Death and burial pre-Reformation

 Abstract.  Dying, death and burial involved a series of rituals intended to give salvation and ultimately eternal life. Receiving the last sacraments was essential, though proved difficult with death from plague. It was necessary for the dead to be given all rites to avoid hell and damnation. Place of burial depended on status.  Cranmer’s Prayer Book, 1552, signalled the end of the church assuming prayer would affect life after death.

    In 1276, the average length of life from birth was around 31–5 years (those born with wealth could expect at least another 10 years). Infant mortality was high with one third not reaching their 5th birthday. As much as 20% of women died from childbirth and complications that followed. Death was common and a constant threat. Between 1348 and 1351 and periodically afterwards, plague accentuated this deep concern. Images in church of hell and judgement, such as on rood screens, must have been a consistent reminder of needing to approach death with a pure heart.

 

Cadaver tomb said to be Dean Thomas Haywode (Haywood) who died in 1492. The dried skeleton sculpture would be a reminder of death. If it had an upper part this would show the individual in life.

 

For a church dying, death and burial involved a series of rituals intended to give salvation and ultimately eternal life.[1] Priests were obliged to visit the sick and give a blessing. This could be a challenge to large, rural parishes. The priest would vest himself, ring a passing-bell and be accompanied by a clerk when travelling by horse or foot to the dying. Seriously ill parishioners would receive an anointing and a mass. A crucifix would be placed in the house for the gravely ill to see. After aspersing water and saying prayers, the priest asked, presumably in the vernacular, for the individual to profess their faith by responding ‘I believe.’ Then followed questions to assess the depth of sins committed. If the individual died without completing their penance, then the family and friends had to undertake the penance, which often meant giving alms. The priest offered the crucifix to be kissed and then prayers to remit the sins confessed.[2] The dying were anointed with holy oil on each eye, ears, lips, nostrils, hands, feet and back (or navel for a woman).

  

Anointing. 1445–50. Painting by Roger van der Weyden. Wikipedia Commons

 

After washing his hands with saltwater, the priest gave a blessing and prayers for healing. Finally, he questioned whether the individual believed in the transubstantiation of the bread and wine and, if so, gave a shortened mass with a wafer given to the mouth.[3]

Last rite, Dutch school of painting, c. 1600. Wikipedia Commons.

 

            If the priest could not reach the dying, then psalms were read and prayers given, especially invoking the Trinity and saints (Chad and Mary for Lichfield), in the cathedral. A passing bell might have been rung.[4]

            After death, prayers and psalms were said around the body. The body was washed and given a white shroud (white only if in faith). The coffin was surrounded by a black cloth to show death. Sometimes, the body was then placed in the church with mourners ‘watching’ overnight. There was an ancient custom for close ones to drink, sing and dance, but this was discouraged by the church. If available, a priest might sing the psalms. If the deceased had been kept at home, it was taken for burial in a borrowed community-coffin accompanied by loved ones carrying candles. This could be a long journey and out of the parish. The cortege would normally have to arrive early morning, but occasionally a service would be held after the mid-morning mass.

            At the cathedral the coffin was taken to the chancel, whilst mourners stayed in the nave. A service of matins for the dead was given. High status deceased might have a sermon with the clergy robed in black or blue vestments.[5] Clergy and wealthy could be buried within the cathedral. Burial around Chad’s gravesite was generally favoured by deans whereas bishops were usually interred close to the high altar. Sometimes canons were buried in the aisles. They were usually buried in a stone coffin or in a stone-lined grave topped with a ledger stone becoming part of the floor. The stone recorded the death date as the most important time for the life remembered. Ordinary folk were buried in the cemetery in shallow (0.4–0.7 m deep) earth graves[6] wrapped in a shroud. The grave might be aspersed with water, censed and blessed. The priest scattered earth to the grave in a configuration of a cross before it was closed.[7] Sprigs of rosemary were often carried by people in the funeral procession and cast onto the grave, much as wreaths are today.

            Christians were buried with their head to the west and feet to the east. At Lichfield the east-west alignment of the cathedral is poor and graves in the Close have shown variable alignments which might be due to lack of space at the time of burial. Often a cross was added to the grave. A priest’s coffin found in the nave excavations, 2003, was covered with a white cloth on which was painted a Greek cross (+) and alongside were two broken sticks arranged in the same way. In some graves a broken measuring rod has been found.[8] Sometimes a wax cross was placed on their chest. The priest’s coffin had a pewter chalice on the lid with a veil covering it and a wafer stuck to the veil; a reminder to have mass when reaching paradise. Bishops were buried with religious and secular artefacts and sometimes bullae from the pope.[9] Parliamentarian soldiers, 1643, removed from the tomb of Bishop Scrope a silver chalice and a crozier of considerable value. The idea that Christians, unlike pagans, were buried simply without grave goods is not true.

14th-century oak coffin covered with a cloth showing a red cross. On top is a pewter chalice and paten covered with a linen corporal concealing a wafer. Note also two broken sticks.

The burial service used for children is unclear, but some were buried close to adults. Money was left by the wealthy for candles and prayers to be said in the following days, or every month (month’s mind) for a year, or on anniversaries (year’s mind). Often alms were given for the poor and sometimes money bequeathed to pay for their burial or for them to say prayers for the deceased. The wealthy would request mourning for 30 days. 

              There has been a modern interpretation of medieval burial as being superstition and ritual intended to keep the dead from reappearing in some form to harass the living. This is an exaggeration from a few cases recorded in isolated churches. From very early times there is much evidence to show the dead were invariably respected and given a sympathetic burial. There is also the charge that the church used burial to make money. Payment was necessary,[10] but there were reduced charges for the poor and disadvantaged.

            Orme concluded ‘a medieval church was almost as much a place of the dead as it was of the living.’[11] The 1552 Cranmer’s Prayer Book signalled the end of the church assuming prayer would affect life after death.[12] The church from now on prayed for Christ’s work in life and for his grace in death.   

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[1] Information is mostly from N. Orme, Going to church in Medieval England, (New Haven and London: 2022), 337–47. See also M. Gray, ‘Deathbed and Burial Rituals in Late Medieval Catholic Europe.’ In  A companion to death, burial and remembrance in late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, c. 1300-1700, Chapter 3. (Leiden, Netherlands: 2020), 106–131.

[2] For many, the soul lay in purgatory waiting for all sins to be pardoned by God. Purgatory became accepted in the Catholic church at the Council of Lyon, 1274. The concept predates Christianity because it was a belief of Orthodox Jews. It is not mentioned in the Bible.

[3] Mass was not offered to children, the insane and anyone likely to vomit the elements. It could be offered again to adults if ever they recovered.

[4] Two rings for a woman and three for a man.

[5] Lichfield Cathedral was stated to have a large wardrobe of vestments in the time of Walter Langton.

[6] Archaeology found Chad’s grave to be recessed 0.8 m into the sandstone bedrock of the cathedral.

[7] Cremation in this time was strongly forbidden. Criminals, suicides, and the unbaptised could not be buried in consecrated ground. This was relaxed in 1547; clergy had to bury whoever was brought to the church.

[8] A reminder we have no defence after death. Monarchs have been buried with a broken staff of office.

[9] At Lichfield these valuables were removed by Parliamentarian soldiers in the Civil War, 1643.

[10] A London church charged 8 pence for an adult burial and 4 pence for a child. The sexton digging the grave and ringing the bell might charge 6 pence. A member of a Guild could expect to receive help with their payment. There are many records of poor people paying 1 penny, and the paupers being buried on the north side of a churchyard without ceremony. Those buried in the cathedral would have had to pay much.

[11] Note 1. Orme, (2022), 348.

[12] Diarmaid Maculloch expressed it as ‘the church surrendered its power over death.'