses.

  [Illustration: Fig. 354.--Raised Stone, near Poitiers.--After a
  Plate in the great work of Count de Laborde, “Les Monuments de la
  France:” in folio, 1816.]

Square stone troughs, about twelve or fourteen inches in length by from
eight to ten inches in breadth, are also to be met with in considerable
numbers; and they were employed to receive the bones that had fallen
from disused burial-places, and from the vaults beneath churches when,
in the course of repairs, unknown or forgotten graves were disturbed.
When these repairs led to the disinterment of the coffins appertaining
to some personages of note buried in the church of which they had been
the parishioners and the benefactors, it sometimes happened that in
moving them they were burst open, and, in this case, the remnants of
the broken coffins were placed in these small troughs, which took up
less room. The tombs, that is to say the visible monuments of burial,
were of nearly the same shape as the coffins, from the earliest ages
down to the close of the ninth century, the only distinction being
that they were made of choicer materials and decorated with more or
less magnificence. Thus, all the coffins which contained the bodies of
martyrs, nobles, prelates, or kings, were exposed to the view of the
faithful, and served for tombs, so that these illustrious persons were
not, in the true sense of the term, interred. The stone chest in which
the body was placed being both a coffin and a funeral monument, was not
hidden beneath a tombstone, but remained visible in a church--not in a
sepulchral cave, but above ground, often, indeed, raised upon columns.
The early Christians of Gaul, those at least who were distinguished
for their achievements or their virtues, were interred in this fashion
in sarcophagi ornamented with allegorical subjects, very like those
in which pagans were buried. A case in point is the sarcophagus at
Rheims of Jovinus the patrician, master of the cavalry under Julian,
and, it is said, founder of the Church of St. Agricole, since called
St. Nicaise. This monument, removed from this ancient church to the
cathedral and afterwards to the museum, is of white marble, sculptured
upon three sides. The front represents various hunting scenes, in which
Jovinus is taking part, with a spear in his hand, accompanied by a
spirit which has the attributes of Minerva. It is very probable that
this sarcophagus, which had been previously used for the burial of some
pagan, was used for its fresh occupant without any change being made in
its artistic features. An exactly similar one was made for the King of
Austrasia, Carloman, the brother of Charlemagne; an analogous subject
was also sculptured upon it, and it was elevated upon four columns near
the tomb of St. Remigius.

The sarcophagi were sometimes made of a more costly material than
stone; that of St. Cassianus, at Autun, for instance, was of alabaster.
But these were only exceptional cases; and Maurice, Archbishop of
Rouen, prohibited these funeral extravagances in 1231. It is curious,
however, to note the representation of scenes in profane history upon
Christian coffins. Sauval describes one that was discovered in the
Church of St. Geneviève, Paris, in 1620, which contained a box full
of gold and silver medals representing the boar-hunt of Meleager.
Christian and pagan emblems are sometimes found side by side: upon
the sarcophagus of St. Andoche was represented a wheel, a bird,
vine-foliage and grapes, a hatchet, and, amidst all these ornaments, a
cross.

After the reign of Theodosius, there were in use throughout Gaul
sarcophagi the emblems of which were exclusively borrowed from the
Christian religion. As a general rule, the front surface is divided
by arcades of raised architecture, and between each of them is
represented a subject taken from the Old or the New Testament. Arles,
in fact, appears to have been the centre of a special manufacture which
executed this kind of work for all the south of France, until the
middle of the sixteenth century. There were also manufactories of stone
sarcophagi at St. Pierre l’Etrier, St. Emelion, and, more notably, at
Quarrée-les-Tombes.

During the reigns of the first _rois fainéants_, the successors of
Clovis, the decoration of the sarcophagi was affected by the barbarian
style of art. There were no longer any figures in relief--nothing
but the monogram of Christ, XP, with a circular or oval border. At
that period the sarcophagus took the exact shape of the coffin, being
narrower at the feet than at the head. The lid was a large stone of
the same character as the coffin, generally decorated with concentric
circles or the scales of fish, in memory of Christ’s monogram, ΙΧΘΥΣ
(ὶχθὺς, _fish_).

Funeral sculptures did not flourish during the time of Charlemagne;
the bodies of the kings were placed in ancient tombs, which were
everywhere very plentiful. Thus, the sarcophagus in which the body of
Charlemagne himself was placed represented the abduction of Proserpine.
It is true that upon that of Louis the Pious was represented the
Passage of the Red Sea, but this was manufactured at Arles. The
churches in course of time became so full of tombs that the councils
were obliged to prohibit interment in them, and this order, though only
partially observed, effected a change in the mode of burial. People
preferred to have the coffins placed in the ground, especially as they
were better protected in this way from the robbers who violated the
sanctity of the grave. Thus, from the ninth to the beginning of the
tenth century, sarcophagi gradually fell into disuse.

  [Illustration: Fig. 355.--Tomb of St. Elizabeth of Hungary,
  in the Church of Marburg, Hesse (Thirteenth Century). She is
  represented upon her death-bed, and the angels are offering her
  soul to Jesus, who is blessing it, and to the Virgin. To the
  right are Duke Louis with the cross of the Crusades, St. John
  the Evangelist, the special protector of St. Elizabeth, St.
  Catherine, and St. Peter; to the left, St. John the Baptist, St.
  Mary Magdalene, and a bishop. It was before this bas-relief that
  the pilgrims knelt in prayer, and their knees have worn hollows
  into the pavement around it.]

Burials above ground again came into vogue after the eleventh century,
and from that epoch dates the development of funeral art in the Middle
Ages. At first, the tombs, even of the highest personages, consisted
only of a plain block of stone or marble, varying in shape, placed
upon the ground, or, as was more often the case, raised upon short
columns. In the twelfth century we meet with a new kind of monument:
tombs in the form of square altars, or altar-tables, with the image of
the deceased in relief or cut out on their upper surface. These tombs
were in general use throughout the Middle Ages (Fig. 355), and were
combined, subsequent to the thirteenth century, with another mode
based on quite a different principle. As, in spite of the decrees of
the councils, the churches were still full of graves, it was sought to
make the tombs erected in them as little cumbersome as possible; and
hence arose the custom of placing tablets or sculptures upon the walls,
at a certain elevation above the ground, betokening the presence of a
coffin in the vault beneath. There were, besides, the flat tombs, the
pompous epitaphs on which were effaced by the footsteps of those who
walked over them. These were in vogue from the time of Philip Augustus,
and the use of them did not die out till the reign of Louis XIV.,
especially in the northern provinces of France.

  [Illustration: Fig. 356.--Tomb in the Church of St. Waudru, at
  Mons, of Adelaide or Alice, Countess of Hainault, who died in
  1168. This tomb is of stone, devoid of all decoration, with a
  triangular top in the shape of a cross. (Twelfth Century.)]

Some detailed account may now be given of the square blocks of stone
employed as funeral monuments. These raised tombs (for that is their
proper name) were, in the eleventh century, larger at the top than at
the sides. They were ornamented with mouldings at the top and at the
bottom, and either rested upon a stone slab or upon short columns.
Other tombs, equally massive, were prism-shaped, with three, four, or
five sides, and they too rested in the same manner. The oldest of these
monuments are almost exactly like coffins, and their surface is devoid
of all ornamental work (Fig. 356). The presence of sculpture about
a tomb constitutes one of the distinctive marks of art in the reign
of Philip I. (1059–1108). The sculpture generally consists of simple
circles enfolding busts surrounded with foliage. The solid square tombs
of that date are decorated with arcades in bas-relief, like the altars
of the period.

From this species of vault, is derived the monument in the shape of a
table, the dimensions and decorations of which continued to increase
during the reign of Louis VIII. It was a block of stone surmounted by
a table upon which rested a statue of the deceased, with his hands
crossed upon his breast. Tables of this shape were chiefly used for
the bronze tombs which became very numerous in the early part of the
twelfth century. These bronze tombs, upon which the statue was laid,
had for supporters four or six couched lions. When Suger restored his
Abbey of St. Denis, he removed to the middle of the choir the grave
of Charles the Bald, and erected over it a bronze table with lions
for supports, and a statue designed to represent the features of the
monarch.

The personages thus typified in stone, marble, or bronze, are always
represented with their insignia; kings and sovereign princes with a
crown and a mantle; knights bareheaded, with their armour, sword,
and spurs of knighthood, and, in many cases, their coat of mail and
armorial bearings (Fig. 357); nobles, not knights, with their armorial
shield, one or two hounds couched at their feet, a falcon upon the
wrist or the glove with which the bird was held in their hand,--that is
to say, with emblems signifying their right to take part in the chase,
which was the special privilege of the nobility.

In the same way women, lawyers, and the secular and the regular
clergy, had the dress betokening their condition upon their tombs; but
the sculptors and carvers did not always adhere very closely to the
variations of fashion, and they often represented a personage of their
own day in a costume belonging to a previous generation. Thus, for
several centuries, kings were represented with the primitive mantle
clasped or tied in front; the knights appeared, even down to the
time of Henry II., with the halberd and the helmet worn only by the
ancient order of chivalry. Funeral sculpture had its conventional and
traditional rules, like all other arts in the Middle Ages.

  [Illustration: Fig. 357.--Tomb erected in the Church of the
  Dominicans, at Puy-en-Velay, to the memory of Du Guesclin, by
  Marshal de Sancerre, his friend.--This tomb dates from the close
  of the Fourteenth Century.]

Archæologists have endeavoured to discover the meaning of the recumbent
figures--some in full dress, others without clothing--which were placed
upon the tombs of Christians, and they think that this usage is but
an instinctive return to the customs of the ancient Etruscans, who
represented upon the top of the tomb the body of the deceased, either
bent double or in a sitting position, or stretched at full length or
leaning upon his elbows, according as he had been laid in his grave.
The early funeral sculptors, as unskilful as they were ignorant,
copying only some particular model set before them, fashioned merely
an imperfect and roughly executed figure, with scarcely any approach
to bas-relief. In process of time the statue became better defined,
and, in the reign of Louis VII., was altogether in alto relievo. The
monks of the Abbey of St. Germain des Prés did for their benefactor,
King Childebert, what Suger had done for the illustrious dead who had
for several centuries been interred in the basilica of St. Denis, and
erected a cenotaph with a life-like figure of the monarch, the artist
hollowing out the upper part of the tomb in the shape of a basin, so as
to make the features stand out. The king is represented holding in one
hand a model of the small church which he had founded, and in the other
his sceptre.

With the advent of Gothic architecture, towards the middle of the
twelfth century, the tombs were decorated with vaulted arches in the
shape of quarter-foils, and these arches were afterwards made to
serve as a framework within which the bas-reliefs were placed. Within
the pointed arch of one is represented a monk mourner, one of those
who were hired to assist at the funeral ceremonies. The figure lying
upon the table was called the _gisant_, as is proved by old
account-books containing the following item: “So much to a certain
person for having carved the figure of a gisant.” The essentially
French art of funeral architecture and sculpture reached its apogee in
the fifteenth century, and nothing can be more perfect or beautiful
than the tombs of the dukes of Burgundy at Dijon, and of the dukes of
Berri at Bourges.

After the thirteenth century, one or two lions, or a dog, were placed
at the feet of the gisant; and the war ballads relate that these
symbolic animals were termed _cagnets_ or _cagnons_--the lion
being the emblem of force, and the dog of fidelity (_léauté_).

The tomb of a personage of rank or wealth was often decorated with
secondary figures, carved in relief in marble or stone--sometimes the
Virgin, or some saint, or some scene from the Old or the New Testament;
upon one side the personification of the virtues, upon the other,
mourners, or perhaps the family of the deceased. Thus there are carved
figures of the princes and princesses of the second House of Burgundy
around the tomb of Philip de Marle at Lille; a funeral ceremony was
represented upon that of Philip the Bold at Narbonne.

In the fourteenth century, the sculptors surmounted the tomb with
a bed, upon which a figure of the deceased was carved, with a kind
of stone dais or canopy; two angels with outstretched wings held a
spread-out veil, upon which they were bearing aloft a small naked
figure, standing erect, and meant to represent the soul of the
deceased person. In other monuments, the angels had a censer, with
which they are scattering incense upon the soul of the departed, as
at Neuilly-sur-Marne, upon the tomb of the famous preacher Foulques,
who died about the year 1200. In others, the angels are represented
holding the helmet and shield of the deceased, bearing up his train, or
presenting him on their knees an open prayer-book. The tomb of Philip
Pot (Fig. 358), formerly in the abbey-church of the Cistercians, was
supported by eight statues of women dressed in mourning. Some of the
statues placed upon the tombs were carved out of hard limestone instead
of marble; those of Charles VII. and his consort were of alabaster. In
many cases the hands and the head only were of alabaster or marble,
and the rest of the body of stone. The tomb of the Sire de Barbazan,
who died in 1432, was entirely of bronze; that of Charles VIII. at St.
Denis, constructed of the most valuable marble, had on it the statue
of that prince in bronze, flanked by four angels, each with the royal
shield.

  [Illustration: Fig. 358.--Tomb of Philip Pot, Grand Seneschal of
  Burgundy, who died in 1494; formerly in the Abbey of Citeaux, now
  in the Museum at Dijon. The knight is laid out upon a sepulchral
  stone, which is being borne up by eight mourners, each of whom
  carries on the arm a shield of his family alliances.]

From this period French art had to give place to Italian art, which
Charles VIII. had brought back as a trophy from his expedition to
Naples, and which eventually took root in France, and expanded with
all the splendours of the Renaissance until the close of the sixteenth
century. Foreign artists began to distinguish themselves in the
composition of tombs. Francis I., who had been struck with admiration
by the monuments of this kind at Florence, Rome, and Milan, determined
to have some equally remarkable in his own kingdom. The tomb of Louis
XII., the _chef-d’œuvre_ of a Florentine artist, served as a type
and a model for those of Francis I. and Henry II., which were completed
with still greater magnificence by the French artists Pierre Bontemps
and Germain Pilon, under the superintendence of Philibert de Lorme.
These funeral monuments are the most marvellous of all that have been
produced by French, in imitation of Italian, art (Fig. 361).

  [Illustration: Fig. 359.--The beheaded Knight holding his
  fleshless head in his hands.--A bust in the Namur Museum, dating
  from 1562, with this inscription: “A day will come when my
  account will be squared” (“Une heure viendra qui tout paiera”).
  This sinister cry of vengeance was no doubt addressed by the
  widow or the family of the victim to his murderer.]

  [Illustration: Fig. 360.--Tomb of Louis, Duke of Orleans, and
  Valentine of Milan, his spouse; executed by order of Louis
  XII.--Formerly in the Church of the Celestines, Paris; now in the
  Church of St. Denis. (Sixteenth Century.)]

Having passed in review the various kinds of funeral monuments in vogue
during the successive epochs of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,
we may proceed to consider certain accessory works of art; some of
which we are only acquainted with by written evidence; which is,
however, too detailed to permit of any doubt as to their having
existed. Such are the covers (_coopertoria_, _coopercula_)
under which were hidden the tombs, often plain and humble, of martyrs
and saints in ancient churches. These covers were often lined with
sheets of metal richly chased and enriched with precious stones. None
of them, unfortunately, are now extant, and it is only from the ancient
chroniclers that we learn of the marvels of art produced by St. Eloi
in the reign of Dagobert. Coming down nearer to our own day, tombs
were surmounted by a _ciborium_, or small cupola. This was made
of carved wood, and sometimes of stone, notably in the fourteenth
century. Thus the tomb of Marguerite of Flanders, daughter of Philip
the Long, was ornamented with open carving of the Gothic order. In most
cases a small edifice, with seven or eight supporting columns, was
erected over the tomb, and all the resources of art were employed upon
its decoration. During the period of _architecture rayonnante_,
these light and elegant constructions consisted of arches surmounted
by pointed gable-ends, which themselves served to unite the main
supports of the work, which was vaulted and topped with a roof.
Erections of this kind are still to be seen in the south of France,
above the graves of Innocent VI. (Avignon Cathedral) and of John XXII.
(Bourg-de-Villeneuve). The tombs of Charles VI. and Charles VII., at
St. Denis, were shut in, so to speak, by similar constructions. In
accordance with a usage which dates back to the very earliest times,
the tombs of the Middle Ages were often placed in the hollow of a wall
arched inward, so as not to be in the way of the worshippers, nor to
interfere with the celebration of divine service.

  [Illustration: Fig. 361.--Tomb of St. Remigius, erected (1526 to
  1530) in the church dedicated to him by Robert de Lenoncourt,
  Archbishop of Rheims. Around the monument, which has been
  destroyed, were niches containing marble statues of the twelve
  peers of France; to the right, the lay peers in royal robes and
  with crowns upon their heads, bearing the insignia of royalty; to
  the left, the ecclesiastical peers with the sacred symbols.]

We have already stated that, to prevent the churches from being
overcrowded with tombs, stone or marble tablets--they were of painted
wood sometimes--were fixed upon the wall just above, or not far from,
the grave, with an epitaph and sculptural ornaments. Some of these
tablets were mounted upon two columns attached to the wall, or placed
upon a pillar.

Before the time when statues on tombs were represented in a kneeling
posture, the sculptor often represented the deceased in an attitude of
prayer, and this figure was placed upon a console at a short distance
from the grave, in the chapel belonging to the family or brotherhood.
The figures thus reproduced in relief always wore the costume and
insignia of their profession, as is shown by certain monuments of the
reign of Charles V.

  [Illustration: Fig. 362.--Mausoleum of Philip II., King of Spain,
  near the high altar in the Escurial. This group of gigantic
  statues in bronze gilt is by Leoni. The king, kneeling in front
  of a _prie-dieu_, is arrayed in a mantle, upon which are
  represented the coats-of-arms of his different states. Beside him
  are his three wives--Elizabeth of France to the left, next to her
  Anne of Austria, and, to the right, Mary of Portugal. Behind him
  is his son, Don Carlos.--“Iconografia Española,” by Carderera.]

The flat tombs consisted of a slab six feet six inches long, either of
some hard stone or of marble, let into the ground or the pavement above
the coffin (Fig. 363). Upon the slab was originally carved the cross,
no matter what might be the condition of the person interred, with a
crozier for a prelate and a sword for a knight. These objects were
reproduced with considerable skill by carving them out of the stone and
plastering the hollow with red or black cement, which had the effect
of making their outline more distinct. In the twelfth century, the
flat tombs were decorated with a bordering around the stone, similarly
engraved, and intended to form a fillet within which came the epitaph,
with the name of the deceased and the date of his death. Later still,
as in the case of raised tombs, the figure of the deceased came to be
represented on them. This was so in the time of Louis VII., the statues
being made to represent the image of the deceased in the dress of his
particular station in life, with his hands crossed upon his breast;
and, subsequently, lions and dogs were added as accessories--the whole
being carved _into_ the stone. The figure of the deceased was
often surrounded with architectural devices. At first the figure was
placed under a colonnade; subsequently a very complicated edifice
was erected, with the statue of the deceased erect in the foreground
(Fig. 364). The hands and feet were often cemented on in white or
black marble. Flat tombs made either of brass, silver, or bronze were
also used, the last-named metal being much in vogue in the thirteenth
century; for example, we find it in the tomb of Ingerburga, wife of
Philip Augustus, at St. Jean-en-Ile, near Corbeil; in that of Blanche,
wife of Louis VIII., at Maubuisson; in that of Marguerite, wife of St.
Louis, and in that of Blanche, their daughter, at St. Denis. Prince
Louis, son of St. Louis, is also buried in that church, his tomb being
in copper enamelled.

  [Illustration: Fig. 363.--Flat Tomb of Sibylle (wife of Guy de
  Lusignan, King of Jerusalem), who died in 1187. In the church
  at Namèche, near Namur. The inscription, half effaced, may be
  translated as follows:--“Here lies the rightful heiress of
  Samson (a village near Namur), who was descended in a direct
  line from the King of Jerusalem. Let us pray God for her soul’s
  consolation.”]

Many tombs were far more sumptuous. Those of Louis VIII. and Louis
IX. were in silver-gilt, decorated with carved figures. Alphonse de
Brienne, Comte d’Eu, had a tomb of copper-gilt enriched with enamel. It
was probably at about the same period that the chapter of the Abbey of
St. Germain des Prés (Paris) covered with mosaics and filigree-work the
ancient tomb of Fredegonde; for it is difficult to believe, in spite of
Mabillon and Montfaucon, that this tomb dates back to her death at the
end of the sixth century.

  [Illustration: Fig. 364.--Flat Tomb of Alexandre de Berneval,
  architect of the Church of St. Ouen, at Rouen, and of his
  pupil.--In the Church of St. Ouen. (Fifteenth Century.)]

In the fifteenth century the English, masters at that time of a
considerable part of France, laid hands upon these plates of copper,
silver, and gold to convert them into coin; others which escaped
spoliation were melted down during the Revolution, so that we must
look to England and Belgium for flat metal tombs still in a state of
preservation.

Such are the chief characteristics of funeral monuments in the Middle
Ages and down to the period of the Renaissance. These monuments, many
of which are still extant, throw great light upon the costumes of their
time. We must now proceed to speak of the cemeteries, or places of
public burial, in which tombs above ground were legally permitted as
soon as the Church had established its authority. Burials within the
churches were, in fact, a special privilege for the rich, who were able
to purchase it in perpetuity. The presence of these graves in buildings
intended for public worship was, moreover, in accordance with the very
essence of Christianity, by reason of the practice already alluded to,
of placing the body of some saint beneath the altar.

The primitive Latin Church, in the second and in the early part of the
third century, performed the ceremonies of worship in the cemeteries of
the Christians, that is to say, in the crypts and the Catacombs. The
Christians, in imitation of the pagan custom of converting old quarries
into places of common burial, called _hypogea_, sought refuge,
during persecution, in some disused quarries near the gates of Rome,
and there they celebrated their rites in secret and buried their dead.
These are the Catacombs, which constitute a regular subterraneous town,
and the galleries of which, composing an immense labyrinth, have been
opened in the neighbourhood of and in close proximity to the ancient
roads which radiated from Rome towards the surrounding districts.
The appropriation of these Catacombs for Christian burial-places
unquestionably dates from the first century of Christianity. The best
known and the most famous are those which extend beneath the basilica
of St. Sebastian, and form part of what was called the Cemetery of
St. Calixtus, beneath the Appian Way. Since the sixteenth century,
when these Catacombs were first explored and thoroughly studied, this
generic name has been given to all excavations which have led to the
discovery of Christian graves. Each catacomb was called after the
martyr whom the faithful had interred there during the persecutions,
and whose relics have been found beneath altars, which were chiefly
erected and decorated during the eighth century.

  [Illustration: Fig. 365.--Crypt of the Chapel of St. Agnes,
  in the Catacombs at Rome, set apart for the interment of
  Christians.--From M. Perret’s work, “Les Catacombes de Rome.”]

The Catacombs are composed of very narrow galleries, from ninety-seven
centimetres to one metre thirty centimetres in breadth (thirty-eight
to fifty-one inches), cut irregularly through the stone. These
galleries, most of them very short, crossing each other in such a way
as to form an inextricable maze of streets and crossways, had an arched
roof supported by masonry here and there. At intervals there were
chambers, or _cubicula_ (Fig. 365), hollowed out by the Christians
to serve as chapels or oratories; these were either quadrangular
or circular, of small dimensions, and often decorated with fresco
paintings of different epochs dating from the first to the fourth
century. But little fresh air could penetrate into these galleries by
the openings which had been made here and there, and also through old
shafts situated at intervals of about three hundred yards from each
other, which had been used in working the quarries. In the lead-lined
partitions, the graves, most of which are still intact, were ranged in
rows one above the other. Each grave was a hollow of about the size of
a human body hewn lengthwise in the side of the gallery and closed with
a large brick, or with a stone or marble slab, set in cement. Five or
six bodies--sometimes as many as twelve--were so placed one above the
other. The paintings (Fig. 366), the sculptures, and the mosaics of
the Catacombs, are the first products of Christian art as it shook off
the traditions of paganism, and the subjects represented are generally
taken from the Holy Scriptures; such as the Leaving the Ark, Abraham’s
Sacrifice, Jonah, the Good Shepherd, the Raising of Lazarus. Many very
touching funeral epitaphs have also been discovered on them.

  [Illustration: Fig. 366.--Funeral Fresco discovered in the
  Cemetery of St. Pretextat, in the Catacombs at Rome. The two
  doves, emblems of marriage, indicate the tomb of the husband and
  wife.--From M. Perrét’s work, “Les Catacombes de Rome.”]

Nor is it merely from the day when the triumphs of Christianity led to
the building of the basilicas in Rome that personages of rank have been
buried inside the churches. The bodies of bishops and leaders of the
Catholic community, those of patricians and of barbarian princes who
succoured the Church in her early days, were the first to be received
within the sanctuary in as close proximity as possible to the relics of
the saint to whom the building was dedicated.

Very soon these burial-places began to be classified according to the
individual merit of the dead, and the importance of their rank or
fortune. Laymen and priests had a right to be buried in the aisles of
the church, or in the part corresponding to the apse, and it is no
exaggeration to say that the interior was often so full of graves that
they extended outside the building. Such was the case after the seventh
century. A small space, either round or square, was left in front of
the façade of the churches, to be reserved as a privileged place of
burial, and was called the _aitre_ or _parvis_ (_paradisus_); hence
the origin of the rural cemetery which extends along the sides of a
country church, or forms a green in front of it.

  [Illustration: Fig. 367.--The Cross of the Bureau Family,
  formerly in the Cemetery of the Innocents, Paris.--Lenoir’s
  “Statistique Monumentale de Paris.”]

  [Illustration: Fig. 368.--The Knight of Death, by Albert
  Dürer.--This celebrated engraving, so characteristic of the
  fantastic genius of the Middle Ages, represents a fully-armed
  knight going to the wars with a presentiment of coming evil, and
  accompanied by Sin and Death, personified as his running footman
  and esquire.--After the Fac-simile of the original Engraving,
  dated 1513, by one of the Wiericx (1564).]

Burial in the churches was at first interfered with, if not prevented,
even under the Christian emperors, by the Roman law, which prescribed
that the cemeteries should be extramural. Thus, according to tradition,
many of the early French saints were first of all buried outside
the towns, and their remains were subsequently placed within some
consecrated building or a church, erected over their original grave.
The ancient cemetery in some cases developed into an inhabited suburb,
as at Tours, where the Quartier de St. Martin occupies the ground
where that saint originally reposed. In other districts, the Christian
cemeteries occupied the same site down to the thirteenth century, as
at Arles, Autun, Bordeaux, the cemeteries of the Aliscan (_Elisii
campi_), St. Seurin, and Champ-des-Tombes. Other cemeteries,
rendered necessary by the increase in the size of the towns, were made
at about this period. Thus, after the accession of the Capet dynasty,
the capital increased so much in size that it was necessary to limit
the space accorded to burying-places, and twenty-two parishes on the
right bank of the Seine had no cemeteries of their own. A track of
waste land at Champeaux, running along the Rue St. Denis, was converted
into what was called the Cemetery of the Innocents (Fig. 367), and
it consisted of a large enclosure with three gateways; the first at
the corner of the Rue aux Fers; the second at the corner of the Rue de
la Ferronnerie; and the third in the Place-aux-Chats. Philip Augustus
surrounded it with a wall in 1186, to prevent it being overrun by
animals and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. To this wall was
afterwards added a covered gallery, called the _charnel-house_,
in which were buried those whose fortune allowed them to purchase the
privilege of being interred apart from the masses. This charnel-house,
which was damp and dismal, was paved with tombstones, and its walls
were covered with epitaphs and funeral monuments. In the thirteenth
century it became a fashionable resort in which tradesmen placed their
wares for sale, and the abode of death was converted into a place of
rendezvous and promenade for the idle.

This long gallery was built at different epochs, out of the largesses
given by several inhabitants of Paris. Marshal de Boucicault built
part of it in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and the
famous Nicholas Flamel, who is said to have had a bookstall in the
charnel-house, built at his own cost the whole side which ran parallel
with the Rue de la Lingerie, and in which he and his wife Pernelle
were buried. This charnel-house was surmounted by large _galetas_
(lofts) in which the bones of the dead were preserved. The famous
“Danse Macabre” (Figs. 369–392), that philosophical allegory in which
death was leading in the dance “persons of all conditions,” was painted
about the year 1430 upon the walls of the charnel-house, on the Rue St.
Honoré side.

  [Illustration: Figs. 369 to 392.--The Dance of Death, a
  Fac-simile of Wood Engravings executed after the Holbein
  Drawings in the “Simulachres de la Mort;” small 4to, Treschel
  Brothers, Lyons, 1538.--“As fish are taken speedily with
  the hook (_aine_), so does death take men; for death spares
  no man, king nor emperor, rich nor poor, noble nor villain,
  wise nor fool, physician nor surgeon, young nor old, strong
  nor weak, man nor woman. Nothing is more certain; all have
  to take part in death’s dance.”--Explanation taken from the
  “Forteresses de la Foy,” Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century,
  in the Library at Valenciennes.]

  [Illustration: The Dance of Death, after Holbein’s Drawings
  (_continued_).]

  [Illustration: The Dance of Death, after Holbein’s Drawings
  (_continued_).]

  [Illustration: The Dance of Death, after Holbein’s Drawings
  (_continued_).]

  [Illustration: The Dance of Death, after Holbein’s Drawings
  (_continued_).]

  [Illustration: The Dance of Death, after Holbein’s Drawings
  (_continued_).]

When Charles V. began to construct his château of the Louvre, in 1363,
Raimond Dutemple, the builder, purchased from the churchwardens of
the parish of the Innocents ten ancient tombs, each of which cost him
fourteen sous parisis, for the purpose of using the stones for his
masonry work--a proof that funeral monuments were not treated with
much respect at that epoch. At this same period, the clergy of the
Innocents’ parish sold part of the cemetery, already too small, to the
chapter of St. Germain l’Auxerrois, who built thereon houses and stalls
for the markets. It is estimated that more than two million persons
were buried in the Innocents’ cemetery in the course of six centuries.
In it were accumulated masses of stones, crosses, human remains,
and filth; the grass was growing in the midst of heaps of skulls;
the floors of the charnel-houses bent beneath piles of decomposed
bones; graves had been dug in every available space of ground, and the
smell of the corpses was unbearable. Notwithstanding, this was the
most celebrated cemetery of the Middle Ages, and the charnel-house
which enclosed it upon three sides served as a model for all those
constructed for other Christian churches and cemeteries, in accordance
with a custom dating back, it is reported, to the fifth or sixth
century. Still, no traces can be found of any such constructions around
the Gallo-Roman cemeteries, unless it be a rudely built boundary-wall.
At a later date, the cemeteries contiguous to parish churches or to
the chapels of hospitals were surrounded with cloister-like galleries,
between the roof and ceiling of which was the charnel-house, where the
bones dug up when fresh graves were made found a last resting-place.

Inside the cemeteries there were other erections never omitted, as,
for instance, a large stone cross with florid decoration and varying
in design, many of which date back to the eleventh century. After this
period came into vogue a small lantern, built in the shape of a very
narrow tower, like a hollow column, from twenty-six to forty feet
high, the summit of which was surmounted by arcades, through which
glimmered the faint light of a suspended lamp. This small building was
called “the lantern of the dead” (Figs. 394–396); it was also termed a
beacon (_fanal_), a lighthouse (_phare_), and a little tower
(_tourniele_). These beacon-towers, intended to indicate from afar
during night-time the presence of a cemetery, generally had a door
somewhat above the ground, which was reached by a ladder or flight of
steps.

Upon the side opposite to the door, an altar jutted out at the base
of the tower. This altar was never consecrated, as the canons forbid
any celebration to be held upon those which were in the open air
(_sub dio_). There are many monuments of this kind in Maine,
Berry, Angoumois, and Gascony; they are all of Roman architecture, or
of Gothic bordering upon Roman, and, consequently, do not date back
further than the eleventh century.

There was a tower of this kind in the Cemetery of the Innocents, at
Paris (Fig. 397), but of larger dimensions than any of those alluded
to above. It was a kind of octagon chapel, about forty feet high, and
Gilbert de Metz, who speaks of it, says that he was told it was the
tomb of a rich nobleman who had given orders that he himself should be
buried beneath it in order to save his remains from being profaned by
dogs and vagabonds.

In the fourteenth century the lanterns of the dead, instead of being
isolated and inaccessible columns, were built in the form of open
chapels, in which a lamp was kept constantly burning. Previous to the
erection of these chapels in the cemeteries, there existed others which
have often been taken for pagan temples. We know, through writings
of the ninth century, that in the cemeteries of the Carlovingian
abbeys there were chapels of this kind, with two stories and a crypt;
that these funeral chapels were of the same shape as the ancient
baptisteries, without the surroundings. They were octagonal buildings,
the vaults of which rested upon the boundary-walls of the cemetery.
There are still extant two belonging to the Roman epoch, one at
Montmorillon, in Poitou; the other, enclosed in the citadel of Metz,
was a dependency of the Abbey of St. Arnold.

Having treated of the burial-places and the funeral monuments of the
different epochs of the Middle Ages, we may now go on to speak of the
funeral ceremonies.

As soon as a king or a queen had breathed their last, the face was
covered with wax, in order to take an impression of the features and
reproduce them upon their effigies. Pending the completion of this
likeness, the body was laid by the chamberlains and the gentlemen of
the chamber in a leaden coffin, lined with wood and black velvet,
covered with a white satin cross, and was carried by the archers of
the body-guard into a richly-decorated chamber, and placed upon a bed
trimmed with black cloth hangings which reached to the ground. An altar
was erected in the middle of the chamber for celebrating mass while the
body remained there.

  [Illustration: Fig. 393.--The Torments of Hell.--The Latin
  inscriptions in this engraving may be translated as follows: At
  the top, “The worm which feeds on the ungodly man shall never
  die, and the fire that devours him shall never be quenched;”
  in the centre, “Jews; Men of war;” beneath, “Monk; Lucifer, or
  Satan.”--Fac-simile of a Miniature from the “Hortus Deliciarum,”
  a celebrated Manuscript of the Twelfth Century, executed at
  the Convent of Hohemburg in the time of the Abbess Herrade de
  Landsberg; destroyed in the fire of the Strasburg Library during
  the Prussian bombardment, Sept. 24th, 1870. Reprinted from Count
  de Bastard’s great work.]

When the effigy was completed it was placed in another chamber as
richly decorated as the first, and around it were placed seats, or
_formettes_, covered with striped cloth of gold, upon which the
prelates, lords, gentlemen, and officers took their places. The state
bed, upon which the effigy was laid, was furnished with a covering of
cloth of gold reaching to the ground, and decorated with a bordering
of ermine spotted with black, which overlapped by about two feet the
covering, and was itself trimmed with Hungarian point-lace.

  [Illustration: Fig. 394.--Beacon in the Cemetery of Feniou, near
  St. Jean d’Angely (Eleventh Century); it is formed of eleven
  Roman columns.

  Fig. 395.--Beacon in the Cemetery of Antigny, Vienne (Fifteenth
  Century).

  Fig. 396.--Beacon in the Cemetery of Ciron, Indre (Twelfth
  Century).

  From the “Antiquités Monumentales” of M. de Caumont.]

The effigy was arrayed in a fine linen shirt, or chemise, trimmed at
the neck and sleeves with, black silk, and over this was passed a
doublet of scarlet satin, lined with taffeta of the same colour, edged
with narrow gold braid. Over the doublet was a tunic of azure satin,
spotted with golden fleurs-de-lis, trimmed with a silver and gold lace
about four inches wide, the sleeves reaching only to the elbow. Last
of all came the royal mantle of purple velvet of an azure hue, spotted
with golden fleurs-de-lis, six yards long, open in front, without
sleeves, lined with white satin, the ermine collar about a foot deep,
the facings and the train trimmed with ermine. From the neck of the
effigy hung the royal order; upon the head was a small cap of dark
crimson velvet, surmounted by the crown studded with jewels. Upon the
legs were buskins of cloth of gold, with bright crimson satin feet; the
hands were crossed upon the chest. At the head of the bed were placed
two cushions of red velvet, trimmed with embroidery; upon the one to
the right lay the sceptre, which was almost the same length as the
effigy, while upon that to the left was placed the hand of justice,
open, the staff being about two feet and a half long. The bed, which
was devoid of curtains, was surmounted by a very rich dais. Beside the
head of the bed, to the right, was the chair covered with cloth of
gold, with a cushion of the same material. At the foot was a stool,
also covered with cloth of gold, for the silver vessel containing
the holy water, and upon each side were two other seats covered with
striped cloth of gold for the heralds, arrayed in their coats of mail,
who presented holy water to the princes that came to view the body. The
lower end of the mortuary chamber, which was just opposite the effigy,
was occupied by a very richly decorated altar.

  [Illustration: Fig. 397.--Tower of Notre-Dame-du-Bois,
  constructed during the Eleventh Century, in the Cemetery of the
  Innocents, Paris; demolished in 1786.]

The royal effigy was laid in state for eight or ten days, during which
time the ordinary service of the palace went on just the same as during
the king’s lifetime. At the dinner and supper hours the table was laid
by the officers, and the courses arranged by the gentlemen-in-waiting,
preceded by the usher, and followed by the officers of “the king’s
buttery,” who approached the table with the customary obeisances. The
bread was then cut and placed ready for being handed round, the dishes
were brought to the table by an usher, the maître d’hôtel, the pantler,
the pages, the squire of the kitchen, and the keeper of the plate; the
napkin was presented by the maître d’hôtel to the highest personage
present; grace was said by a prelate or an almoner, who recited the
prayers for the dead. All those who were in the habit of eating at
the king’s table during his lifetime were expected to be present at
each of the repasts, together with the other persons of his household,
the princes, princesses, and prelates. The dishes were afterwards
distributed amongst the poor.

When the effigy had been removed the embalmed body was brought into the
middle of the same room, and the coffin--covered with a pall of black
velvet which touched the ground, with a large cross of white satin
in the centre, and on each side a scutcheon representing the arms of
France--was placed upon trestles; over the whole was thrown another
large pall of cloth of gold with fringes, which had also in the centre
a white satin cross, and at each extremity the arms of France, but
smaller than those on the under pall. The pall was trimmed with violet
velvet of a fine azure, spotted with fleurs-de-lis, and bordered with
ermine. At the head of the coffin was a cushion of cloth of gold, upon
which lay the royal crown, with the sceptre to the right and the hand
of justice to the left; at the foot there was a cross of silver-gilt,
and over it a splendid dais of black velvet; upon a form stood the
vessel for holy water, with a stool on each side for the two heralds
arrayed in their coats of arms, _chaperons en tête_. Beside the
heralds there was a bench covered with black cloth for the princes and
cardinals, who were seated on it during the celebration of mass. The
coffin was surrounded by a black wooden railing. At the lower end were
two altars standing in close proximity to each other; that of the chief
chapel for the high masses for the dead which was chanted, and that of
the oratory for low masses said by the chaplain in ordinary to the late
king. The nobles, several gentlemen, the officers and the body-guard,
all in mourning, were present at these services. A few days previous
to the interment the new sovereign repaired to the mortuary chamber,
attired in a purple mantle--purple was the mourning colour for kings,
as _tanné_ (brown) was that for queens--the train being borne
by five princes, each wearing a hood of the same colour. The chief
gentleman of the chamber presented him the cushion, on which the king
knelt in prayer after making the customary reverences. Then taking the
_aspersorium_ from the hands of a prelate, he sprinkled the coffin
with holy water; this done he withdrew, after making the reverences
usual upon such occasions.

When a king or a queen died in Paris, a procession was formed to their
residence to conduct the body to the place of interment; if he died
outside the city, the cortége started from Notre-Dame des Champs or
St. Antoine des Champs to meet it at its arrival. This cortege was
composed of the presidents and other officers of the parliament in
black robes, the officers of exchequer, of taxes, and of the treasury,
of the delegates, the provost of the merchants, the aldermen, and the
councillors of the city, all in mourning.

  [Illustration: Fig. 398.--Obsequies of St. Cesarius, physician to
  the Emperors Constantius and Julian; died in 369.--Fac-simile of
  a Miniature from a Greek Manuscript of the Ninth Century, in the
  National Library, Paris.]

Early the next morning, the twenty-four criers of the city announced
the event “_en la Chambre du plaidoyé, Table de marbre, et par les
rues_,” enumerating the titles and qualities of the deceased monarch
in the form laid down by the Grand Council, and not by Parliament,
which had refused to draw up this cry for King Henry II. (27th of July,
1559), in compliance with the request of his widow.

In the afternoon, the body was taken to the Church of Notre-Dame, in
Paris, and the effigy of the king was laid upon the coffin, in order to
impress yet more deeply the people who were admitted to do him homage.

By special privilege the _hanouars_, or bearers of salt, carried
the coffin; but at the interment of Charles VIII. twenty gentlemen of
his household volunteered to act as bearers of the body from Notre-Dame
des Champs to St. Denis. At the death of Louis XII., the hanouars
demanded and obtained the restoration of their privilege.

  [Illustration: Fig. 399.--Funeral of St. Edward the Confessor,
  the Anglo-Saxon king, who died on the 5th of January, 1066.--The
  body, covered with an embroidered pall surmounted with two small
  crosses, being carried by eight men to Westminster Abbey, of
  which he was the founder. Behind come priests chanting the Psalms
  for the Dead, while two clerks are ringing bells.--From the
  Bayeux Tapestry (Twelfth Century).]

The ceremonial was altered at the funeral of Francis I. and Henry II.,
the body being placed in the _chariot d’armes ou de parement_,
and the honours due to the body, which was in the hinder part of the
procession, were paid to the effigy. The gentlemen of the chamber to
Francis I., “with straps around their necks,” esteemed it an honour
to bear the effigy of their late master; those who had been in the
service of Henry II. only walked by the side of his effigy, holding up
the pall of cloth of gold. The Parliament, which had always enjoyed
the privilege of walking in front of, as well as of surrounding and
following, the body and the effigy, felt annoyed at being exclusively
attached to the latter, which still represented life; whereas the
body, representing death, was already, so to speak, separated from the
honours of royalty.

  [Illustration: Fig. 400.--Mortuary Cloth from the Church of
  Folleville (Somme), now in the Museum at Amiens (Sixteenth
  Century).--The cloth thrown over the coffin formed three crosses;
  the centre of the largest of these lay over the breast of the
  deceased, the two others covered the two sides of the bier; upon
  the white crosses are death’s heads crunching bones between their
  teeth. Two yellow-hued mirrors reflect the image of a human
  skull. The crosses bear the Latin inscription, “Memento mori.”]

The funeral procession proceeded in the following order through the
streets of Paris to the Abbey of St. Denis. First came an esquire in
mourning and on foot, carrying the banner of France covered with black
crape; then followed, bareheaded, the players of the hautboy, the
tabor, and the fife, with their instruments reversed, and in their rear
trumpeters with their bannerols flying.

  [Illustration: Fig. 401.--Triumphal Vessel, which was drawn upon
  a car in the solemn funeral ceremony celebrated at Brussels, upon
  the 29th of December, 1558, in honour of the Emperor Charles
  V., who died on the 21st of September, in the same year, at the
  Monastery of St. Just.--This vessel gives some idea of the shape
  as well as of the magnificence of the galleys constructed at
  that period. Three symbolic personages are conducting the vessel
  towards eternity: in the stern stands Charity (_Charitas_),
  ever glowing with love; amidships is Faith (_Fides_), with
  her eyes fixed upon the image of Christ; and at the prow, above
  the gilt beak-head, is Hope (_Spes_), standing with one
  hand placed upon the anchor of safety. The masts and bulwarks of
  the ship are decorated with flags upon which figure the arms of
  the different Netherland States, of Burgundy, and the Tyrol--all
  direct fiefs or conquests of the deceased emperor. The triangular
  sail in the stern indicates, by its colour (black), that the
  vessel is in mourning. The marine monsters which are seen
  swimming around it represent the enemies vanquished by Charles
  V., and the columns of Hercules, surmounted by the crown and the
  tiara, typify the alliance between the Empire and the Church,
  an alliance to which the Cesarean motto--“Non plus oultre,”
  lends special significance.--From the “Magnifique et Somptueuse
  Pompe Funèbre faite aux Obsèques du très-grand Empereur Charles
  Cinquième en la Ville de Bruxelles” (Plantin, Antwerp, 1559). In
  the Collection of M. Ruggieri, Paris.]

After these came the _chariot d’armes_, hung with black velvet
which reached to the ground, and upon it a large cross in white satin,
and twenty-four shields representing the arms of France. The coach was
drawn by six horses with black velvet trappings and the large white
satin cross, and on the near wheeler and leader postilions in mourning
and bareheaded. Around the coach were armourers and _sommeliers
d’armes_, together with some members of the four mendicant orders,
carrying tapers to which were affixed armorial shields. Twelve pages
followed, dressed in black velvet, who rode, bareheaded, upon twelve
horses, also caparisoned in black velvet with a white satin cross, each
led by a footman dressed in mourning and also bareheaded.

  [Illustration: Fig. 402.--Mourning Costumes.--Group consisting
  of Gold Fleece, Herald of Spain; of King Philip II., son and
  successor of Charles V., accompanied by Henry IV., Duke of
  Brunswick; of the Duke d’Arcos, Spanish Grandee; of Ruy Gomez de
  Sylva, Count of Melito, and of Emanuel-Philibert, Duke of Savoy.
  The last-named wears, like King Philip, the mourning hood, being
  the son of Beatrice of Portugal, sister-in-law of Charles V. The
  hood was only worn by the heirs of the deceased sovereign.--From
  the work on the funeral of Charles V., quoted on the previous
  page (see Fig. 401), published by Plantin, at Antwerp, in 1559.
  In the Collection of M. Ruggieri, Paris.]

One of the esquires of the stable carried the spurs and another the
gauntlets; a third, the arms of France, in the form of an escutcheon,
with the crown; a fourth bore at the end of a staff, in the form of
a gallows, the coat-of-arms made of violet velvet, and studded with
golden fleurs-de-lis. The first esquire, or, in his absence, the
eldest, carried the royal-crested helmet.

The state charger, with his housings entirely covered with crimson
velvet studded with Cyprus fleurs-de-lis of gold, was led by two
esquires; and upon each side came dismounted heralds-at-arms
_chaperon en tête_.

Behind the master of the horse, hooded and wearing at his side the
royal sword, followed the effigy, drawn upon a car, and holding in its
right hand the sceptre and in its left the hand of justice.

It was succeeded by the personage who was conducting the funeral
procession, and by the first or high chamberlain, bearing the banner
of France. Next to them marched the provost of the merchants and the
aldermen in full dress, bearing the dais and the pall which had been
used in the mortuary chamber, and which were carried at a certain
distance from the effigy, so as not to prevent the latter from being
seen.

Then came the princes, mounted upon small mules, the trains of their
mantles being each held up by a gentleman on foot in deep mourning.
After the princes were the ambassadors, dressed in mourning, but
without hood; the royal knights, wearing their insignia and a
mourning hood; the lords and gentlemen of the chamber; the captains
of the guards and archers in mourning, with their silver-coated
_hocquetons_ (a sort of jacket). Towards the middle of the
sixteenth century, the prelates and almoners also followed the cortége.

In the evening a solemn service was celebrated at Notre-Dame, and
another the next morning. In the afternoon of the latter day the
cortége repaired in the same order to St. Denis, stopping half-way at
a stone cross called the _Croix du Sien_, where the monks of the
abbey came out in procession to receive the king’s body and effigy from
the Archbishop of Paris, who thereupon withdrew, accompanied by his
clergy. As soon as the body entered the town of St. Denis, the monks of
the abbey bore the pall. In the evening the service was celebrated in
the cathedral, and on the following day the body was placed, covered
by the great pall of cloth of gold, in a _chapelle ardente_. The
effigy was removed, and the crown, the sceptre, and the hand of justice
were given to the heralds, who handed them over to three princes of
the blood. The gentlemen of the king’s chamber then took charge of the
body and carried it to the entrance of the vault in which it was to
be interred, and into which one of the kings-at-arms descended, and
in a loud voice bid the other kings-at-arms and heralds to do their
duty. Thereupon they all came forward and divested themselves of their
coats-of-arms. The king-at-arms standing in the vault bid five esquires
bring him the spurs, gauntlets, shield, coat-of-arms, and crested
headpiece; from the first _valet tranchant_ he received the
fanion, and from the captains of the Swiss and the archers of the guard
their insignia; the master of the horse handed him the royal sword; the
high or first chamberlain, the banner of France; the grand master and
all the _maîtres d’hôtel_ threw their staves into the vault; the
three princes brought to him the hand of justice, the sceptre, and the
crown. He then cried three times in a loud voice, “The king is dead;
pray to God for his soul!” and he then added the cry, also three times
repeated, “Long live the king his successor!” This cry was taken up by
another herald; the trumpets sounded, and the ceremony was at an end.
After this the grand master, accompanied by the prelates and knights
of the royal orders, repaired to the principal _table_ of the
Parliament, where the officers of the king’s household were collected,
and there he broke in their presence “the magisterial staff,” telling
them that they were henceforth without a master.

  [Illustration: Fig. 403.--Funeral Service for Anne of Brittany,
  Queen of France, who died on the 9th of January, 1514, at the
  Castle of Blois.--The service was celebrated on the 4th of
  February, in the Church of St. Sauveur, Blois.--In the middle
  of the choir was laid “the body of the noble lady, beneath a
  _chapelle ardente_ (_catafalque_) which had five
  pinnacles, each ornamented with a double cross with lighted
  tapers, crowned with a circle of black velvet, and decorated with
  several escutcheons.” In front of the coffin stood the effigy of
  the Queen, holding the crown and sceptre. Around are kneeling
  Franciscan and Jacobine nuns. Mass is being said by the Bishop
  of Paris.--From a Miniature in a contemporary Manuscript, the
  “Trespas de l’Hermine regrettée;” in the Library of M. Ambroise
  Firmin-Didot.]

A similar order of proceeding was observed at the funeral of a
queen, where the crowned effigy, with the royal mantle studded with
fleurs-de-lis, and with the sceptre in the right hand and the hand of
justice in the left, also figured in the ceremony. But in addition to
the princes, the body was followed by the princesses, and by several
ladies and maids-in-waiting, all of them dressed in mourning.

Isabel of Bavaria, widow of Charles VI., is the only queen of France
who was not buried with the honours due to her rank; her body having
been taken to Notre-Dame (1435), where the customary prayers were said,
the funeral procession and the Parliament followed it to the Port St.
Landri, where the coffin was placed in a boat, and taken by water to
St. Denis under the escort of two clerks and a chaplain.

Under the first Merovingian dynasty, immediately on the death of the
king, his body was washed, embalmed, and arrayed in the royal robes; it
was then taken to the church, which was always some basilica of note
previous to St. Denis being selected as the royal burying-place.

  [Illustration: Fig. 404.--Death of St. Benedict, surrounded by
  his monks, in his Abbey of Monte Cassino, on the 21st of March,
  542.--The “Légende Dorée” says, “At the moment of his death,
  one of the monks who had remained in his cell saw him ascend to
  heaven; and St. Maur, his disciple in France at the time, also
  saw what appeared to be a street, hung with rich tapestry and
  brilliantly lighted, which reached from St. Benedict’s cell to
  heaven. A man of majestic appearance approached him and said,
  ‘Behold the road by which Benedict, the servant and friend of
  God, is travelling to the presence of the Divine Majesty.’” The
  artist has grouped the various incidents of this story into his
  painting.--Fresco by Spinelli d’Arezzo (1390), in the Church of
  San Miniato, near Florence.]

At that period the kings of the Franks assisted in person at the
obsequies of the kings and queens their predecessors. Thus, Childebert
and Clotaire I. accompanied the body of their mother, Clotilde, from
Tours, where she died, to the Church of St. Geneviève, in Paris, where
she was buried. The four sons of Clotaire brought their father’s
body from Compiègne to the Abbey of St. Médard de Soissons, where it
was finally laid. Louis VI. followed on foot the body of his father,
Philip I., from Melun, where he died, to St. Benoît-sur-Loire, where
he was interred. Philip III. helped to carry his father’s bier from
the Church of Notre-Dame, in Paris, to St. Denis. The three sons of
King John--Charles V., Louis, Duke of Anjou, and Philip, Duke of
Burgundy--followed their father’s body to the grave; but the fourth
son, John, Duke of Berri, detained as hostage in England, was unable
to take part in the ceremony. Henceforward, the kings of France gave up
the custom of being present at the obsequies of their predecessors and
of members of the royal family. The sons of Henry II., however, with
the exception of the dauphin Francis, who merely sprinkled holy water
over the corpse, followed their father to the grave.

  [Illustration: Fig. 405.--The Christian professor on his
  death-bed--the priest is exhorting him; his disciples are
  praying for him; his wife is holding a flaming torch over his
  head in token of the resurrection. The dying man contemplates
  the image of Christ on the Cross, who died for the sins of
  mankind; the Holy Virgin, holding the Infant Jesus in her arms,
  implores pardon for the sinner, while evil spirits are searching
  in the professor’s works for some heresy which may ensure his
  damnation. Death is there.--Fac-simile of a Wood Engraving in
  the “Cogitatione della Morte,” by J. Savonarola; the Florence
  edition, in 4to (date unknown).]

In former times, the kings of the third dynasty were present at the
funerals even of their relations or friends. Joinville states that
the bodies of several nobles who had been massacred in prison by the
Saracens were given up to King Louis IX., who had them buried in the
Church of St. John of Acre. Amongst the slain was Gautier de Brienne,
whose cousin, Madame de Secte, discharged all the funeral expenses,
while every knight who was present at the ceremony gave as an offering
a taper and a silver denier. “The king,” says Du Tillet, “was present,
and contributed a taper and a besant, which he took from the lady’s
purse, out of his exceeding graciousness, for kings on funeral
occasions always contributed money of their own, and not that of those
who invited them.” Charles V. was present at the funeral of Jean de
la Rivière, his chamberlain, in the Church of the Val des Ecoliers,
Paris. Edward III. of England honoured with his presence the funeral
of G. Mauny, a knight of Hainault, buried in the Carthusian monastery
of London. After the sixteenth century, the sovereign merely went to
sprinkle the body with holy water, but did not assist at the obsequies
of great officers of his household, or of members of his family.

Funeral rites gave rise to a host of interesting and peculiar customs,
which a want of space prevents us from enumerating and describing.
Thus, in the southern provinces of France, it was the usage in former
days to carry the dead to the place of burial upon their state-beds,
which became the property of the officiating priest as a remuneration
for his services.

In Paris, down to the reign of Louis XIV., it was the custom, when any
personage of note died, for the “crier of the dead,” dressed in black,
to go through the streets, ringing a bell and crying out, “Pray God
for the dead!” This usage still exists in certain districts. Another
custom, altogether of ecclesiastical origin, was that of inscribing the
names of the dead upon placards, and so commending them to the prayers
of the worshippers in the monasteries and churches. Upon some of these
“rolls of the dead” (Fig. 407), composed of several sheets of parchment
sewn together, new names were added to the old, and the good works of
the deceased recorded thereon. These were the perpetual rolls. Orderic
Vital, in his “Ecclesiastical History,” speaks of a long roll in the
Monastery of St. Evroul, upon which were inscribed the names of monks,
and of their fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. This roll was
laid upon the altar for the whole year, and only unfolded on the Jour
des Morts (All Souls’ Day).

These annual rolls were sent each year from one religious house to
another, to announce the names of those monks belonging to the same
order who had died during the year. A separate roll was forwarded on
the death of each monk, in order to obtain on his behalf the prayers
of his brethren in Christ. A copy of the document was taken for each
community, or perhaps the same was made to serve for all the abbeys in
the diocese. The style was simple or pompous, according to the rank and
position of the deceased.

  [Illustration: Fig. 406.--Jesus Christ descending into Hell,
  carrying with him the victorious Standard of the Cross and
  trampling under foot the spirit of Evil; the wall of separation
  reared by sin falls to the ground, and the saints of the Old
  Testament are set free.--Fresco by Simone di Martino, in the
  Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence (Fourteenth Century).
  (For description, see text, p. 501.)]

  [Illustration: Fig. 407.--Mortuary Roll of the blessed Vital,
  founder of the Abbey of Savigny (in the diocese of Avranches),
  who died on the 16th of September, 1122; it measures twenty-nine
  feet nine inches in length by eight and a half inches in
  breadth. One of the words in this roll commences with a capital
  T, representing Death in the act of devouring men and animals,
  while he treads under foot the Cerberus of the pagans.--National
  Archives of France.]

With respect to the corporations and brotherhoods, the usages varied
in every district and in every town. Thus, for instance, when a member
of the community of criers died, in Paris, all the others were
present at his funeral in the dress of their order, the body being
borne by four of his colleagues. Two others followed the coffin, one
having a handsome goblet (_hanap_), the other a jar filled with
wine. The remainder of the company walked in front, with little bells
in their hands which they kept ringing as they went along. When they
came to a cross-road the procession halted, and the coffin was placed
upon trestles. The crier who carried the goblet held it out to be
filled by the one who had the wine, and each of the four bearers took
a draught. Any looker-on, or any one who happened to be passing, was
asked to share in the libation. The obsequies of the ecclesiastical
body have alone preserved down to our own day a remnant of the
religious pomp with which they were conducted in the Middle Ages.

To form a correct idea of the pomp of these funeral rites, and of the
strange fascination which caused to be maintained, in the heart of a
city, cemeteries in which whole generations of the dead lay buried
together, we must divest ourselves of the positivism of the present
day, and revert to the poetic spiritualism of the Middle Ages, to the
consoling mysticism which then prevailed. Faith at that time reigned
supreme over men’s minds, and three articles of the Apostles’ Creed,
“Christ died and was buried; he descended into hell; the third day
he rose again from the dead,” diffused over the mystery of death an
ineffable splendour.

Dante, theologian as well as poet, divides hell into successive zones,
with the degree of punishment increasing in intensity as the circles
become narrower. In the first he places “Limbo,” a happy resting-place
for the good who have not been baptized. Virgil, his guide, tells him:
“I had not long been here when I saw a mighty Being, crowned with all
the tokens of victory, come down amongst us. He took back with him
to the realms of bliss our first parent; Abel, his son; Noah; Moses,
the faithful lawgiver; the patriarch Abraham; King David; Israel,
his father and his children; Rachel, for whom Israel made so many
sacrifices, and many others. And you must know that before them no man
had been saved.”[14]

This imaginative idea was very much in accordance with the popular
doctrine of the Middle Ages, based upon the teaching of the Church.
Hell, or the infernal regions, was divided into four parts; the
deepest, the abode of the damned; above that, Limbo, in which
unbaptized children found a peaceful resting-place; the third region
was Purgatory, or the place of expiation for the souls which, after
having been purified by temporary punishment, are destined for Heaven;
lastly, and nearest to the surface, came the Limbo of the elect, the
temporary abode of the pious dead, from Abel to Christ. In this latter
there was supposed to be no other punishment than that of expectant
captivity. It was thither that the Redeemer descended, while his body
was at rest beneath the stone of the sepulchre, awaiting the moment
of His resurrection. The gracious Saviour hastened to gladden these
beloved spirits with the news that his blood had washed out upon the
cross the decree that had so long hung upon the children of Abraham,
and that they would soon be permitted to follow Him to the skies, and
at last enter into the heavenly Jerusalem.

The reader has before him the graceful composition in which the painter
has transferred to canvas (Fig. 406) the poem attributed to Venancius
Fortunatus, the Christian poet of the seventh century. The wall of
separation reared by sin falls to the ground at the approach of the
Saviour; the very doors which had held the elect captive serve as a
bridge for them to cross the abyss, and the spirit of evil, trodden
under foot by Jesus Christ, is convulsed with frenzy as he clutches
in his grasp the once fatal but now useless key. The father of the
human race rushes forward with respectful eagerness towards the new
Adam, who bears the victorious standard of the cross; joy, love, and
gratitude animate the majestic group of elect, amongst whom are to be
distinguished Eve and St. Joseph upon their knees; while Abel, Noah,
Moses, Aaron, David, Judas Maccabæus, St. John the Baptist, and others,
are to be recognised either by their emblems or by their garb.

In the gloomy region hard by, whence flames are shooting up, the
infernal spirits are trembling with wonder and awe. A figure in the
shadow of an embrasure opening into purgatory, depicts the consolation
and the relief which Christ’s visit imparts to those souls whose
purification is accomplished.

That which the painter here typifies to the eye, the anniversary of
Christ’s burial, in the last days of the Holy Week, was brought vividly
to the Christian mind in each recurring year. When the long procession
of the people and the clergy wended its way to the sepulchre as the
resurrection morning drew nigh, a pious dialogue was exchanged between
the chanters and the crowd. It was Fortunatus’ poem which furnished the
faithful with the beautiful form in which they gave utterance to their
sentiments of faith. Voices repeated:--

“O Christ! Thou art the salvation, the Creator, full of goodness, and
the Redeemer of the world. Only-begotten Son of the Father, Author of
the life of the world, Thou didst allow thyself to be buried; Thou hast
trodden the pathway of death to give us the blessings of salvation.

“The gates of hell have fallen before their Master, and chaos has been
seized with terror at the inrush of light.

“Deliver the imprisoned souls from the captivity of hell, and make to
ascend on high all those who have gone down into the abyss.

“Thou snatchest from the dungeon of death a teeming host which, when
set free, follows in the footsteps of its deliverer.

“O holy King! the radiant splendour of Thy triumph shines forth when
the purified souls emerge from the sacred bath of purgatory. They,
resplendent in their newly-acquired liberty, array themselves in robes
of innocence, and the Shepherd contemplates with joy His flock, made
white as snow.”

This divine triumph, which the artist has so vividly depicted, and of
which the poet sings with such enthusiasm, was brought home to every
Christian by the aid of the imagination under the guidance of faith.
Nurtured in the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, the people had got
to be familiar with the wholesome teaching of St. Paul, when he so
eloquently drew a comparison between the seed sown in the ground and
the corruptible body of the Christian changed into the incorruptible.
All men at that time steadfastly believed in the truth of those sublime
words: “The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption:
it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: it is sown a natural
body, it is raised a spiritual body.”

These thoughts, which softened the sense of sorrow at death in the
days of deep religious faith, have been beautifully expressed by the
great painter of the Middle Ages, so fitly named Angelico. In his
splendid picture, “The Last Judgment,” the grouping of the elect is
a _chef-d’œuvre_ of Christian art. The green grass, the flowers
springing up on all sides, bring before the mind the resurrection,
and the elevated spiritualism of the faces which are depicted in this
exquisite scene carries the imagination into an ideal world. Man, with
the belief in a life to come, looked on death but as a sleep stealing
over the traveller, wearied with his pilgrimage towards the heavenly
country. The place of burial became the _place of sleep_ (which is
the meaning of the word _cemetery_). The corruption of the tomb
was rendered poetical by comparing it to the corruption of the seed,
which decomposed only to be quickened and to develop into a verdant
stem, branching out into sweet-scented and graceful flowers. The fear
of yielding to the lusts of the flesh drove the faithful into the
extreme rigour of penance, but, when death had dispelled all danger,
the body became an object of pious worship: it was encompassed with
floods of light and clouds of incense before being committed to the
earth, which had been blessed and consecrated to make it a fitting
receptacle for so precious a deposit--for faith saw in imagination the
splendour with which it would one day be clothed; and, to help the
imagination, art placed before the gaze the ineffable visions of the
Apocalypse.

  [Illustration: Fragment of Angelico's picture, _the Day of
   Judgement_, XV^{th} century. Florence, Academy of
   Fine-Arts.]

Van Eyck has allegorically treated this great subject of the
Resurrection (Fig. 408), with as much approach to what the Church
believes to be the truth, and perhaps as artistically, as the painter
of Fiesole. Amidst a landscape flooded with light, bright with verdure
and flowers, the Mystic Lamb, standing upon an altar and shedding his
exhaustless blood into the chalice, is being greeted with homage and
hymns of praise by the celestial host. Upon the front of the altar
is the inscription, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sin of the world” (_Ecce Agnus Dei, qui tollet peccata mundi_).
Around the altar, angels form a circle; two of them are scattering
incense over the Lamb, while twelve others, six on each side, are
bearing the instruments of the passion, and singing the praises of the
Divine Victim. In front of the altar, in the foreground, bubbles up a
fountain, which, in the language of the Apocalypse, is thus described,
“The Lamb shall be their shepherd, He shall lead them to fountains of
living water, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” M.
Alfred Michiels, in his “Histoire de la Peinture Flamande,” declares
that “no allegory has ever been painted with greater skill.”

Four groups of worshippers are artistically represented amidst verdure
and flowers. Above, on the left side, the holy martyrs are plainly
recognised by the palms in their hands; and foremost amongst these
stand the popes, nearly all of whom, in the early ages, sealed with
their blood their testimony to the divinity of the Lamb. Opposite to
them are the countless virgins who have claimed to be admitted to
the mystic marriage; and below them stand a host of nuns, popes, and
bishops adoring the Celestial Victim, and celebrating His praises.
Upon the other side of the fountain is the not less numerous phalanx
of Old Testament prophets, kings, and illustrious men, whose presence
completes the harmonious whole of this admirable composition. The two
figures standing out in the midst of this group are supposed by many
critics to represent Virgil and Dante. The white robe, the laurel
crown, and the bough with the golden apples seem, in fact, to point
pretty clearly to Dante’s guide in purgatory; but it is difficult to
believe that a painter, who is in other respects the model of pious
orthodoxy, should be guilty of so gross a breach of propriety.

In the distant horizon, churches with their graceful towers and spires
form a connecting link between heaven and earth. They seem to remind
us that it is amidst the notes of sacred music and the splendours of
religious worship, and, above all, by partaking of the mystic banquet
of the Lamb invisible but yet present, that the soul, as it receives
the earnest of the life to come, is enraptured with a prelusive glimpse
of the celestial glories.

  [Illustration: Fig. 409.--Christ, risen from the dead, bearing in
  one hand the Palm of Martyrdom, and in the other the victorious
  Standard of the Cross.--From a Fresco painted by Fra Angelico, in
  the Monastery of St. Mark, Florence (Fifteenth Century).]

The dominant idea in this Flemish masterpiece is but the expression of
those mysterious words which connect the thought of the grave with the
vision of eternal bliss: “Christ is the first-born from the dead.” He
is our elder brother in that new life where the bitterness of mourning
and the sorrow of separation are unknown. At the archangel’s voice, at
the blast of the trumpet, the dead bodies of those whom we have loved
shall rise radiant from the earth, within whose bosom they laid in calm
repose, awaiting the morning of the resurrection. They shall appear,
having put on glory and immortality, conformed to the divine image of
Christ their divine brother, their Risen Lord.

PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] “Neither the bishop nor the emperor can impose upon me any tax or
tribute, nor have they the power to call out the militia, except for
the protection and defence of the town, and then only from cockcrow to
nightfall.”

[2] “Arrivez, ou je vous brûlerai!”

[3] “Dressed like ragamuffins, with puffed trunk hose; some going
barelegged with their stockings hanging to their girdle; singing as
they trudge along to lighten the toil of the road.”

[4] Large-sided.

[5] Poop Guard.

[6] The principal galley of the squadron.

[7] “God wills it.”

[8] Much glory.

[9] “It happened that the king was seized with a serious illness, and
was brought so low that one of the ladies who was tending him, thinking
that he was dead, wished to cover his face with a cloth; while at the
other side of his bed was another lady who would not permit it. But it
fell out that the Lord worked within him and restored him his speech,
so that the good king asked for the cross to be brought to him, which
was done. And when the good lady, his mother, learned that he had
recovered his speech, she was overcome with joy, but when she saw that
he had assumed the cross, she was as much grieved as if she had seen
him a corpse.”

[10] The investiture of knighthood.

[11] This was the night-watch kept over his armour by the candidate for
admission to the order of knighthood.

[12] “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to thy name ascribe the glory.”

[13] Bossuet’s “Histoire Universelle,” p. 101, Firmin-Didot edition.

[14] From Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” p. 15 in the French translation by
Artaud de Montor.

Transcriber’s Notes:

1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.

2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the
original.

3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
been retained as in the original.

4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.

5. In the Table of Illustrations, the page number for "Adoration of the
Lamb" has been changed to "Frontispiece" and the image for "The
Judgment Day" has been added under "J".