1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Chapelle Ardente

CHAPELLE ARDENTE (Fr. “burning chapel”), the chapel or room in which the corpse of a sovereign or other exalted personage lies in state pending the funeral service. The name is in allusion to the many candles which arc lighted round the catafalque. This custom is first chronicled as occurring at the obsequies of Dagobert I. (602–638).