An original article written for The Scrap Book.
Good Frend for Jesus sake forbeare,
To digg the Dust enclosed Heare:
Blest be ye Man yt spares thes stones
And Curst be he yt moves my bones.
Epitaph on Shakespeare’s Tomb.
Possibly, on account of this epitaph which Shakespeare had inscribed above his grave in the church of Stratford-on-Avon and which it would need a bold man to disregard now, the ashes of the great dramatist have been more fortunate than those of many distinguished men. Despite our inherent horror of disturbing the dead and our respect for the grave as consecrated ground, changed conditions, and, in some cases, mere curiosity, have made the list of celebrities whose bones have been moved a long one.
History shows that in securing immunity for one’s grave, neither the lapse of centuries nor past greatness is of any avail. It is on record that in the chaos of the end of the ninth century a pope had the body of his predecessor dug from the tomb, dressed it in its pontifical vestments, and had it tried and condemned by a synod. The hideous mockery terminated only when the mutilated body was thrown into the Tiber.
Dead Pope on Trial.
This scene, which marks the lowest point to which civil war and anarchy in Rome reduced the papacy, took place in February or March of 897. About eleven months before, Pope Formosus had died after a stormy pontificate of five years. He was followed to the grave in fifteen days by his successor. Then Stephen VI seated himself in the chair of St. Peter. Stephen belonged to the faction opposed to Formosus’s ally, Arnulf of Germany. Party feeling and party hatred ran high. The men temporarily in power had injuries to avenge, and Stephen, in a fit of almost insane fury, determined to try his predecessor.