The flat tombs consisted of a slab six feet six inches long, either of some hard stone or of marble, let into the ground or the pavement above the coffin (Fig. 363). Upon the slab was originally carved the cross, no matter what might be the condition of the person interred, with a crozier for a prelate and a sword for a knight. These objects were reproduced with considerable skill by carving them out of the stone and plastering the hollow with red or black cement, which had the effect of making their outline more distinct. In the twelfth century, the flat tombs were decorated with a bordering around the stone, similarly engraved, and intended to form a fillet within which came the epitaph, with the name of the deceased and the date of his death. Later still, as in the case of raised tombs, the figure of the deceased came to be represented on them. This was so in the time of Louis VII., the statues being made to represent the image of the deceased in the dress of his particular station in life, with his hands crossed upon his breast; and, subsequently, lions and dogs were added as accessories—the whole being carved into the stone. The figure of the deceased was often surrounded with architectural devices. At first the figure was placed under a colonnade; subsequently a very complicated edifice was erected, with the statue of the deceased erect in the foreground (Fig. 364). The hands and feet were often cemented on in white or black marble. Flat tombs made either of brass, silver, or bronze were also used, the last-named metal being much in vogue in the thirteenth century; for example, we find it in the tomb of Ingerburga, wife of Philip Augustus, at St. Jean-en-Ile, near Corbeil; in that of Blanche, wife of Louis VIII., at Maubuisson; in that of Marguerite, wife of St. Louis, and in that of Blanche, their daughter, at St. Denis. Prince Louis, son of St. Louis, is also buried in that church, his tomb being in copper enamelled.
Fig. 363.—Flat Tomb of Sibylle (wife of Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem), who died in 1187. In the church at Namèche, near Namur. The inscription, half effaced, may be translated as follows:—“Here lies the rightful heiress of Samson (a village near Namur), who was descended in a direct line from the King of Jerusalem. Let us pray God for her soul’s consolation.”
Many tombs were far more sumptuous. Those of Louis VIII. and Louis IX. were in silver-gilt, decorated with carved figures. Alphonse de Brienne, Comte d’Eu, had a tomb of copper-gilt enriched with enamel. It was probably at about the same period that the chapter of the Abbey of St. Germain des Prés (Paris) covered with mosaics and filigree-work the ancient tomb of Fredegonde; for it is difficult to believe, in spite of Mabillon and Montfaucon, that this tomb dates back to her death at the end of the sixth century.
Fig. 364.—Flat Tomb of Alexandre de Berneval, architect of the Church of St. Ouen, at Rouen, and of his pupil.—In the Church of St. Ouen. (Fifteenth Century.
In the fifteenth century the English, masters at that time of a considerable part of France, laid hands upon these plates of copper, silver, and gold to convert them into coin; others which escaped spoliation were melted down during the Revolution, so that we must look to England and Belgium for flat metal tombs still in a state of preservation.
Such are the chief characteristics of funeral monuments in the Middle Ages and down to the period of the Renaissance. These monuments, many of which are still extant, throw great light upon the costumes of their time. We must now proceed to speak of the cemeteries, or places of public burial, in which tombs above ground were legally permitted as soon as the Church had established its authority. Burials within the churches were, in fact, a special privilege for the rich, who were able to purchase it in perpetuity. The presence of these graves in buildings intended for public worship was, moreover, in accordance with the very essence of Christianity, by reason of the practice already alluded to, of placing the body of some saint beneath the altar.
The primitive Latin Church, in the second and in the early part of the third century, performed the ceremonies of worship in the cemeteries of the Christians, that is to say, in the crypts and the Catacombs. The Christians, in imitation of the pagan custom of converting old quarries into places of common burial, called hypogea, sought refuge, during persecution, in some disused quarries near the gates of Rome, and there they celebrated their rites in secret and buried their dead. These are the Catacombs, which constitute a regular subterraneous town, and the galleries of which, composing an immense labyrinth, have been opened in the neighbourhood of and in close proximity to the ancient roads which radiated from Rome towards the surrounding districts. The appropriation of these Catacombs for Christian burial-places unquestionably dates from the first century of Christianity. The best known and the most famous are those which extend beneath the basilica of St. Sebastian, and form part of what was called the Cemetery of St. Calixtus, beneath the Appian Way. Since the sixteenth century, when these Catacombs were first explored and thoroughly studied, this generic name has been given to all excavations which have led to the discovery of Christian graves. Each catacomb was called after the martyr whom the faithful had interred there during the persecutions, and whose relics have been found beneath altars, which were chiefly erected and decorated during the eighth century.
