The Graveyard
Few modern gothic
styled horror
movies would be complete without a spectacular graveyard to raise the
hair on
the back of the neck. But graveyards
filled with gravestones and mossy monuments were not part of the church
landscape of the middle ages.
Tombstones
did not come into general use until after the reformation, when a
strengthening
middle class began to compete with the nobility for honors in memoriam. It was then that grave stones, many of them
imitating the memorial basses inside the church, began to crop up in
the
churchyards.
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[Douglas, Kirk Braddan, Isle of Man, England]
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The
faithful of the middle ages
believed the deceased would first spend time in Purgatory, a place
between
heaven and hell, where their sins would be burnt away so their souls
might
enter the perfection of heaven. The
prayers of those left behind on earth, and the goodworks performed
while they
lived (such as donating money to a church or monastery) would shorten
the time
they were required to spend before entering heaven.
The wealthy and influential, then,
could gain
the appreciation of a monastic community by a generous donation. In turn, the monks would remember them in
their prayers, offices, and devotions, thereby speeding their entry
into
heaven. In addition, monasteries often
had strong family and economic ties to important local families and
landowners. The burial of the local
gentry, and local patrons, patronesses and benefactors, within the
church,
reinforced the idea of the importance of the church within the power
structure
of the community.
Burial inside the church or
monastery, then, was an especial honor, and the burial itself was
memorialized
by some particular marker, either a stone or wooden carving, or by one
of the
beautiful engraved brasses of the 12th through 15th
centuries. (Also see Chantries, under Chapels).
All others were perhaps
embalmed, usually shrouded in cloth, and buried on the south side of
the church
(the north side being reserved for criminals, suicides, and heretics). Later, the bones would be dug up from the
grave yard and placed in a communal crypt. |
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[The church crypt, Hythe,
England]
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Among the
monks themselves, a
monk
of particular position or importance would be interred in the church,
cloister,
chapter house, or elsewhere in the monastery.
All others would be buried in the south church yard. The exception was the Cistercians, who buried
their dead in the cloister garth. Regardless
of where they were buried, close attention was
paid to the
dead of the monastery (careful records were kept on Mortuary Rolls),
especially
on the anniversary of a brother's death, and all were remembered by the
whole
community
in communal prayers and daily devotions.
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Fairhurst and historyfish.net, 2007 All rights reserved. No
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