OTHING could be imagined more picturesque than a Venetian funeral in bygone days. The state gondola of the family, containing the body, and also the attendant priests and friars, was covered with black velvet, and blazed with candelabra full of lighted candles; and from the stern of the boat hung an immense train of black velvet, which was permitted to touch the water, but prevented from sinking underneath it by golden tassels, which were held by members of the family in the gondolas which followed close behind. All those persons who took part in the funeral of course carried lights in their hands. If the individual happened to belong to one of the numerous confraternities, or scuole, which existed in Venice up to the end of the last century, a grand musical mass was celebrated in the chapel belonging to the order; and on these occasions some of the finest music ever composed was heard for the first time, such, for instance, as Paesiello's Requiem, an infinitely beautiful one by Marcello, and the majestic mass for four voices, by Lotti.
Fig. 43.—Tomb of Hamlet.
Fig. 44.—Death devouring Man and Beast. A singular, illuminated document on parchment, of the 12th Century, measuring over fifty feet by one yard wide. The figure above is intended to represent the letter T.—From the Mortuary Roll of the Abbey of Savingy, Avranches, France. The original is preserved among the French National Archives.
HE funeral of a Pope is attended by many curious ceremonies, not the least remarkable of which is, that so soon as His Holiness' death is thoroughly assured, the eldest Cardinal goes up to the body, and strikes it three times gently on the breast, saying in Latin, as he does so, "The Holy Father has passed away." The body is then lowered into the Church of St. Peter's, where it is exhibited—as was the case when Pope Pius IX. died in '78—for three days to the veneration of the faithful, after which it is conveyed in great state to the church which the Pope has selected for his burial-place. As it passed along the streets of Rome in the good old times, the members of the nobility assembled at the entrance of their houses, each carrying a lighted taper in his hand, and answering back the prayers of the friars and clergy in the procession. It will be remembered that it was this sort of spontaneous illumination which so offended a rabble of freethinkers, on the occasion of the funeral of the late Pope, that they stoned the coffin, and created a riot of a most disgraceful character. After the Pope is buried, it is usual for his successor or his family to build a stately monument over his remains, and this custom accounts for the amazing number of fine Papal monuments in the Roman basilicas and churches.