would be, not to permit any, or but very few persons to be buried in
churches; and when it is allowed, to slack a large quantity of lime
upon the body, there being no more certain method for destroying it
speedily, and as one may say, before it can pass through any one degree
of corruption.
But, as in spite of all these precautions, the air in churches may
often be a little vitiated, M. Navier, proposes a very easy method for
restoring it to its natural purity, which, is to take out, in the day
time, some of the upper panes of the glass windows, near the vaults;
which little openings cannot render the church too cold, and at the
same time will make a free communication between the external and
internal air.
And as to charnel houses, he tells us, that he has often visited
them in the several places where he has happened to reside, and that
among the bones he has always found some that had still a sort of
corrupted fleshy substance upon them. Ought not, says he, such an abuse
to be prevented: ought it not to be forbid under pain of exemplary
punishment, to expose the bones of dead bodies to the open air, which
must always be corrupted by their unwholesome exhalations, even when
they have nothing of this fleshy substance upon them; for we cannot be
too watchful in preserving the air in its utmost purity, since upon it
depends the life, and health of man. Therefore he concludes, that all
charnel houses ought to be suppressed, as they appear to him to be more
hurtful than useful; and that all grave-diggers ought to be strictly
enjoined to collect carefully all the bones thrown up in digging a
grave, in order to be again thrown into it, and well covered with earth.
_Further corroboration of the aforesaid subject._
In the month of September, 1784, a poor woman died in the Hospital
at Aberdeen, and was buried in a church yard in the neighbourhood.
A company of young Surgeons, agreed with the grave digger, to set
some mark on the grave, as a direction for them to find the body for
anatomical purposes; but some person in order to disappoint the
grave-digger’s employers, moved the signal to another grave, that of a
woman who had been buried about three or four months. The party came,
and directed by the mark agreed upon, dug up the grave, drew out the
coffin, and carried it home. But upon opening it, a vapour like flame
of brimstone came forth, and suffocated them in an instant. Two women
also going past the room, fell down dead, and it was said, that eleven
persons thus perished from the baneful effluvia.
It is very common, observes Doctor Buchan, in this country, to have
church-yards in the middle of populous cities. Whether this be the
effect of ancient superstition, or owing to the increase of such towns,
is a matter of no consequence. Whatever gave rise to the custom, it
is a bad one. It is habit alone which reconciles us to these things;
by means of which the most ridiculous, nay pernicious customs, often
become sacred. Certain it is, that thousands of putrid carcases, so
near the surface of the earth, in a place where the air is confined,
cannot fail to taint it; and that such air when breathed into the
lungs, must occasion diseases.
In most Eastern countries it was customary to bury the dead at some
distance from any town. As this practice obtained sanction among the
Jews, the Greeks, and also the Romans, it is strange that the Western
parts of Europe should not have followed their example in a custom so
truly laudable.
Burying in churches is still more detestable. The air in churches is
seldom good, and the effluvia from putrid carcases must render it
still worse. Churches are commonly old buildings with arched roofs.
They are seldom open above once a week, are never ventilated by fires,
nor open windows, and rarely kept clean. This occasions that damp,
musty, unwholesome smell which one feels upon entering a church, and
renders it a very unsafe place for the weak and valetudinary. These
inconveniences might in a great measure, be obviated, by prohibiting
all persons from burying within churches, by keeping them clean, and
permitting a stream of fresh air to pass frequently through them, by
opening opposite doors and windows.
The practice of burying the dead, says the doctor, in the centre of
populous neighbourhoods, is still too generally continued. Churches
and church-yards are made the chief places of interment, in direct
opposition to reason, and to the example of the most enlightened people
of antiquity. The first words of the old Roman inscriptions on tomb
stones, “_Siste viator_,” Stop, traveller, shew that the dead were
buried by the side of public roads, not in temples, nor in the heart
of towns and cities. One of the laws of the late Joseph II. relative
to this point, will do him immortal honour. After strictly prohibiting
the interment of dead bodies in any church or chapel. “It is horrid,”
says the Emperor, “that a place of worship, a temple of the Supreme
Being, should be converted into a pest-house for living creatures! a
person who, upon his death-bed, makes it a condition of his will to
be buried in a church or chapel, acts like a madman: he ought to set
his fellow-creatures a good example, and not to do all in his power to
destroy their constitutions, by exposing them to the effluvia arising
from a corpse in a state of putrefaction.”
The admirable sentiment expressed by one of our own country-women,
who died a few years since, afford a striking contrast with the
superstitious folly so justly stigmatized by the Emperor.
This extraordinary female, whose mind was superior to the weakness of
her sex, and to the prejudices of custom, being fully sensible, as she
herself expressed it in her last will, “that the bodies of the dead
might be offensive to the living,” ordered her body to be burnt, and
the ashes deposited in an urn, in the burying ground of St. Georges,
Hanover-Square, where the remains of the sentimental Yorrick, are also
interred.
* * * * *
To prevent the dreadful contagion in future, that might otherwise arise
from thoughtless and wicked people, prematurely stealing dead bodies
from their graves, the following easy method of securing the same, is
strongly recommended as an effectual preventative.
As soon as the corpse is deposited, let a truss of long wheaten straw
be opened, and distributed in the grave in layers, as equally as may
be, with every layer of earth, till the whole is filled up. By this
method the corpse will be effectually secured, as may be found by
experience; for it is certain that the longest night will not afford
time sufficient to empty the grave, though all the common implements of
grave-digging be made use of for the abominable purpose.
ACCOUNT
OF
REMARKABLE TOMBS,
AND EVER-BURNING
LAMPS OF THE ANCIENTS.
_Among the papers of Dr. Parsons, in the Bodleian Library, is the
following very extraordinary story. It is dated 1685._
In a piece of ground within two miles of Cirencester, in the county
of Gloucester, commonly known by the name of Colton’s Field, as two
labourers were digging a gravel pit at the foot of a hill, which they
had now sunk four yards deep, they observed the ground on that side
next the hill to be loose, and presently discovered an entrance into
the belly of the hill, which appearing very strange to them, and
rather the work of art than nature, one of them ventured a little
way in, and by the light from the hole, discovered a large cavity;
whereupon they got a lanthorn and candle to make a further search into
it. By the advantage of this light, the first place they entered,
appeared to have been a hall, which was large, and in it two tables
with benches on each side, which they no sooner touched, to feel their
substance, but they crumbled into dust. From thence they saw a passage
into another room, which, by the furniture, had been a kitchen. Several
utensils proper to it, as pots, kettles, &c. being of brass or iron,
continued somewhat firm, but eaten through with rust and canker.
Beyond the hall, they went into a parlour furnished, according to
the fashion of those times, with carpets richly wrought, and other
furniture agreeable: these also fell to pieces upon their touching
them. At one corner of the room, there appeared to have been a pair
of stairs; but the earth had fallen in, and stopt the ascent. Going
back into the hall, they observed another opening, which led them into
a square room, ornamented with carved work in several parts, supposed
to have been a place of worship and devotion, by images in the wall;
and at the upper end of it, they found several urns, some of which had
only ashes in them, others were filled with coins and medals, of gold,
silver, and brass, with Latin inscriptions, and heads of several Roman
Emperors.
As they went searching about this room, they spied a door, which had
been strongly patched with iron, but the wood being rotten, with
a little force it fell in pieces; and looking in, to their great
astonishment, they saw the image of a man in full proportion, with a
truncheon in his hand, and a light, in a glass like a lamp, burning
before him. This very much affrightened them at first, imagining it
to be a devil in that shape, or a guardian spirit set there to defend
some hidden treasure; the hopes whereof so far encouraged them at last,
that one of them ventured a step in, but upon his first descent, the
image seemed to strike at him; at which they were both so terrified,
that they durst proceed no further; but went back, and taking many of
the medals and coins with them, out of the urns, at night acquainted
a gentleman, who is a famous antiquary, with the discovery they had
made, what they had seen, and the money they had found; shewing him
several pieces; upon which he ordered them to keep the matter private;
promising to go with them the next morning, which he accordingly did.
After he had viewed the other rooms with wonder and delight, they
conducted him to the place where the image was, which he supposed
might, by some great artist, be made to strike at certain times;
therefore without any apprehension of danger, went in; and, as before,
upon his first step, the image made an offer to strike; so at the
second step, but with a greater force: at the third step, it struck
a violent blow on the glass, where the light was, which broke it in
pieces, and quite extinguished it (the light) that, had they not been
furnished with a lanthorn and candle, their condition would have been
desperate. The image appeared to have been the effigy of some Roman
General, by those ensigns of martial honour which lay at his feet. On
the left hand lay two heads embalmed. The flesh was shrivelled up, and
looked like parchment scorched, of a dark complexion. They had long
hair on the chin; one seemed to be red, and the other black.
Upon further search were found several other passages leading to other
houses, or different rooms of the same house; but a hollow voice, like
a deep sigh or groan, prevented any other discovery. Our adventurers
hastily quitted those dark apartments, which they had no sooner done,
than the hill sunk down, and buried all the rarities, except those
medals and coins taken out the night before, which are now shewn for
the satisfaction of the curious and ingenious, who in great numbers
flock to see them, and purchase them at great rates, as most valuable
relics of antiquity.
* * * * *
Kommanus tells us, that in Valentia, a city of Spain, there was found
the body of Adonizam, the servant of King Solomon, together with his
epitaph in Hebrew. It appeared, that he had laid buried above two
thousand years, yet was he found uncorrupted: so excellent a way of
embalming the dead were those skilled in, who lived in the Eastern
Countries.
He also mentions the body of Cleopatra, which had remained undamaged
for an hundred and twenty-five Olympiads, viz. five hundred years,
as appears by the letter of Heraclius the Emperor to Sophocles the
philosopher.
I remember not, continues Kommanus, to have read any thing like this
amongst the Romans, unless of the body, as some say of Tulliolæ, the
daughter of Cicero, which was found entire and uncorrupted (as some
have computed) one thousand and five hundred years, the particulars of
which are described as follows from Houghton’s collections, volume the
_2nd_, page 346.
In the papacy of Paul the Third, in the Appian way, where abundance of
the chief Heathens of old were laid, a sepulchre was opened; where was
found the entire body of a fair virgin swimming in a wonderful juice
which kept it from putrefaction so well, that the face seemed no way
damnified, but lively and handsome. Her hairs were yellow, tied up
artificially, and kept together with a golden circle or ring. Under
her feet burnt lamps, which vanished at the opening of the Sepulchre.
By some inscriptions it seems she had lain 1500 years. Who she was is
not known, although many thought her to be _Tulliolæ_, the daughter of
Cicero.
* * * * *
Cedrenus makes mention of a lamp, which (together with an image of
Christ) was found at Edessa, in the reign of Justinian the Emperor. It
was set over a certain gate there, and privily enclosed, as appeared by
the date of it, soon after Christ was crucified: it was found burning
(as it had done for five hundred years before) by the soldiers of
Cosroes, king of Persia, by whom also the oil was taken out and cast
into the fire; which occasioned such a plague, as brought death upon
almost all the forces of Cosroes.
* * * * *
At the demolition of our monasteries here in England, there was found
in the supposed monument of Constantius Chlorus (father to the great
Constantine,) a burning lamp which was thought to have continued
burning there ever since his burial, which is about three hundred years
after Christ. The ancient Romans used in that manner to preserve
lights in their Sepulchres a long time, by the oil of gold, resolved by
art into a liquid substance.
* * * * *
Baptista porta, in his treatise on Natural Magic, relates, that about
the year 1550, in the island Nesis in Naples, a marble sepulchre, of a
certain Roman was discovered, upon the opening of which, a phial was
found containing a burning lamp. This lamp became extinct on breaking
the phial, and exposing the light to the open air. It appeared that
this lamp had been concealed before the advent of Christ. Those who saw
the lamp reported, that it emitted a most splendid flame.
* * * * *
The most celebrated lamp of Pallas, the son of Evander, who was killed
by Turnis, as Virgil relates in the tenth book of his Æneid, was
discovered not far from Rome, in the year 1401, by a countryman, who
digging deeper than usual, observed a stone sepulchre, containing the
body of a man of extraordinary size, which was as entire as if recently
interred, and which had a large wound in the breast. Above the head
of the deceased, there was found a lamp burning with perpetual fire,
which neither wind nor water, nor any other superinduced liquor could
extinguish: but the lamp being bored at the bottom, and broke by the
importunate enemies of this wonderful light, the flame immediately
vanished. That this was the body of Pallas, is evident from the
inscription on the tomb, which was as follows:
Pallas, Evander’s son, whom Turnis’ spear
In battle slew, of mighty bulk, lies here.
* * * * *
A very remarkable lamp was discovered about the year 1500, near
Atestes, a town belonging to Padua, in Italy, by a rustic, who digging
deeper than usual, found an earthen urn, containing another urn, in
which last, was a lamp placed between two cylindrical vessels, one of
gold, and the other of silver, and each of which was full of a very
pure liquor, by whose virtue it is probable, the lamp had continued to
shine for upwards of 1500 years, and, unless it had been exposed to
the air, might have continued its wonderful light for a still greater
period of time. This curious lamp was the workmanship of one Maximus
Olybius, who most probably effected this wonder, by a profound skill in
the chymical art. On the greater urn, some verses were inscribed in
Latin, which may be translated as follows:
1.
Plund’rers, forbear this gift to touch,
’Tis awful Pluto’s own:
A secret rare the world conceals,
To such as you unknown.
2.
Olybius in this slender vase
The elements has chain’d;
Digested with laborious art,
From secret science gain’d.
3.
With guardian care two copious urns
The costly juice confine,
Lest, thro’ the ruins of decay,
The lamp should cease to shine.
* * * * *
On the lesser urn were the following verses.
Plund’rers with prying eyes, away!
What mean ye by this curious stay?
Hence with your cunning, patron god,
With bonnet wing’d, and magic rod!
Sacred alone to Pluto’s name,
This mighty work of endless fame.
* * * * *
Saint Austin mentions a lamp that was found in a temple, dedicated to
Venus, which was always exposed to the open weather, and could never
be consumed or extinguished. And Ludovicus Vives, his commentator,
mentions another lamp which was found a little before his time, that
had continued burning for one thousand and fifty years.
* * * * *
It is supposed, that the perpetuity of these lamps, was owing to the
consummate tenacity of the unctuous matter with which the flame was
united, being so proportioned to the strength of the fire, that, like
the radical moisture and natural heat in animals, neither of them
could conquer or destroy the other. Licetus, who is of this opinion,
observes, that in order to preserve this equality of proportion, the
ancients hid these lamps in caverns, or close monuments: and hence it
has happened, that on opening these tombs, the admission of fresh air
to the lamps has produced so great an inequality between the flame and
the oil, that they have been presently extinguished.
_Mr. Addison in his Spectator, relates the following story of the lamp
of Rosicrucius._
“A certain person having occasion to dig somewhat deep in the ground,
where the philosopher Rosicrucius lay interred, met with a small
door, having a wall on each side of it. His curiosity, and the hopes
of finding some hidden treasure, soon prompted him to force open the
door. He was immediately surprised by a sudden blaze of light, and
discovered a very fair vault: at the upper end of it was a statue of
a man in armour, sitting by a table, and leaning on his left arm. He
held a truncheon in his right hand, and had a lamp burning before him.
The man had no sooner set one foot within the vault, than the statue
erected itself from its leaning posture, stood bolt upright, and upon
the fellow’s advancing another step, lifted up the truncheon in his
right hand. The man still ventured a third step, when the statue with a
furious blow broke the lamp into a thousand pieces, and left his guest
in a sudden darkness.”
Upon the report of this adventure, the country people soon came with
lights to the sepulchre, and discovered that the statue, which was made
of Brass, was nothing more than a piece of clock work; that the floor
of the vault was all loose, and underlaid with several springs, which,
upon any man’s entering, naturally produced that which had happened.
Rosicrucius, say his disciples, made use of this method, to shew the
world that he had reinvented the ever-burning lamps of the Ancients,
tho’ he was resolved no one should reap any advantage from the
discovery.[2]
[2] Note.--Mr. Addison seems to have borrowed this story from the one
related by Dr. Parsons. Vide p. 121.
* * * * *
In the tenth year of Henry II. at the digging of a new foundation in
the church of St. Mary-Hill, in London, there was found and taken up
the body of Alice Hackney, she had been buried in that church a hundred
and seventy-five years before, yet was she there found whole of skin,
and the joints of her arms pliable; her corpse was kept above ground
four days without any inconvenience, exposed to the view of as many as
would behold it, and then re-committed to the earth.
_Baker’s Chronicle._
* * * * *
In the reign of King James, at Astley in Warwickshire, upon the fall of
the church, there was taken up the corpse of Thomas Grey, Marquis of
Dorset, who was there buried the 10th of October, 1530, in the twenty
second year of King Henry VIII, and although it had been lain seventy
eight years, in this bed of corruption, yet his eyes, hair, flesh,
nails, and joints, remained as if he had been but newly buried.
* * * * *
In the year 1554, there was found in Rome a coffin of marble, eight
feet long, and in it a robe, embroidered with Goldsmith’s work, which
yielded six and thirty pounds weight of gold; besides forty rings, a
cluster of emeralds, a little mouse, made of another precious stone,
and amongst all these precious magnificences, two leg bones of a dead
corpse, known by the inscription of the tomb to be the bones of the
Empress Mary, daughter of Stilicoe, and wife of the Emperor Honorius.
* * * * *
Robert Braybrook, born at a village in Northamptonshire, was
consecrated Bishop of London, January, 5th, 1381. He was after that
Chancellor of England for six months. He died, anno. 1404, and
was buried under a marble stone, in the chapel of St. Mary, in the
Cathedral of St. Paul’s, London. Yet was the body of this Bishop lately
taken up, and found firm, as to skin, hair, joints, nails, &c. For upon
that fierce and fatal fire in London, September, 2nd, 1666, which burnt
so much of St. Paul’s church, when part of the floor fell into St.
Faith’s, this dead person was shaken out of his dormitory, where he had
lain no less than two hundred and sixty two years. His body was exposed
to the view of all sorts of people for divers days; and some thousands
did behold and poise it in their arms, till by special order it was
re-interred.
_Fuller’s Worthies._
* * * * *
In the Reign of King Henry II. anno. 1089, the bones of King Arthur,
and his wife Guenevor were found in the vale of Avalon, under an
hollow oak, fifteen feet under ground, the hair of the said Guenevor
being then whole and fresh, of a yellow colour; but as soon as it was
touched, it fell to powder, as Fabian relateth: this was more than six
hundred years after his death. His shin bone, set by the leg of a tall
man, reached above his knee the breadth of three fingers.
_Baker’s Chronicle._
* * * * *
The body of Albertus Magnus was taken out of his sepulchre, to be
re-interred in the midst of the chancel in a new tomb for that purpose,
it was two hundred years from the time wherein he had been first
buried; yet was he found entire without any kind of deformation, unless
it was this (says a celebrated historian) that his jaw seemed to be
somewhat fallen.
* * * * *