[Sections 6 to 10 elided.]
11. Cemeteries are said to have their beginning from Abraham, who bought a field from Hebron: in which was a double cave, [Footnote 369] where he and Sarah were buried: there also Isaac and Jacob were buried: there also Adam and Eve. [Footnote 370] Therefore there was a double cave there: since they who buried therein were placed side by side, every man and his wife; or the men in the one, and their wives in the other: or because everyone there interred had a double cave, after the fashion of a chair. Whence saith Hierome, Three patriarchs are buried in the city Hebron, with their three wives. But they were buried as it were in a sitting posture: the upper part of the cave held the trunk from the loins: the lower the thighs and legs.
[Footnote 369: Genesis xxiii, 9: 'We take this word Machpelah for a proper name, as many others do: but the Talmudists generally think it to have been a double cave, as the lxx also, with the vulgar Latin, understand it. Yet they cannot agree in what sense it was so: whether they went through one cave into another, or there was one above the other.'—Bishop Patrick, s.l.]
[Footnote 370: One might almost have thought that this is a false reading for Leah and Rebecca. For the common tradition was that Adam and Eve were buried in Mount Calvary: so that where the first Adam fell before death, the second Adam triumphed over death. And the bishop speaks below of three patriarchs, and their three wives buried in Machpelah: which is at variance with the text as it stands: but would agree with the proposed emendation.
Yet S. Isidore says, 'De morte Abrahae,' fol. 295: 'Sepultusque est in spelunca duplici; in cujus interiore parte Adam esse positum traditio Hebraeorum testatur.' S. Victor upon Spelunca duplex: 'Domus quaedam fuit subterranea, in qua erat solarium, et multi fuerant sepulti, in ea et diversis foveis et subter et supra;' and in another place, 'Spelunca in qua est sepulta spiritualem designat vitam, quae est occulta: quae recte duplex vocatur; propter bonam actionem et contemplationem.']
12. But all men ought not to be buried promiscuously in the church: for it seemeth that that place of sepulchre profiteth not. Lucifer was thrown down from Heaven, and Adam cast out of Paradise; and what places be better than these? Also Joab was slain in the Tabernacle, and Job triumphed in the dunghill. Nay rather, it is to his hurt if a man unworthy or a sinner be buried in a church. We read in the 'Dialogues' of Blessed Gregory, book the fourth, chapter the fifty-sixth, that when a certain man of notorious wickedness [Footnote 371] had been buried in the church of S. Faustinus at Brescia, in the same night Blessed Faustinus appeared to the warden of the church, saying, Speak unto the bishop that he cast out the body; otherwise he shall die in thirty days. Now the warden feared to tell the thing to the bishop: and the bishop on the thirtieth day suddenly departed out of this life. It is also written in the same book, chapter the fifty-seventh, that another wicked man was buried in a church, and that afterwards his body was found outside the church, the cerecloths remaining in their own place. And Austin says, they who are guilty of notorious sins, if they be buried in the church by their own desire, shall be judged for their presumption; for the sacredness of the place doth not free those whom the accusation of temerity condemns.
[Footnote 371: A similar story has been parodied in the 'Ingoldsby Legends': a work which for irreverence and profanity has hardly an equal. Disgraceful as it would be to any author, it is trebly so, if (as it is said) that author is a clergyman.]
No body, therefore, ought to be buried in a church, or near an altar, where the Body and Blood of our Lord are made, except the bodies of holy fathers, who be called patrons, that is defenders, who defend the whole country with their merits, and bishops, and abbots, and worthy presbyters, and laymen of eminent sanctity. But all ought to be buried about the church, or in the court of the cloisters, or in the porch: or in the exedroe and apses which are joined to the church, or in the cemetery. [{85}] Some also say that a space of thirty feet round the church ought to be set apart for that purpose. But others say that the space enclosed by the circuit which the bishop makes around the church must suffice for this. S. Augustine saith in his book 'On the Care of the Dead,' towards the end, that to be buried near the tombs of martyrs advantageth the dead in this, that by commending him to the guardianship of the martyrs, the earnestness of our supplication for him may be increased.
13. Of old time men were buried in their own houses: but on account of the stench thereby engendered, it was decreed that they should be buried without the city, and certain places should be set apart by sanctification for that purpose. But noblemen were buried in mountains, both in the middle of them and at the foot: and also under mounds raised of their own expense. [Footnote 372] But if anyone be slain in besieging a town, where there is no cemetery, let him be buried where he can. But if a merchantman or pilgrim die by sea, and any inhabited land be near, let him be buried in it: but if no port be near, let him be buried in some island. If, however, land cannot be seen, let a little house of timbers (if they can be had) be made for him, and let him be cast into the sea.
[Footnote 372: Sub propriis podiis. For some account of the curious word podium, whence pew or pue is derived, see the Cambridge Camden Society's 'History of Pews' (or the 'Supplement,' pp. 6, 7).]