Posted by Sara M. Butler, 10 August 2023.
Burial of the dead was a grave matter in medieval England. Last rites, a funeral mass, burial in consecrated ground – all were mandatory rituals intended to assist in the soul’s journey from the earthly realm to Purgatory and then onwards to heaven. The absence of any one part of this process jeopardized a Christian soul’s chances of attaining salvation. Given the significance accorded to a proper Christian burial, it seems only fitting that both the medieval church and state mobilized the law to ensure that sacred ground remained sacred. This concern dates back at least to the eighth century, which produced the Pontifical of Egbert, Archbishop of York. This tract includes not only an elaborate ritual by which a bishop might consecrate a cemetery, but another also for when it needed to be reconsecrated, specifically after the graveyard had been polluted by bloodshed or murder.[1]
Situated in the center of the community, such a large open space with plentiful foot traffic had the potential to be abused by many. It was the ideal location for markets, community meetings, and entertainments – and yet, as the Biblical example of Christ in the Temple upending the tables of the money changers reminds us, such mundane activities profane sacred space.
Keeping Sacred Space Sacred
As early as the seventh century, authorities began legislating the sanctity of English graveyards. They first targeted unlawful bloodshed: the Laws of King Æthelbirht (d. 616), for example, decree that a man will be subject to a fine of 20 shillings if he slays another at an open grave.[2] They also protected graveyards from those who might be keen to convert the land to other uses. The Canons of Egbert, dating to roughly 740, warn clergyman not to demolish tombs, subject to removal from the clerical order. Anyone else who violates a grave will be punished for seven years (exactly what that punishment entailed is not specified), three of which must be spent fasting on bread and water. [3]
Most laws relating to what may or may not take place in a graveyard date to the legislative boom of the thirteenth century and emanate from church councils rather than the crown and target the coarse behavior of a church’s parishioners. The Statutes of Canterbury (1213/1214) forbid dancing and ‘indecent’ or ‘dishonorable’ games that might lead to ‘lasciviousness.’[4] Canon 74 of the Statutes of Hereford (1225X1230) articulates the point more clearly: no carnal mingling with women within the precincts of the cemetery.[5] In the densely populated villages of the Middle Ages, privacy was a rare commodity. The quiet contemplation of the cemetery held a certain amount of appeal for couples keen to find a few moments to themselves.
Women’s immoral or quasi-pagan activities seem to have been the target of many of these canons. At Winchester (1247X1249), the bishop repeated the injunction, this time under threat of anathema (that is, permanent excommunication from the church), not to play games in the cemetery, nor should women carry out lascivious activities. To the list of prohibited behaviors, it included also mourning and the singing of ‘lustful songs’ – both traditional women’s activities specifically associated with the (pre-Christian) bereavement of the dead. The canon explains that activities such as these inevitably lead to quarrelling and conflicts, and as a result deaths usually occur.[6] Canon 19 of the Statutes of Wells (1257X1259), elaborates further, explaining that those who sing or play dishonest games in the churchyard are the very same individuals who “sacrifice to demons.”[7]
Legislation sought to minimize divisive behavior that might lead to conflict within the cemetery. A synod in Durham (1241X1249) banned the denunciation of Scots in churchyards by both the clergy and the laity.[8] Many of those living in the north were either related to Scots, owned property on both sides of the border, or held a grudge against Scots for their cross-border crimes; presumably, denunciations of this sort might unnecessarily spark the fires of long-simmering feuds, leading to the shedding of blood in sacred space.
As one might expect, various synods decried the holding of fairs and public markets, or secular conventions, lest the “house of prayer should become a den of thieves.” Unexpectedly, there are also injunctions against the erecting of buildings on the premises (garden shed? Unlicensed anchorhold? Beggar’s hut?). The only exceptions were those built during times of war with the license and permission of the rector of the church.[9] Although, once peace had resumed, those buildings were to be removed immediately before they might be occupied by the poor and landless, or be defiled by the ‘filth of fornication’.[10] And what was the greatest danger to churchyards? Animals, of course. To prevent the ‘filth of brute animals’ polluting the cemetery and trampling the graves, it must be enclosed with a hedge or a wall. Not even the rectors of churches or priests might permit their own animals to feed on the grass in the cemetery or enter the halls of the church (!).[11]
Keeping out the Riff-Raff: Who gets a Christian Burial?
Having been baptized a Christian did not make one automatically eligible for burial in consecrated ground. You had to earn your spot. As early as the eleventh century, legislation urged Christian learning by threatening to withhold a Christian burial. The laws of Cnut declare that “every Christian man apply himself until he can at least understand aright the true belief, and learn the Pater Noster [i.e., the Lord’s Prayer] and the [Apostles’] Creed”; otherwise, “after his death he cannot rest in a hallowed grave among Christians or here in this life be entitled to receive the sacrament.[12] The First Statutes of Salisbury (1217X1219), present a somewhat looser requirement: annual confession and annual communion.[13] This was still the requirement in the fifteenth century when the widely-disseminated gloss entitled Lyndwood’s Provinciale included a canon urging parish priests to publicize this requirement often in their churches.[14]
Certain undesirables were also prohibited from enjoying a burial in holy ground. In the eighth century, the Penitential book of Archbishop Egbert of York forbid the singing of mass for a suicide, or its burial in the earth “with the singing of any psalms.”[15] Suicide has traditionally been associated with despair, or a loss of faith; as such, an apostate is not deserving of Christian burial. The prohibition against the Catholic burial of suicides was an enduring concern: it lasted until the 1980s.
Many exclusions focused on sex and/or marriage. The eighth-century Northumbrian Priests’ Law declared that those who marry within forbidden degrees (that is, incestuously – typically to a cousin) and die in that sinful state must “forfeit a hallowed grave, and God’s mercy.”[16] So, too, must those who have sex with a nun: if they die without making amends, both the man and the woman must be stripped of the right to a Christian burial.[17] The tenth-century Laws of King Edmund target also those in religious orders, both male and female, who violate their vows of chastity, because in doing so, they fail to “teach God’s people by the example of their life.”[18] The mostly vehemently expressed denial was reserved for the concubines of presbyters or clerics who fail to repent. Canon 22 from the Synod of Durham (1241X1249) explains, those who “persist in so foul a sin with a hardened heart, they shall be deprived of the life and communion of the faithful, and if they die, they shall be denied ecclesiastical burial.”[19]
Other laws targeted the untrustworthy. The Laws of Æthelstan (d. 939) deny Christian burial to those who swear false oaths.[20] The laws of Æthelred (d. 1016) and Cnut (d.1035) declare that “anyone who is regarded with suspicion by the general public” (presumably suspicion of having done something criminal) must be brought to justice and if he cannot find sureties to stand for him, “he shall be slain and buried in unconsecrated ground.”[21]
Homicides and thieves, in general, had a long history of exclusion. During the Anglo-Saxon era, they were buried in their own judicial execution cemeteries, typically located in liminal, isolated regions. Andrew Reynolds explains that they were often buried in barrows or mounds long associated with folkloric monsters, and which had the very distinct purpose of ensuring that the damned were “condemned to eternal torment by demons and spirits.”[22] Excluding criminals from Christian cemeteries was not humiliating enough on its own; the bodies themselves were interred in shallow and cramped graves in the prone position (that is, face down) to indicate shame.[23]
By the later Middle Ages, convicted criminals – or at least those who were given the opportunity to confess and take last rites before execution – were typically granted burial in sacred ground, although they continued to be buried separately from the rest of Christian society. Excavation of the churchyard of St Margaret in Combusto (Norwich), which was reserved for executed felons, demonstrates that even if they were permitted a Christian burial, little care was taken to bury them properly. Their undertakers did not follow the usual traditions. None of the dead were buried in a shroud; rather, they were fully dressed, sometimes with their wrists still tied behind their backs, once again often in the prone position.[24]
The church came to recognize the value of denying ecclesiastical burial as a deterrent for immoral behavior and thus the central Middle Ages witnessed a growing list of those to be excluded. Those who were singled out specifically:
- arsonists;[25]
- usurers (although under Lateran III in 1179 this category was narrowed to “notorious” usurers);[26]
- those who marry without banns;[27]
- monks who own property;[28]
- knights who died in tournaments or duels (although they might still warrant the last sacrament and extreme unction);[29]
- those who collect tithes and do not give them to the church;[30]
- heretics and those who receive, defend, or support heretics, as well as excommunicates;[31]
- those who have not confessed in over a year;[32]
- members of unapproved religious orders;[33]
- prison-keepers who withhold confession from a prisoner about to be executed; [34]
- and thieves who have not made satisfaction or were slain while thieving.[35]
Given the scope of the list of those excluded, it comes as no surprise that occasionally ecclesiastical authorities had to issue clarifications of those who were eligible for burial in consecrated ground. Surely many were greatly relieved when William Greenfield, Archbishop of York (1304-15), issued a statute declaring that no one could be denied burial simply for failing to pay a debt.[36]
[1] William Greenwell, ed., The Pontifical of Egbert, Archbishop of York, A.D. 732-766 (Surtees Society, vol. 28, 1853), 54–57.
[2] Benjamin Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, vol. 2 (London: Printed under the Direction of the Commissioners of the Public Records of the Kingdom, 1840), 9.
[3] David Wilkins, ed., Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae, a Synodo Verolamiensi A.D. CCCCXLVI AD Londinensem A.D. CICICCCXVII. Accedunt Constitutiones et Alia Ad Historiam Eclesiae Anglicanae Spectantia, vol. 1 (London: R. Gosling, 1737), 106.
[4] Citations to all English synods are hyperlinked to the relevant canons as they appear in the “Corpus Synodalium” database. Please see Rowan Dorin, ed., Corpus Synodalium: Local Ecclesiastical Legislation in Medieval Europe, 30 June 2021, www.corpus-synodalium.com. Accessed 18/07/2023. Canterbury [1213/1214], c. 60.
[5] Hereford (?) [1225X1230], c. 74.
[6] Winchester [1247X1249], c. 64.
[8] Durham [1241X1249], c. 60.
[9] Hereford (?) [1225X1230], c. 73.
[10] Norwich [1240X1243], c. 50.
[12] 1 Canute, c. 22, A.J. Robertson, The Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I (Cambridge University Press, 1925), 171-173.
[13] Salisbury [1217X1219], c. 38.
[14] J.V. Bullard and H. Chalmer Bell, eds., Lyndwood’s Provinciale: The Text of the Canons Therein Contained, Reprinted from the Translation Made in 1534 (London: The Faith Press, Ltd., 1929), 154.
[15] Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, 2:185.
[16] Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, 2:301.
[17] Thorpe, 2:301.
[18] Robertson, The Laws of the Kings, 7.
[19] Durham [1241X1249], c. 22.
[20] 2 Æthelstan, c. 26, F.L. Attenborough, ed., The Laws of the Earliest English Kings (CUP, 1922), 141.
[21] 1 Æthelred, c. 4, Robertson, The Laws of the Kings, 55; II Cnut, c. 33, Robertson, The Laws of the Kings, 193.
[22] Andrew Reynolds, Anglo-Saxon Deviant Burial Customs (OUP, 2009), 249.
[23] G. Hayman and A. Reynolds, “A Late Saxon and Saxon-Norman Execution Cemetery at 42-54 London Road, Staines,” The Archaeological Journal 162 (2005), 239.
[24] Brian Ayers, “Norwich,” Current Archaeology 122 (1990): 56-59.
[25] Lateran II (1139), c. 18, Norman P. Tanner, ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, vol. 1 (Nicaea I to Lateran V) (Georgetown University Press, 1990), 201.
[26] Lateran II, c. 13, Tanner, 1 (Nicaea I to Lateran V), 200.
[27] London [1245X1259], c. 2.
[28] Lateran III (1179), c. 10, Tanner, 1 (Nicaea I to Lateran V), 217.
[29] Lateran II, c. 14, Tanner, 1 (Nicaea I to Lateran V), 200.
[30] Lateran III, c. 14, Tanner, 1 (Nicaea I to Lateran V), 218.
[31] Lateran III, c. 27; Lateran IV (1215), canon 3; Tanner, 1 (Nicaea I to Lateran V), 224 and 234.
[32] Lateran IV, c. 21, Tanner, 1 (Nicaea I to Lateran V), 245.
[33] II Council of Lyons, c. 24.2, Tanner, 1 (Nicaea I to Lateran V), 327.
[35] John Mirk’s 15th century Festial in Theodor Erbe, ed. Mirk’s Festial, Early English Text Society e.s. vol. 96 (1905), 298.
[36] Concilia Magna Brittaniae, vol. III, 662-81.
Legal History Miscellany 
Some surprises there. Lovely to see Kirkconnel church (the church of Connell?) also.
Loved this.
LikeLike