CHAPTER XIV

THE ORDER FOR THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

Prayer for the resurrection, public acquittal in the day of judgment, and perfect consummation, and bliss of them that are fallen asleep in the sleep of death, is an apostolical tradition. RICHARD FIELD, Dean of Gloucester, Of the Church, vol. iv. p. 262 A.D. 1606-1610.

1. The Medieval Rites.

THE man is little to be envied who can read without emotion the medieval English services for the dead. If the length of these services arouses our surprise, it also arouses our admiration for the affection which it displays for those who have gone to be with Christ. In early days the body of the departed Christian was reverently buried-never burned after the pagan Roman fashion-and the Holy Eucharist was celebrated with the intention of beseeching for him light and peace. The Canons of Hippolytus refer to this custom, and also mention the love-feast which was held after the Eucharist. The Gelasian Sacramentary contains a number of Masses to be said for the departed at different intervals, and also prayers said before the body is carried out for burial, and others to be used at the grave. The growth of the Divine Office was followed by the growth of a special Office of the dead, and the Placebo and Dirge of this service have already been mentioned in our account of the Primer. In

addition to the Mass and the Divine Service for the dead and the prayers at the burial, it was the custom in England to say a long Commendatio Animarum. This is distinct from the pathetic litany known as the Commendatio Animae in Articulo Mortis repeated while the dying Christian gave up the ghost. It was said as soon as possible after death, partly in the house and partly in the church to which the body was taken. And it is difficult to say which is the more clearly revealed, the sense of piety or the sense of beauty, in a service which contains such antiphons, psalms, and prayers. The pleading refrain May Christ Who called thee receive thee, and may the angels lead thee unto Abraham's bosom' is mingled with the triumphant song 'When Israel came out of Egypt,' and with the hope that the soul of the departed may be crowned among the martyrs, and gain the joy of God amid the gleaming stones of Paradise.

The Inhumatio Defuncti or Burial of the Dead was performed when Mass was done, the priest wearing an alb and no cope. This long service began with an antiphon, the Kyrie, and prayers. The priest asked those present to pray for the soul of the dead, and the first section of the service ended with this collect :

Incline, O Lord, Thine ear unto our prayer in which we humbly entreat Thy mercy that the soul of Thy servant which Thou hast commanded to depart from this world, may be placed by Thee in the region of peace and light, and bidden to be numbered among Thy saints.

6

The body was then carried to the grave, the choir singing Psalm cxiv., and, if time permitted, Psalm xxv. The grave was opened, another Psalm was sung, and the antiphon Open unto me the gates of righteousness and I will enter into them and confess unto the Lord: this is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter into it.' The grave was blessed, sprinkled with holy water, and censed, and the body placed therein,

while the Psalm was sung 'Like as the hart desireth the water brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O God.'

After the body was lowered the grave was sprinkled with holy water, the priest scattered earth upon the body in the form of the cross, then censed it and sprinkled holy water upon it, a Psalm and antiphon being sung. Then the priest said, 'I commend thy soul to God the Father Almighty, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the Name of the Father,' etc. More prayers were said, then Psalms cxlviii., cxlix., cl., and the Benedictus, followed by the antiphon, 'I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth on Me though he were dead shall live, and every one that liveth and believeth on Me shall not die for ever.' The Psalm Miserere followed shortly afterwards. The final collect was:

O God, by Whose mercy the souls of the faithful are at rest, to the souls of Thy servants and handmaidens who here and in all places repose in Christ, favourably grant the pardon of their sins, that absolved from all offences they may with Thee rejoice without end.

Praying that the Lord would grant to the departed everlasting rest, and that perpetual light might shine upon them, the mourners went away.

Such were the rites with which our forefathers were put to sleep in the green churchyards of England :There scattered oft the earliest of the year,

By hands unseen, are showers of violets found;
The redbreast loves to build and warble there,
And little footsteps lightly print the ground.

§ 2. The Reformed Rites.

The Burial Service of 1549 is much shorter than the mediæval rite, and is rather a compilation from various services for the dead than a translation of the Inhumatio

6

6

Defuncti. No service is provided to be said in the house of the dead. The priest met the corpse at the Church stile,' and the body was carried either to the church or to the grave, the priests saying, or the priests and clerks singing, 'I am the Resurrection,' 'I know that my Redeemer," We brought nothing into the world.'1 The first sentence is the old antiphon to the Benedictus, the second is the respond after the first lesson in the first Nocturn in Mattins for the Dead, and the third was appropriately added by the compilers. At the grave were sung the words 'Man that is born,' which is from the fifth lesson in the Sarum Mattins for the Dead, followed by the antiphon ' In the midst of life," which is based upon the Lenten antiphon to the Nunc dimittis in the Sarum Breviary. This antiphon is of ancient origin, and its use in the Burial Service was probably suggested by its use in Hermann's Consultation. Cranmer's version is partly derived from the Latin, and partly from a metrical translation by Coverdale of Luther's paraphrase of the Latin.2 The priest was directed to cast earth upon the corpse with the commendation of earth to earth, ashes to ashes,' followed by the antiphon 'I heard a voice,' which was the antiphon to the Magnificat in the Sarum Evensong for the Dead. Then followed two fine prayers, the first of which is as follows:

We commend into Thy hands of mercy (most merciful Father) the soul of this our brother departed, N. And his body we commit to the earth, beseeching Thine infinite goodness, to give us grace to live in Thy fear and love, and to die in Thy favour: that when the judgment shall come, which Thou hast committed to Thy well-beloved Son, both this our brother, and we may be found acceptable in Thy sight, and receive that blessing which Thy well-beloved Son shall then pronounce to all that love and

1 It was the sweet old English custom for each sprig of rosemary, an emblem of the Resurrection. in the seventeenth century.

mourner to carry a This was general

2 See Dr. Dowden, The Workmanship of the Prayer Book, p. 161.

fear Thee, saying: Come, ye blessed Children of My Father Receive the kingdom prepared for you before the beginning of the world. Grant this, merciful Father, for the honour of Jesu Christ, our only Saviour, Mediator, and Advocate. Amen.

The second prayer is from the order of Hermann of Cöln.

After the service at the grave1 there was printed a service to be performed in church either before or after the burial. It consisted of Psalms cxvi., cxlvi., cxxxix., the lesson from 1 Cor. xv. 26 to the end (part of which was an alternative Epistle in the Sarum Mass for the Dead), the Kyrie, Lord's Prayer, and the following suffrages from the Sarum order :

Priest. Enter not (O Lord) into judgment with Thy servant. Answer. For in thy sight no living creature shall be justified. Priest. From the gates of hell.

Answer. Deliver their souls, O Lord.

Priest. I believe to see the goodness of the Lord.

Answer. In the land of the living.

Priest. O Lord, graciously hear my prayer.

Answer. And let my cry come unto Thee.

The whole concluded with a long prayer, beginning 'O Lord, with whom do live the spirits of them that be dead.' The beginning of the prayer is taken from one in the Sarum order, and the rest of it shows the influence of other Sarum prayers.

Immediately afterwards follows The Celebration of the Holy Communion when there is a Burial of the Dead. The Introit is Psalm xlii., which occurs not in the Sarum Mass but in the Inhumatio. The Collect is practically the same as the last Collect in our present

1 It has been the immemorial custom to lay the body with its fee eastward, turned towards the dawn. In some places there has been introduced the custom of burying the bodies of the clergy westward. This custom seems to have been adopted during the period of the Renaissance, and has become connected with the idea that the priest must face his people at the Resurrection.