BURIDAN
78
BURIDAN
service of the Greek Church is very long and it will
be sufficient here briefly to call attention to one or
two points in which it bears a close resemblance to
the Latin Rite. With the Greeks as with the Latins
we find a general use of lighted candles held by all
present in their hands, as also holy water, incense
and the tolling of bells. With the Greeks as in the
Western Communion, after a relatively short serv-
ice at the house of the deceased, the corpse is borne
in procession to the church anil deposited there
while the Pannychis, a mournful service of psalmody,
is recited or sung. In the burial of a bishop the Holy
Sacrifice or divine liturgy is offered up, and there
is in any case a solemn absolution pronounced over
the body before it is borne to the grave. Black vest-
ments are usually worn by the clergy, and again,
as with us, the dead man, if an ecclesiastic, is robed
as he would have been robed in life in assisting at
the altar. There are, however, a good many features
peculiar to the Eastern Church. A crown, in prac-
tice a paper band which represents it, is placed upon
the dead layman's head. The priest is anointed with
oil and his face is covered with the aer, the veil with
which the sacred species are covered during the
Holy Sacrifice. Also the open Gospel is laid upon
his breast as in the early Spanish ordinal. The
Alleluia is sung as part of the service and a symbol-
ical farewell is taken of the deceased by a last kiss.
Upon the altar stands a dish with a cake made of
wheat and honey, emblematic of the grain which
falling to the ground dies and bringeth forth much
fruit. Moreover many differences are made in the
service according as the dead person is layman, monk,
priest, or bishop, and also according to the ecclesias-
tical season, for during paschal time white vestments
are worn and another set of prayers are said. The
burial rite of the Greeks may be seen in Goar, "Eu-
chologium Griecorum" (Paris, 1647), 423 sqq.; also
in the new Russian edition by Al. Dmitrieoski (Kiev,
1895-1901). For the law of the Church of England
concerning burial, see Blunt- Phillimore " The Book of
Church Law" (London, 1899), 177-87, and 512-17,
text of Burial Laws Amendment Act of 1880.
Burial Confraternities. — It would take us too far to go into this subject at length. Even from the period of the catacombs such associations seem to have existed among the Christians and they no doubt imitated to some extent in their organization the pagan collegia for the same purpose. Through- out the Middle Ages it may be said that the guilds to a very large extent were primarily burial confra- ternities; at any rate the seemly carrying out of the funeral rites at the death of any of their members together with a provision of Masses for his soul form an almost invariable feature in the constitutions of such guilds. But still more directly to the purpose we find certain organizations formed to carry out the burial of the dead and the friendless as a work of charity. The most celebrated of these was the "Misericordia" of Florence, believed to have been instituted in 1244 by Pier Bossi, and surviving to the present day. It is an organization which asso- ciates in this work of mercy the members of all ranks of society. Their self-imposed task is not limited to escorting the dead to their last resting-place, but they discharge the functions of an ambulance corps, dealing with accidents as they occur and carrying the sick to the hospitals. When on duty the members wear a dress which completely envelops and dis- guises them. Even the face is hidden by a covering in which only two holes are left for the eyes. See Cemetery; Crematioii; Requiem.
Catalani, Commentariiis in Rituale Iiomnnum (175G); Thal- hofer, Liturgik, II, Pt. II; [DEM, in Kirehe-nlex., s. v.; Bin- ■iiimm. lieukuurdiqkeUeu l Mainz, 1838), VI, Pt. 111,302-514; MaRTENE, De antiquis Ecelesiir ritibus, II and IV; Ruland, GV- sehiehte der kirehliehen l.euhinfeier (Ratisbon, 1902); Al.BER'M, De *i I'ultura ecclesiastica (1901); PuoCEtt, La sepulture dans
realise catholique, in Precis historiques (Brussels, 1SS2);
Murcier, La sepulture chretienne en France (Paris, 1855);
Probst, Die Eisequien (Mainz, 1856); Marucchi, Elements
darcheologie chr, (.(Rome, 1899). I, 129-131; Petrides, in Diet,
d'arch. et lit. s. v. Absoute. — On the Canon Law of burial,
see especially Lex, Das kirehliehe llcirrtdinissrecht (Ratisbon,
1904); also Sagmuller, Kirchenreeht (Freiburg, 1904), Pt. Ill;
Ferraris, Hiblwtheeu, s. v. sepultura; Von Scherer, Kirchen-
reeht. II, 601. — On Burial in the Creek Church: Maltzew,
Itciiraltniss-Ritns (Berlin, 1890). — On Absolution Crosses:
Chevreux, in Bulletin arcMol. ( Paris. 1904), 391-408; Cochet,
La Normandie souterraine; Iio m, SipuUwres auutoises (Paris,
1855 and 1857 ): Dei.isi.e, Hullitin de l12. See also the bibliog-
raphy of the article Cemetery.
Herbert Thurston.
Buridan, Jean, French scholastic philosopher of the fourteenth century, b. at Bethune, in the dis- trict of Artois towards the end of the thirteenth century; date of death unknown. He studied at the University of Paris under the Nominalist, William of Occam, became professor in the faculty of arts, procurator of the Pieardy "Nation", and (in 1327) rector of the university. In 1345, he was one of the ambassadors sent by the university to the papal court at Avignon. He is also said to have assisted in founding the University of Vienna. It is probable, however, that Buridan never went to Vienna, for it is certain that he was in Paris in 1358, and Father Denifle has shown (Chartul. Univ., Paris, II, 646) that the University of Vienna was not founded until 1365, when Buridan was so old that he could hardly have undertaken such a journey. His principal works are "Compendium Logics", "Summa de Dialectic;! ", and "Commentaries" on the works of Aristotle, the most important of the last being those on the "Politics". A com- plete edition was published by Dullard, Paris, 1500, and has frequently been reprinted, e. g. Oxford, 1637, London, 1641.
Buridan was not a theologian. In philosophy he belonged to the Nominalist, or Terminist school of Occam, to which he adhered in spite of reiterated condemnation. He adhered, also, to that peculiar form of scepticism which appeared in Scholastic philosophy at that time, and which arose from the growing sense of the inadequacy of reason to solve the highest problems of thought. In his "Compen- dium Logica?" he developed at length the art of finding the middle term of a demonstration, and this, in the course of time (it is first mentioned in 1514), came to be known as "The Bridge of Asses", i. e. the bridge by which stupid scholars were enabled to pass from the minor or major, to the middle, term of syllogism. Still better known is the phrase " Buridan's Ass", which refers to the "case" of a hungry donkey placed between two loads of hay, equal as to quantity and quality and equally dis- tant. The animal so placed, argued the dialec- tician, could never decide to which load of hay he should turn, and, in consequence, would die of hunger. The "case" is not found in Buridan's writings (though the problem it proposes is to be found in Aristotle), and may well have been in- vented by an opponent to show the absurdity of Buridan's doctrine.
That doctrine began by denying the distinction between the different faculties of the soul. Will and intellect, said Buridan, are the same. Hence, to say that the will is free in any sense except that in which the intellect also is free, is to say that the will is freer than itself. The freedom of the will is the freedom of the whole soul. Human freedom consists, then, in the power of choosing between two or more desirable alternatives (libertas opposi- tioni.s). When the intellect presents one alternative as better (higher) than the other, the will must choose the former. When the will presents two alternatives as equally desirable, there can be no
