Highlight- Middle Ages Flashcards
What is pomp and circumstance mean
beginning of impressive formal activities and ceremonies
People had more of a selection of what during this time
Funeral goods
Where was a popular place people wanted to be buried during this time?
in/around their church.. churchyard cemeteries
What led to overcrowding of cemeteries during this time and what eventually was conducted?
Plague and mass deaths, and mass burials were conducted
Why was “the burial in woolen act” formed and when?
Shortage of fine linens in 1666
What was developed during this period
Burial clubs and guilds
What was continued from the Hebrew influence to prevent premature burials
Wakes
A person who took unto themselves the sins of the dead by eating bread and drinking beer
Sin-eater
Took care of the tasks in and around the churches
Church Sextons
Who were introduced during this period?
Surgeons and anatomists
What was needed for use by anatomists
Cadavers
Where was Alexander the Great shipped and in what?
Macedonia and in honey
a decorated platform that supports a coffin
catafalque
The simplicity that characterized the churchs primitive burial practices gave way to an imposing dignity that better expressed its importance and that of certain of its members. the dead were brought to church where a requiem of mass was said or sung
funeral practices Middle Ages
masses made in fulfillment of vows or promises
votive masses
The body was placed on a bier or a hearse and on it was laid the book of the gospels as a symbol of father and the cross as a symbol of hope. On the way to the grave, a pall was thrown over the corpse, and priests bearing candles and chanting psalms marched before or on either side of the dead.
The practice when an Anglo-Saxon of importance died
a donation to the church
soul shot or mortuary fee
Why did the pope erase the old prohibition against church burial?
it distressed relatives to see their dead carried far from them, and that transportation involved heavy expense to the poor.
Why did burials within churchs become a problem? and how was it fixed?
The amount of space available for sepulture within the church was severely limited.
- church burials became a privilege to be granted in the future to priests and to such persons as merited such special recognition by the eminence of their lives.
another name for a churchyard
gods acre
why was burial in churchyards such a sought after privilege?
because people feared vampires or ghouls and burying the deceased in consecrated ground stopped them from coming close
murder of ones self
felo de se
they were sometimes buried at a crossroads with a stake driven through the body; sometimes in the churchyard by night
If someone was found guilty of “felo de se”
The belief in a state of purgation in which “those whole souls are not perfectly cleansed undergo a process of cleansing” before they can enter heaven;
Catholic doctrine of “Purgatory”
Who made the necessary funeral arrangements, which included requiem mass, burial with solemnity, the payment of the soul shot (mortuary fee) and a liberal distribution of alms?
The steward of the Guild
How were death notices announced? and by whom?
by human voice; by the death crier and the death watcher; dressed in black, with a death head’s and crossbones painted on the front and back of his gown or tabard with a bell in hand
When did the bubonic plague enter Europe and how many people died in one day?
542 & killed 10,000 people
What century was the Black Death?
14th century
When did the Black Death plague reoccur?
15th, 16th, and 17th centuries
In what years were marked as the “great Plague of London”?
1664 & 1665
When was an order issued prohibiting burial between 6pm and 6am
During the plague of 1547
When was the order prohibiting burial between 6pm and 6 am reversed and why?
in 1665, and because the 12 hours of darkness proved too short to bury the dead
What happened when all of the consecrated ground was filled with dead people?
Great trenches were dug and bodies were placed in layers separated by sprinklings of earth until the trenches were filled.
was there any cremation during the plague?
NO
Why were burials prohibited in cemeteries between 6pm and 6 am?
• Based upon belief that people were less susceptible to the foul vapors of contagion during the day then they were at night; a belief that popularly persisted far into the 19th century.
What is the “burial in woolen act” of 1666
this act provided that woolen cloth should be substituted for linen in the shroud and in the lining of the coffin, but that no penalty should be enacted for burying a plague victim in linen.
Why was embalming looked down upon during the Middle Ages, but not forbidden?
costliness, and attendant mutilation of the body
