Middle Ages

Christianity

What influenced funeral behavior during the early Middle Ages?

5th century

When did Church Funerals begin?

Requiem Masses

In Church Funerals, what were held in honor of the dead?

13

Some Masses were said for how many days after burial and on the anniversary of their death?

Catafalque

In the Middle Ages, what was the body placed on?

Some believed garments should reflect the deceased’s position in life, the Church believed garments should be white, the people wanted to use their own clothing without regard to color

In the Middle Ages, explain the controversy regarding burial garments.

The Death Watch

What of England was the counterpart of the Crier of Rome?

Sepulchral Monuments

Stone coffins whose lids formed a continuous portion of the pavement of churches.

6th century

When did the Bubonic Plagues enter Europe?

6 PM and 6 AM

During the Bubonic Plague, it was prohibited to bury the dead between what time frame?

Bone burials

When cemeteries became overcrowded during the Great Plague of London, what began?

Guild of All Souls

What burial club was established in London and is very well known?

The Burial in Woolen Act of 1666

Required that woolen cloth be substituted for linen in the shroud of lining of the coffin.

Europe

What was the birthplace of medicine and medical advancements?

Organs removed, cavity washed with water, alcohol, and spices, body filled with tar, evisceration, reposed body on bed of plaster of Paris

What was the method of embalming in the Middle Ages?

Oil of turpentine, camphor spirits, oil of lavender, oil of rosemary, spirits of wine, vermilion, resin, saltpeter

What materials were used in early day anatomical embalming?

The Dark Ages

The Middle Ages were also referred to as what?

Western Roman Empire, Holy Roman Empire

What are the divisions of the Roman Empire?

God’s acre

Cemeteries in churchyards were referred to as what?

Involved drinking, getting rowdy, rousing the ghost, doing crazy things with body, distributing property of deceased

Describe the wake in the Middle Ages.

Funeral feast

What celebrated/welcomed the heir to their new estate?

Tolling of bell announced death, body washed and embalmed, laid in state, mass held, burial, funeral feast or banquet of funeral baked meats

Describe the process of a funeral of state.

Long trenches with people buried layer by layer

During the plague, how did the church bury people?

Bone burial

Process where the body is boiled, leaving only the bones to be buried.

Kofinos meaning basket, coffer, or chest

Coffin comes from what Greek word?

1665

By what year were most burials in coffins?

White

What was first the mourning color for women that became the mourning color for all?

Purple

What was the mourning color for royalty?

Remarriage frowned upon. If married to high status man, retired to convent or life in strict seclusion in dower house

What was the code of conduct for a widow after the death of her husband?

Barbe, widow’s bonnet

What was the required clothing for widows?

Below chin for lower class, above for baroness and higher

Describe how a barbe was worn.

East

Burial was done with the feet facing which direction?

Physical decay of body

In the Middle Ages, the fear of death concerned what?

Votive masses

Masses made in fulfillment of vows or promises.

The Statuta Antiqua

Who assigned penitents in Southern Gaul the duty of bringing unattended dead to church for burial?

Placed on bier or in hearse, book of gospels placed on body for faith, cross placed on body for hope

How was an Anglo-Saxon prepared after death?

Priests on either side of dead and bearers, friends, strangers

Describe the order of procession for an Anglo-Saxon.

1st, 3rd, 9th, 13th, 1 year later

Which days after death was a mass held?

Emperor Theodosius

Who reestablished edicts prohibiting intramural burial?

Felo de se

Term for murder of one’s self.

Buried at crossroads with stake through body, unconsecrated ground, ditch or heath, churchyard by night

How were those who committed suicide buried?

Interdict

What was a spiritual weapon used by the pope to punish rebellious rulers or people that prohibited Christian rite of burial.

Regulations of the Guild of Abbatsbury

“If anyone belonging to this association chance to die, each member shall pay a penny for the good of the soul, before the body be laid in the grave.”

Ave or Pater Noster

After hearing the death watch, what did citizens murmur?

Cross bearer, Guild of the Holy Souls

What did the procession for royalty include?

Weepers

Bands of black for dead man, white for dead woman, on arms of gentlemen in mourning.

Clear those present at death of foul play and for those not present to see that no foul play occurred

What did the wake serve to accomplish?

Wood plated over with bronze or copper. Later used brass and silver

The first tomb effigies were made of what?

Crossed legs, right hand raised

In monumental effigies, how were those those prevented from fulfilling vows to visit the holy land represented?

Crozier in left hand

In monumental effigies, what did bishops hold?

Crozier in right hand

In monumental effigies, what did abbots hold?

Chalice

In monumental effigies, what did priests hold?

Courage, industry, vigilance

In monumental effigies, what did lions symbolize?

Achievement

In monumental effigies, what did emblems symbolize?

Triumph of person and their church over devil

In monumental effigies, what did dragons pierced by abbots symbolize?

Strong leather or bull’s hide

What were corpses sometimes wrapped in before burial?

Placed in earth, covered with winding sheet

How were the poor buried?

Quarterage

A small, regular contribution in a burial club.

Mort cloths

What was the pall referred to as in the Middle Ages?

Chrisom

A primitive baptismal robe constructed to permit the priest to anoint the deceased child on the back or chest.

Churched

Phrase for being blessed in church after childbirth.

Swaddled

Swathed with bandages.

Cerecloth

A cloth treated with wax, alum or gummy matter.

Linen to wool. Expensive, imported, used in paper industry

What materials did funeral shrouds in the Middle Ages change to and from what? Explain why.

Weeds, now widow’s weeds or a doole

In the early Middle Ages, mourning garments used to be called what? What are they known as now?

Rosemary

What was handed out to all who attended burial rites?

Ate loaf of bread, drank bowl of beer, accepted six-pence

How did sin eaters take the sins of the deceased onto themselves?

Zeitgeist

The spirit of the time shaping the view men take of death.

Charnal houses

Structures in which human skeletons were stored.

Memento mori

“Remember that thou wilt die.”

Morality plays

The greatest of the didactic plays of the Middle Ages.