Fig. 347.—Mode of Burial among the Franks.—The body, laid in the grave, is surrounded with arms, implements, and various articles for use: the sword or the scrama sax under the right armpit, the knife or poignard upon the breast, the hatchet at the knee, the framée or the lance at the feet, comb, bracelet, &c. It is thought that the vase in red or black clay, which is often found under the feet of the skeleton, had a symbolic meaning. This grave was discovered during excavations made in Paris.
At a much later period the principle relating to the direction in which bodies were laid fell into disuse at Christian burials. The persons attached to the ecclesiastical edifices were buried with their feet towards the west, and sometimes towards the south. There was another exception: the body was not always laid upon its back, but in certain cases it was placed upon its side, or even with the face downwards. Pepin the Short was buried with his face downwards; Hugh Capet, in accordance with his wishes, was also thus interred beneath the rain-spout which was above the porch of St. Denis Cathedral, in order that his sins might be washed out. This was termed adens burial (upon the teeth, ad dentes).
In the sixth and seventh centuries we have many instances of persons being placed in a sitting position in their tombs, with the legs and body upright. This exceptional mode of interment was most frequently adopted, though not exclusively, by the barbarians; and the fact of Charlemagne having been so interred makes it peculiarly interesting. “Washed and laid out,” as we read in Legrand d’Aussy’s “Sépultures Nationales,” “arrayed in his imperial robes, at his side a sword with a golden pummel, on his head a golden crown, holding in his lap a New Testament written in letters of gold, he was seated upon a throne of gold. Before him were placed his golden sceptre and shield, which had been blessed by Pope Leo. The vault was filled with perfumes and many treasures (thesauris multis); it was closed, and even sealed down, and over it was erected a golden arcade, upon which was engraved the epitaph handed down to us by Eginhardt, and is the oldest extant of all those which tell of our earliest kings.”
When the pagans adopted the custom of interment (Fig. 348), they laid by the side of the dead the insignia of his profession, and any objects which had been dear to him during his lifetime; to this they added various vases containing food and drink, to serve him as a viaticum during his more or less prolonged journey to a better world. In the coffins of Christians, on the contrary—even from the earliest times—the funeral furniture appears to have been next to nothing: a phial containing some perfume, with one, two, or perhaps three vases, of wood, glass, or clay, filled with holy water.
Fig. 348.—Gallo-Roman Tomb, representing the deceased laid upon a funeral bed, and surrounded by her weeping family and household.—Monument of the First or Second Century, found during excavations made in Paris. After a Plate in the “Statistique de Paris,” by M. Albert Lenoir.
The perfume-phials had disappeared so early as the Merovingian period, but the custom of placing the other vases in the coffin lasted, in some countries, even down to the eighteenth century. Their presence in a place of burial is not, therefore, a proof of its antiquity. The liturgists have endeavoured to explain the origin and the meaning of a custom so general and so long maintained; and William Durand suggests, in his “Rationale,” that these funeral vases, of whatever shape they might be, were intended for containing incense. A miniature of the fourteenth century would appear to confirm this theory, for we find that it represents, at the four corners of a coffin covered with the pall, small pots placed in a row with the tapers (Fig. 349); and there is reason to believe that the incense in them was burnt during the funeral service. In fact, the pots represented in this miniature are white; the reddish colour of the holes with which they are perforated, and the smoke issuing from them, show that there was fire inside. Perhaps this was only the fire of red-hot coals, since they have been found to contain ashes mixed with pieces of coal.
Fig. 349.—Funeral Service, in which are shown, between the candelabra, the incense vases which were deposited in the coffin.—Drawing of the Fourteenth Century.
