Death and burial in the Middle Ages

Transcription

1 Death and burial in the Middle Ages

2 Medieval Death Omnipresent Diseases, hunger and wars as main causes of death Low life expectancy About 40% of population dies before reaching age of Death is earthly and yet beyond perception

3 Christianization: Denmark ca 960 AD 11 th c Norway late 10 th c-early 11 th c Iceland 1000 AD Sweden ca th c

4 Ideas about death, dying and after life filled medieval folklore Mixture of popular beliefs and Christian ideology

5 Death and sorcery Diseases, infections, hunger, war Forecasted death Witchcraft

6 Good death Christian ideal of good death priest visiting dying person (confession and absolution of sins, holy oils, prayer) surrounded by family and friends being prepared to death Alexander on the deathbed, West Flanders,

7 Priests and their parishioners Medieval Lund: Population ca 3000 Churches: 13 Area: ca 1,5 km2 Medieval Roskilde: Population ca Churches: 12 Area: 0.8 km2 Medieval Bornholm Population ca Churches: 15 Area: 588 km2

8 Cantasti carmina diabolica super mortuos? Origins of Danse Macabre?

9 Stages of funeral: disjunction of soul and body Golden Evangeliar

10 Stages of funeral: washing and dressing the body

11 Stages of funeral: procession to the cemetery Scene from the Bayeux tapestry, 11 th c

12 Stages of funeral: burial polluting dead Measuring sticks (?) of hazel found in Lund Potshards from the same pot deposited in a 11 th c grave on Bornholm

13 After funeral: ghosts, vampires and undead Woman with a brick in her mouth found in Venice, Italy Decapitated couple, northern Poland

14 Iohannes Belethus Summa de ecclesiasticis oficiis an example of a handbook of funerary ritual Dying person should be put on the ground or a hay-bed with cross at the feet. Priest should come to pray for the soul and forgive the sins When he/she dies the church bells should ring: twice for a woman, three times for a man and for a priest as many times as indicated by his rank Body should be washed, swabbed in shrouds and taken to the church where a holy mass should be sung for the deceased soul In the churchyard, after placing the body in the grave pit, holy water and charcoal with incense should be sprinkled

15 Deceased should be buried in shrouds and shoes, so they are ready to follow the Lord during the resurrection on the Judgement Day Each grave should be marked by a cross put by the head-end of the grave; cross symbolizes faith of the deceased and protects against the demons Women who died during childbirth cannot receive the funeral ceremony in the church Foetuses and newborns are to be buried outside of the churchyard walls

16 Ars moriendi: the art of dying (late 14 th c) Greed and temptation of material goods Solace by turning away from the earthly

17 Medieval churchyard Designated and fenced Consecrated space With church or chapel

18 Medieval churchyards Limited space = overlapping burials (early towns, monasteries) Medieval cemetery in Rathausmarkt, Schleswig, Germany

19 Division of churchyards space according to the early medieval Norwegian laws: Borgartings and Eidsivathing Laws

20 Female graves in the northern part and male in the southern part of the cemetery, example from the 11 th c cemetery in Ndr. Grodbygård, Bornholm, Denmark Churchyards excavated

21 Opposite gender of foreigners? (example of Kongemarken near Roskilde, Denmark )

22 Churchyard excavated Rule: Supine position along the W-E line with the head pointing west Exceptions: reversed body orientation and position Graves from Cedynia, Poland, 12 th c

23 Chronological changes in arranging the body EMAca

24 Churchyards excavated Burials of criminals, vagabonds and unbaptized children

25 Churchyards excavated Grave gifts: Rosaries and pilgrims objects Coins Jewelry Tools Food Jewelry, tool, coins and pottery found among the grave gifts in Ndr. Grodbygård, Bornholm, Denmark

26 Ideaology of after-life Heaven and Hell soul weighing Invention of purgatory: 13 th c Ghosts and troubled souls in folklore Wall painting from 14 th c Denmark

27 The ideal death Effigies remember me as I was once Tomb effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II at Fontevrault (d. 1204) Tomb effigy of a crusader Jean d Alluye, mid-13 th c

28 Triumph of death Europe after 1300 Crop failure and starvation : in the Northern Europe (from England to Scandinavia); in Italy Wars: The Hundred Years War between England and France ( ) Black death : plague epidemic spreads from 1347 onwards Epidemics of other infectious diseases As a result about 40% of Europe s population dies Apocalyptic vision of the end of the world spreads throughout Europe

29 Spread of the plague (Black Death) in Europe

30 The plague reached London in autumn According to the contemporary Robert of Avesbury: 'The pestilence arrived in London at about the feast of All Saints [1st Nov] and daily deprived many of life. It grew so powerful that between Candlemass and Easter [2nd Feb-12th April] more than 200 corpses were buried almost every day in the new burial ground made next to Smithfield, and this was in addition to the bodies buried in other graveyards in the city. 'Those marked for death were scarce permitted to live longer than three or four days. It showed favour to noone, except a very few of the wealthy. On the same day, 20, 40 or 60 bodies, and on many occasions many more, might be committed for burial together in the same pit.' Remains of victims of the Black Death (Hythe Ossuary) A mass grave from London

31 Transi tombs Early 1400 s Ca 1250 Memorial of René de Chalon, Prince of Orange, 1547

32 Changed image of death Personification of death Fascination with cadaver and decomposing body Inevitability of death

33 Death in the late medieval imaginary Fear of death cult of saints and St. Mary (belief in their ability to protect against diseases and from going to Hell) Religious piety Apocalyptic visions of the end of humanity Equality of humans in the face of death Late medieval flagellants

34 Motif of Danse macabre from the church in Kermaria, France Scene of Danse Macabre from Nørre Alslev, Denmark

35 Popular scenes in late medieval art: Last Judgment Death of Jesus Hell Albrecht Durer ( ) illustrations to The Apocalypse of St John

36 Hieronymus Bosch ( ) Hell a part of the triptych The Garden of Earthly Delight