Grave
A grave is the place where a person or animal is buried after its death. They are generally grouped in a cemetery, and the location of each body or a group of bodies is marked by tombstones.
Tombs are common to almost all human cultures, with differences in ritual and decoration, depending on beliefs regarding death and the afterlife. Some cultures, like the Egyptian, buried their dead with all their earthly possessions, thinking they would need them in the afterlife. The burial begins in prehistory.
Description
The formal use of a tomb involves several steps with associated terminology.
Digging the grave
The excavation that forms the tomb. [2] Excavations range from shallow scraping to topsoil removal to a depth of 1.8 meters or more where a vault or burial chamber will be constructed. However, most modern graves in the United States are only 1.3m deep, as the coffin is placed in a concrete box (see burial vault) to prevent a sinkhole, to ensure the grave is strong enough to be knocked over and to prevent me from floating on it. the case of a flood.
Excavated soil
The material removed when the grave is excavated. It is often piled close to the grave for padding and then returned to the grave to cover it. Since soil decompresses when excavated and the space is occupied by burial, not all of the volume of soil re-enters the hole, so evidence of remnant soil is often found. In cemeteries this can end up as a thick layer of soil covering the original soil surface.
Burial
The body may be placed in a coffin or other container, in a wide range of positions, alone or in a multiple burial, with or without personal belongings of the deceased.
Burial Vault
A vault is a structure built into the tomb to receive the body. It can be used to prevent crushing of remains, allow for multiple burials, as a family vault, recovery of remains for transfer to an ossuary, or because it forms a monument.
Grave Filler
The soil returned to the grave is excavated after burial. This material may contain artifacts derived from the original excavation and prior use of the site, deliberately placed goods or artifacts, or later material. Backfill can be left at ground level or on a mound.
Monument or marker
Tombstones are the most popular, but can be complemented with decorative borders, toe stones, posts to hold items, a solid cover, or other options.
Place of burial
The place or place destined for burials, due to a constant practice, has been in all the towns the countryside. The first burial that we find in the Bible is that of Sara, in the same one in which Abraham was later buried, which was made of a rock inside a cave.
This has been the usage of the ancient Hebrews that was continued into the modern age. The Gentiles have practiced the same. Christians, since the birth of the Church have had no other use for many centuries. For the observance of the same, ecclesiastical laws were dictated and civil laws have concurred to their aid.
In the beginning, says Potero, the Greeks kept their dead in the Temples but later Solon forbade it, ordering them to be buried outside the Cities or to avoid the stench of the corpses or because of the danger of a fire when they carried out the combustion of the corpses. corpses. The Romans among the laws of the XII tables, had this:
HOMINEM. MORTUUM. IN. CITY. NE. SEPEL.
They believed that the city was contaminated with dead bodies. For the same reason, the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian extended it to the Municipalities. The Emperors, the Vestal Virgins and some Roman Knights were exempted from this law for some time, who were allowed to bury themselves in the City as P. Valerio Públicola and A. Postumio Tuberto. But in the Consulate of Druilio, the Senate reinstated the law of the XII tables, ordering that no one should be buried within the City, as inferred from Servio. Then the Emperor Hadrian imposed a fine of forty escudos applicable to the treasury to anyone who made the sepulcher within the City. And since this law was not kept, Antonino Pio forbade by another rescript to bury the dead within the City. Why the buried were placed on the public roads, the following inscription declares.
HIC. LOLLIUS. POSITUS
VT. DICANT. PRAETEREUNTES
LOLI. OK [...for the passers-by to say goodbye]
Another reason is given by Varron: so that the passengers would understand that they, too, were mortals like those entombed there.
Burial in churches
The rule established by the Canons of the Church has been that the burials of the faithful are in cemeteries. At first this was observed with the most scrupulous accuracy, but from then on the practice of burying persons distinguished for their holiness was introduced imperceptibly in churches. Then the Emperors wanted to be buried at the door of the Church, leaving the interior reserved for the Saints. But the Saints were not alone for long. In the following, burial in the Churches was not only granted to Ecclesiastics of exemplary conduct, but also to those of a fairly common life and who had nothing more remarkable than the dignity with which they were adorned. In short, the laymen came to be admitted indifferently.
But the spirit of the Church has always been to oppose the abuse of burying the dead in churches. Going through the Decrees that the Councils have made at all times and in various parts of Christianity, we find many that prohibit it. From the first centuries of Christian Spain our Fathers opposed this abuse. In the VI century, the Council of Braga ordered that no one should be buried in churches. Those Fathers say:
"In no way, the bodies of the dead within the Church are buried: for if the Cities have so far maintained their privilege of not burying any deceased in the enclosure of their walls, the House and Temple of the Venerable Martyrs should be preserved in a reasonable way.
The same was ordered by the Councils that were held in subsequent centuries. In the IX century the Council of Tribur says:
According to the Statutes of the Holy Fathers, we forbade and mansdamos, that henceforth no lego is buried in the Churches.
In the 13th century, Godfrey of Saint Britius, Bishop of Saintes, held a Synod in which he complained of that in his Diocese those excommunicated were buried in cemeteries with the other faithful. Therefore, he forbids burial in blessed cemeteries. In the same century, the Cicestrense Synod ordered that burials not be made in churches or in their gates. He himself puts a Decree pertaining to the respect and reverence of the Cemeteries. That Assembly says:
Having come to our news, that the Cemeteries are treaded with horses, oxen and other animals on the pretext of grazing the herbs and do not have the proper reverence: what is rightly given in honor of the relatives and friends of the deceased, we command that the Cemetery closes competently, according to the custom of the Parish.
In the 16th century several regulations were made to maintain this point of discipline. The famous restorer of it San Carlos Borromeo made this Constitution.
Carefully, the Bishop, may the Cemeteries be surrounded by walls safely, so that the entrance to the beasts is prevented. In the middle of the Cemetery there is a Cross, and it is covered above with decency.
A short time later the Council of Rouen, presided over by the Most Serene Prince Cardinal Bourbon, Archbishop of Rouen, among other statutes, puts this:
Do not bury the dead in the Churches, or even if they are rich people, for this honor is not to be given to the money, but to the graces of the Holy Spirit: this is reserved for those who are specially consecrated to God, for their bodies are the Temples of Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit: also for those who find themselves in some dignity, whether Ecclesiastical or Secular, that these to the truth are the Ministers of the Holy Republic The others are religiously buried in the Cemeteries for this.
The following year there was a Council in Bordeaux, confirmed by Gregory XIII, who promulgated a decree, which establishes:
The Council has been related, that in these times the bodies of the dead of qualifications are committed; to know, that at every step the bodies of the dead are buried in the Churches of qualtile condition and quality; and to avoid with every request, that the holy places, and consecrated to God be profaned, and that they have been perverted, the Holy Fathers are forbidden. The others we send are buried in the Cemeteries and Campos Santos, which did not anciently refuse even the most illustrious Personages.
In the same century there was a Provincial Council in Bourges in which it was ordered that the cemeteries be closed with walls to prevent their desecration and that those in charge of them were punished at the will of the Ordinary, if they were found negligent.
Burial outside the village
The Emperor Theodosius forbade burying the dead inside the town, also ordering that the corpses that were contained in the urns be removed from the Churches, and placed outside the City. In Spain Alfonso the Wise dictated this law:
Soterrar non must none in the Eglesia, if not certain persons, who are named in this law, as well as the Kings, and the Kings, and their fixed ones, and the Bishops, &c. And if any other man soar within the Church, if not the ones that are overwhelmed are in this law, the Bishop must bring forth.
And in Law II of the Items it is said:
Near the Eglesias had for good the Holy Fathers who were the graves of the Christian. And this for four reasons: The first, because as well as the belief of the Christianos is far beyond God than that of the other: nations, so that the graves of them were closer to the Churches. The second is, because those who come to the Churches, when they see the rages of their relatives or, of their friends, bow down to pray to God for them. The third, for they commend them to those Saints, to whose honor and whose name are founded the Churches, who pray to God markedly for those who are buried in their Cemeteries. The quarta is, because the devils have not been able to bind themselves so much to the bodies of the dead ome, that they are buried in the Cemeteries, as to the others that are out, and for this reason they are called the Cemeteries to protect the dead. But formerly the Emperors and the Kings Christianos set up establishments and laws, and ordered the dates to be Eglesias, and the Cemeteries outside the Cibdades and the Villas, in which the dead were buried, because the fedor of them would not corrupt the fast, nor kill the living.
The gloss on this law:
The Cemetery should normally be with the Church, according to the Chapter. Antiquities, 17. 4. But he may also be separated, as is customary in France, by avoiding the stench, as this law says in the end.
Despite this prohibition, the custom prevailed, becoming almost general. Although in Spain it took longer because the use of being buried outside churches lasted in the middle of the XIII century, according to Berganza.
Our ancients did not use to have burial within the Churches, even though they were Princes and Kings. At this time it seems that it was first given that the royal bodies were buried within the Temples: for in this year of 1237 the Emperor (Don Alonso) entrusted the Monges of Oña, that the royal bodies, which were buried at the gate of the Church (in the Cemetery) were transferred to the Chapel of our Lady. It began the style by the anointed princes, and spread to the most popular people of the Republic, with little respect to the much decorum that is due to the temples and sacred places.[...] It is notorious that in time of Count Garci-Fernandez (998) and in many times ahead, the legos, even though they were princes and kings, were not buried in the Churches, not to be had by Martyrs or people of very well known virtue. [...] In ancient times none was buried in the Church, but was Martyr Bishop or Priest of known virtue; and so it was always style in the Religion of St. Benedict, that the Monges had their own Cemetery apart, where they were buried. The site determined in the ancient times was outside the Monastery, and some were more than a thousand steps from the house. Then they went to point him within the fences of the Monastery in a field, the qual executa in these times the most observant Religion of the Cartuxa. For the years of a thousand is introduced, that the Monges were buried in the Cloister, and the Abbes in the Chapters.
Different European Sovereigns also ordered cemeteries to be made outside the towns. Beginning with Germany, the Empress Maria Teresa tried to instruct her vassals about the evils that they themselves caused by their obstinacy in wanting to bury themselves in the Churches. She therefore proposed to the wise men and men of letters from her State that they devise the safest way to bury the dead, without harming the health of the living. Among all the scholars who have practiced on this important question, Joseph Habermann was the one who best responded to his intentions and to the votes of his fellow citizens. When reading his work, one would believe that he had before his eyes the Memoir published by Doctor Maret, Academician of Dijon in the year 1773, in which the author makes clear the dangers that result from burying the dead in churches and inside churches. populations. Maret goes up to the origin of this use and makes a history of it; but Habermann stops only to discover the evils that this use causes in public health.
Started by the Queen Empress, this project was perfected by her son. This Sovereign convinced that burials within towns harm health, he ordered that eight public cemeteries be built outside the City of Vienna and at a competent distance, which were blessed on the last day of the year 83; those that are in the City premises remain closed and unused. It also prevents in his Decree that the corpses are taken to the Church where the Vigil and Mass would be sung, being deposited there until the night when they will be taken to the new cemeteries to give them burial. This regulation executed in Vienna, was put into practice in other parts of Hungary, such as Pressburg, Buda, and their cemeteries were transferred outside the walls and they did not consent to bury anyone inside the Churches.
The King of France published a declaration ordering that no one can be buried in the Church except Archbishops, Bishops, Cures and Patrons or Founders and Lords who have the right to supreme justice. That the other Faithful be buried in the cemeteries and that these are as far away from the town as possible. The same has been executed by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, giving the corresponding instructions for the construction of cemeteries.
In 1777, the King of Sardinia promulgated the following law:
Victor Amadeo, by the grace of God, King of Sardinia, &c. Not less age of decorum and magestad that correspond to the sacred Temples to bury indistinctly the bodies inside the Churches, that pernicious to public health, according to repeated experiences, the use of to bury them within them, and in vaults, or other subterranean places; [...] To more than the Royal House and the Princes of the Blood, the Archbishops of the Metropolitan, Bishops who die here, and the other privileged persons, will be exempted from this law from mentioning in the Pastoral Letter published in this attempt.
Ostentation at the grave
At a given moment, the magnificence in the graves became excessive, so the wise legislators tried to repress the expenses with severe decrees. Among the Greeks there was a law that said No one should make an expensive grave. Plato ordered that only a stone be placed on the tomb that would hold the praise of the deceased in four heroic verses.
The spirit of the Church has always been to remove all vain pomp from the obsequies of the faithful. Says a council:
The faithful do not affect the pomp in their death out of what is established, and what is decent to a Christian: on the contrary, what they must seek is the relief of their souls by suffrage, and the suffrages of the Church, and the alms with the poor.
The pious Spanish monarchs have also prohibited by their regulations superfluous expenses in funerals. Felipe II says in a Pragmatic
In quanto it touches the burials, obsequias and end of the year, we command that by no person, of any quality, condition or preeminence, even of title or dignity, it cannot be carried in his burial, nor put in his grave at the time of the obsequias or end of the year more than twelve axes or candles; and that by no person, except for the Real persons,
And in another Pragmatic of Felipe V it is commanded:
that the ashes or caxes, in which the dead are buried, are not of cloths, nor outstanding colors of silk, but of berries or cloth, or black sheep, and black or purple gallon, because it is extremely improper to put outstanding colors, where is the origin of the greatest sadness; and only allow, that they may be of color, and of a double church
The Fathers of the church did not omit to reprehend this luxury and pomp on the gravesș. Saint Geronimo says:
What's there to do with the cloaking of pomps and ostentation between tears and tears? Why can't the bodies of the rich and magnnates rot, but wrapped in silk fabrics?
Saint John Chrysostom also said:
These useless and superfluous expenses do not take advantage of the dead, rather they harm them, and the living cause them detriment. Moreover the costly burial is cause many times, that the thieves may dissent the bodies, and dexen them naked and without graves.
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