The bodies of the early confessors who died in prison were Oh, fear not the priest, who sleepeth to the east! Stolberg, viii. 165. 2 Adv. Vigil. 7 3 See the Count of Stolberg, Geschichte, vii. 1. 365. 4 Serm. xciii. de SS. Narar. et Cels. 5 In Psal. cxv. Orat. in 40 Mart. 6 Orat. in Theod. 1. in Julia. 7 Serm. de SS. Juvent. et Max. And there to say mass, till three days do pass, It was for this holy purpose that many of those solemn and beautiful chapels, which astonish the traveller in the midst of forests and savage passes, were raised. The annals of the house of Coucy can furnish a mournful instance. Three young Flemish gentlemen were studying the French language in the Abbey of St. Nicholas aux Bois, three leagues from Coucy. One day being out hunting in the woods of the abbey, without dogs, they pursued the game upon the manors of the Seigneur Enguerrand IV. of Coucy, and being taken by his guards, were put in prison, and the seigneur gave orders to have them hanged, which was instantly executed. Complaints of this horrible outrage being made to the king of France by the Abbot, and Gilles de Brun, constable of France, the sentence was thus far modified, that his life should be spared on paying 10,000 livres, founding three chapels over each of their graves for the repose of their souls, and going with a certain number of knights to the assistance of the Holy Land.1 Not far from Dublin is a chapel, with a village named Chappel-Isod, built by King Anguish, for the soul of his daughter, la belle Isod, celebrated in romantic literature, wife of King Mark of Cornwall.2 St. Julian was a knight who retired from the world, and founded a sumptuous hospital for the accommodation of travellers, who, in return for their entertainment, were required to repeat Paternosters for the souls of his parents, whom he had ignorantly slain. It was a consoling and happy reflection, that men might in this way be instrumental in promoting the spiritual welfare of strangers whom they had never seen. While Sir John Froissart and Sir Espaenge de Lion are riding together, the latter relates, among other histories, the account of a battle, in which two brave squires were slain, "and to thentent," he says, "that this batayle shoulde be had in remembrance, wher as the two squyers fought ther was set a crosse of stone; beholde, yonder is the crosse; and with those words," says Sir John Froissart, we came to the crosse, and there we sayd for their 1 Hist. de la Ville et des Seigneurs de Coucy, 8vo, p. 68. souls a Paternoster and an Avemaria." In the Romance of Jean de Saintre, upon the return of the French army after defeating the infidels in Prussia, there was a grand entertainment at Paris, and there were some, it is said, qui apres que les tables furent ostees parlerent de dancer; laquelle chose ouye, le Roy et la royne dirent que pour l'amour des trespassés dont l'en ne devoit mye estre joyeulx ja n'y seroit chanté ne dance faicte." Holinshed, relating the murder of King Edward II. in Berkley Castle, says, while the horrid deed was performing, "his crie did move many within the castell and towne of Berkley to compassion, plainly hearing him utter a waileful noyse, as the tormenters were about to murder him, so that dyverse being awakened therewith, as they themselves confessed, prayed heartily to God to receyve his soule, when they understood by his crie what the matter meant." the Crusade a party was sent expressly to search for the body of Jacob de Avennis, who had killed fifteen Turks with his own hand before he fell. When found, the princes assisted at his burial, when a solemn mass was sung for his soul. The old poem on the battle of the thirty English and thirty Bretons concludes thus, praying devoutly for the souls of all who fell : Si pry a cellui Dieu qui nasqui de Marie Pour toux ceulx qui furent en celle compaignie In A large stone cross, between Ploermel and Josselin, marked the spot where the battle had been fought. The families De Serent, De Tinteniac, and Du Parc, are descended from knights who fought in this memorable battle. But if men were thus affectionate towards the souls of strangers, we may conclude that they were not wanting in tenderness for those who had been known and dear to them. There still exists a long prayer which used to be made by the good people of Dauphiné, in the churches of Grenoble, for the soul of Bayard. Humanity rejoiced that in consequence of this sublime faith, an orphan had still occasion to repeat the words "My father and my mother." René d'Anjou said to his weeping friends who stood round his death-bed, praying for his recovery, "C'est pour l'ame; oui, c'est pour l'ame seulement qui je vous conjure de prier.' St. Thomas à Becket, being in full expectation of his martyrdom, wrote to the Pope to beg that his holiness would say for him the prayers for those in their agony. We have a sublime instance in the poem of Roderick, when Roderick and Severian come by night to the church to visit the tomb of the king's father. Roderick had thrown himself prostrate on his grave, when An awful voice in tones Severe addressed them. Who are ye, it said, And stature, clad in sackcloth, bare of foot, Pale, and in tears, with ashes on his head. It was Pelayo praying for his guilty mother; for ever from that day when he heard the dreadful tale of her remorse, Did he for her who bore him, night and morn, Then through the long and painful hours, before He kept his vigils; and when Roderick's sword Duly upon her grave he offered up His yearly sacrifice of agony And prayer. This was the night, and he it was Stood up in sackcloth. Again, where the old man says of the queen— Well we knew she thought Of Roderick then, although she named him not: Fell on us all, hath that unhappy name, Save in her prayers, been known to pass her lips. When Louis IX. was at Japhet, news came of the death of his mother. "Si tot quil le sceut il commença a plurer et sagenouilla devant l'autel de sa chapelle et pria moult devotement pour l'ame de sa mere. Apres ce que le roy eut dit ses oraysons, les prelas et la clegie sassemblerent et chanterent vigiles de mors et la commandation de l'ame." St. Augustine's prayer for his mother is very affecting: "Nunc pro peccatis matris meæ deprecor te: exaudi me per medicinam vulnerum nostrorum, quæ pependit in ligno, sedens ad dexteram tuam te interpellat pro nobis. Scio, misericorditer operatam et ex corde dimisisse debita debitoribus suis dimitte illi et tu debita sua. Si qua etiam contraxit per tot annos post aquam salutis, dimitte, Domine, dimitte, obsecro: ne intres cum ea in judicium. Super exaltet misericordia judicium, quoniam eloquia tua vera sunt, et promisisti misericordiam misericordibus." This devotion recommends itself to the judgment and the heart of man. Sir Thomas Brown, though a disciple of the moderns, writes as follows: "A third opinion there is which I did never positively maintain or practise, but have often wished it had been consonant to truth and not offensive to my religion, and that is the prayer for the dead; whereunto I was inclined from some charitable inducements, whereby I could scarce contain my prayers for a friend at the ringing of a bell, or behold his corpse without an orison for his soul; it was a good way, methought, to be remembered by posterity, and far more noble than a history." And he afterwards speaks more firmly, saying, "I never hear the toll of a passing bell, though in my mirth, without my prayers and best wishes for the departing spirit." Generally, however, in consequence of that close connexion which subsists between opinions, those who followed the new learning were remarkable for their systematic abandonment of this feeling. Reliques of saints which had been venerated were burnt or thrown into rivers: the graves of the common dead were left to be trodden under by swine, and their bones cast among rubbish. Henry VIII. suffered the grave of his own sister, at Bury St. Edmunds, to be thus exposed; and we owe the existence of the abbey church of Peterborough at this day to the tyrant's fear, lest Charles V. would resent the profanation of his aunt's grave. Tombs were defaced, or were looked upon as mere curiosities, and shewn as such. Ctesippus, son of Chabria, who sold the stones of his father's monument, on which the Athenians had expended 1000 drachmæ ;2 or Cato, of whom Julius Cæsar said that he passed his brother's ashes through a sieve in search of the gold that might be melted Confess. ix. 13. 2 Athenæus, iv. 143. |