BURIAL
75
BURIAL
assisting clergy are grouped around and the celebrant
without preamble begins a1 once to read the prayer
ffon intres in judicium rum servo tuo, praying that
the deceased "may deserve to escape the avenging
judgment, who, whilst he lived, was marked with
the seal of the holy Trinity". This is followed by
the responsorj " Libera me Domine", which, as oc-
curring in the Matins for the Dead, has already been
quoted above. Then after the Kyrie eleison, Christe
eleison, Kyrie eleison the priest says aloud the Pater
Noster and while this is repeated in silence by all,
lie makes the round of the coffin, sprinkling it with
holy water and bowing profoundly before the cross
whin he passes it. After which, taking the thurible,
he incenses tl offin in like manner; where we may
note that the use of incense at funerals is derived from the earliest Christian centuries, though no doubt our manner of waving the censer towards persons and objects is relatively modern. Moreover it is possible that the incense was originally employed on such occasions for sanitary reasons. Finally after finishing the Pater Noster and repealing one or two short versicles to which answer is made by the clergy, the celebrant pronounces the prayer of absolution, most commonly in the following form: "O God, Whose at- tribute it is always to have mercy and to spare, we humbly present our prayers to Tb.ee for the soul of Thy servant X. which Thou hast this day called out of this world, beseeching Thee not to deliver it into the hands of the enemy, nor to forget it for ever, but to command Thy holy angels to receive it. ami to bear it into paradise; that as it has believed and Imped in Thee it may be delivered from the pains of hell and inherit eternal life through Christ our Lord. Amen." Although this prayer in its entirety cannot be BUrelj traced to an earlier date than the ninth cen- tury, it contains several elements that recall the ology of primitive times. It is to be found in of our i ■ x i .^ t i 1 1 lt manuscripts of the Gregorian nTitary. At the burial of bishops, cardinals. igns, etc., not one but live absolutions are pro- nounced according to the forms provided in the "Pontificale Romanum". These are spoken by five
bishops Or other "prelates", each absolution being preceded by a separate responsory. In these solemn functions the prayer just quoted is not said, but most of the responsories and prayers used are borrowed from the Office for the Dead or from the Masses in the Roman Missal. It may be noted that all these absolutions are not in the declaratory but in the deprecatory form, i. e. they are prayers imploring < rod's mercy upon the deceased.
After the absolution the body is carried to the grave and as the procession moves along tin- antiphon "In paradisum is chanted by tin- clergy it the choir. It runs thus: " May the angels escorl thee to paradise, may the martyrs receive thee at thy coming and bring thee into the holy city Jerusalem. May the choir i't angels receive thee, and with Lazarus, who
once was poor, mayst thou have eternal rest." Ac- cording tn the rubric "the tomb (sepulchrutn) is
then blessed if it has lint been blessed previously";
which has I n ruled In mean that a grave newly
dug in an already consecrated cemetery is accounted
i. and requires mi further consecration, but a
mausoleum erected above ground or even a brick
chamber beneath the surface is regarded as needing
blessing when used for thi I hi- blessing
is short and consists only of a single prayer after which
the body is again sprinkled with holy water and in- to sen ice it t he grave side is very brief. The priest intoni the antiphon: "I am the Resurrection and the Life", after which the
coffin is lowi grave and the Canticle
Benedictus is meanwhile recited or sung. Tien the antiphon is repeated entire, the Pater Noster is said secretly, while the coffin is again sprinkled with holy
water, and finally after one or two brief responses
the following ancient prayer is said: "Grant this
mercy, O Lord, we beseech Thee, to Thy servant de-
parted, that he may not receive in punishment the
requital of his deeds who in desire did keep Thy will,
and as the true faith here united him to the company
of the faithful, SO may Thy mercy unite him above
to the choirs of angels. Through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen."
Then with the final petition: "May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace", the little procession of cross-bearer, surpliced clerics, and priest return to the sacristy reciting the De Profundis as they go. In some places the custom prevails that the officiating priest before retiring should offer the holy-water sprinkler to the relatives of the deceased who are present, in order that they may cast holy water upon the coffin in the grave. In others it is usual for the priest himself and for all present to throw down upon the coffin a handful of earth. This custom symbolical no doubt of "dust to dust" is certainly ancient and even in the "Rituale Romanum" a rubric is to be found prescribing that "in obsequies which have of necessity to be performed only in private and at the house of the deceased, blessed earth is put into the coffin while the Canticle Benedictus is being said". This no doubt is to be regarded as the nearest avail- able equivalent to interment in a consecrated grave. In other localities, more particularly in Germany, it it customary for the priest to deliver a short discourse (Leichenrede) before leaving the cemetery. This is the more appropriate because nearly everywhere in < iermany the civil law forbids the corpse to be taken to the church except in the case of bishops and other exalted personages. The result is that Mass and ( Mice are performed w ith a catafalque only, and seem even in those rare cases in which they are retained to have nothing to do with the burial, instead of forming, as they .should do. its most essential feature. ( In the other hand the service at the grave side is apt to appear strangely brief and perfunctory unless iin- pressiveness be given to it by the discourse of the officiating priest. It may lie noted that many local customs are still allowed to continue without inter- ference in the ritual observed by the grave side. Before the Reformation there was an extraordinary variety of prayers and responsories commonly recited over the grave especially in (iermany. The extreme simplicity of the "Hituale Romanum" represents no doubt a reaction against what threatened to become an abuse. Of the peculiar rites which so long stir \ i\ ed locally, the Ritual of Brixen may be taken as an illustration. In this when the priest blesses the corpse with holy water, he is directed to say: "Rore ccelcsti perfundat et perficial aniniam tuam Deus". \- the body is lowered into the ground he says: "Sume terra quod tuum est, sumat Deus quod su.im i i. corpus de terra formatum, spiritus de coelo in- spiratus est". Then the priest scatters earth upon the body with a shovel three times, saying. "Memento
homo quia pulvis es el in pulverem reverteris".
After this the Magnificat is recited and the psalm Lauda annua mea Dominum, with various prayers, and then with a wooden cross the priest signs the grave in three places, at the head, in the middle. and at the feet, with the words; "Signum Sal. Domini nostri Jesu Christi super te. qui in hac imag- ine redemit te, nee permittat introire, [and here he
plants the wooden cross at the head of the grave]
angelum percutientem in asternum". It is interest- ing to note that alter once more blessing the grave with holy water he recites a prayer over the people in the vernacular. The clergy and all other | ri also sprinkle holy Water on the grave before they
di pe'
Tin: Bubial of Little Children. — The "Rituale
