No. LXXIV.
“An immense quantity of fuel was always of necessity used, when dead bodies were burned, instead of buried; and a friend, learned in such lore, as well as in much that is far more valuable, informs us that the burning of a martyr was always an expensive process.”
This passage was transferred, from the New York Courier and Enquirer, to the Boston Atlas, December 29, 1849, and is part of an article having reference to the partial cremation of Dr. Parkman’s remains.
I must presume, as a sexton of the old school, to doubt the accuracy of this statement, in the very face of the averment, that the editor’s authority is “a friend, learned in such lore.”
To enable my readers to judge of the comparative expense of burial, in the ordinary mode, by interment or entombment, and by cremation, I refer, in the first place, to Mr. Chadwick’s Report, made by request of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State, for the Home Department, Lond. 1843, in which it is stated, that a Master in Chancery, when dealing with insolvent estates, will pass, “as a matter of course,” such claims as these—from £60 to £100 for burying an upper tradesman—£250 for burying a gentleman—£500 to £1500 for burying a nobleman.
But let us confine our remarks to the particular allegation. The “friend, learned in such lore,” has greatly diminished the labor of refutation, by confining his statement to the burning of martyrs—“the burning of a martyr was always an expensive process,” requiring, says the Courier and Enquirer, “an immense quantity of fuel.”
I well remember to have read, though I cannot recall the authority, that aromatic woods and spices were occasionally used in the East, during the suttees, to correct the offensive odor. In addition to the reason, assigned by Cicero, De Legibus, ii. 23, for the law against intramural burning, that conflagration might be avoided—Servius, in a note, on the Æneis, vi. 150, states another, that the air might not be infected with the stench. To prevent this, we know that costly perfumes were cast upon the pile; and the respect and affection for the defunct came to be measured, at last, by this species of extravagance; just as the funereal sorrow of the Irish is supposed to be graduated, by the number of coaches, and the quantity of whiskey.
But our business is with the martyrs. What was the cost of burning John Rogers I really do not know. I doubt if the process was very expensive; for good old John Strype has told us, almost to a fagot, how much fuel it took, to burn Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley. The fuel, employed to burn Latimer and Ridley, cost fifteen shillings and four pence sterling for both; and the fuel for burning Cranmer, nine shillings and four pence only. Then there were chains, stakes, laborers, and cartage; and the whole cost for burning all three, was one pound, sixteen shillings, and six pence! Not a very expensive process truly. The authority is not at every one’s command: I therefore give it entire, from Strype’s Memorials of Cranmer, Oxford ed., 1840, vol. i. p. 563:—
| s. | d. | |
| “For three loads of wood fagots to burn Ridley and Latimer, | 12 | 0 |
| Item, one load of furs fagots, | 3 | 4 |
| For the carriage of these four loads, | 2 | 0 |
| Item, a post, | 1 | 4 |
| Item, two chains, | 3 | 4 |
| Item, two staples, | 0 | 6 |
| Item, four laborers, | 2 | 8 |
| “For Burning Cranmer. | ||
| For an 100 of wood fagots, | 6 | 0 |
| For an 100 and half of furs fagots, | 3 | 4 |
| For the carriage of them, | 0 | 8 |
| To two laborers, | 1 | 4.” |