Chapter 29

Fig. 363.—Flat Tomb of Sibylle (wife of Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem), who died in 1187. In the church at Namèche, near Namur. The inscription, half effaced, may be translated as follows:—“Here lies the rightful heiress of Samson (a village near Namur), who was descended in a direct line from the King of Jerusalem. Let us pray God for her soul’s consolation.”

Many tombs were far more sumptuous. Those of Louis VIII. and Louis IX. were in silver-gilt, decorated with carved figures. Alphonse deBrienne, Comte d’Eu, had a tomb of copper-gilt enriched with enamel. It was probably at about the same period that the chapter of the Abbey of St. Germain des Prés (Paris) covered with mosaics and filigree-work the ancient tomb of Fredegonde; for it is difficult to believe, in spite of Mabillon and Montfaucon, that this tomb dates back to her death at the end of the sixth century.

Fig. 364.—Flat Tomb of Alexandre de Berneval, architect of the Church of St. Ouen, at Rouen, and of his pupil.—In the Church of St. Ouen. (Fifteenth Century.

In the fifteenth century the English, masters at that time of a considerable part of France, laid hands upon these plates of copper, silver, andgold to convert them into coin; others which escaped spoliation were melted down during the Revolution, so that we must look to England and Belgium for flat metal tombs still in a state of preservation.

Such are the chief characteristics of funeral monuments in the Middle Ages and down to the period of the Renaissance. These monuments, many of which are still extant, throw great light upon the costumes of their time. We must now proceed to speak of the cemeteries, or places of public burial, in which tombs above ground were legally permitted as soon as the Church had established its authority. Burials within the churches were, in fact, a special privilege for the rich, who were able to purchase it in perpetuity. The presence of these graves in buildings intended for public worship was, moreover, in accordance with the very essence of Christianity, by reason of the practice already alluded to, of placing the body of some saint beneath the altar.

The primitive Latin Church, in the second and in the early part of the third century, performed the ceremonies of worship in the cemeteries of the Christians, that is to say, in the crypts and the Catacombs. The Christians, in imitation of the pagan custom of converting old quarries into places of common burial, calledhypogea, sought refuge, during persecution, in some disused quarries near the gates of Rome, and there they celebrated their rites in secret and buried their dead. These are the Catacombs, which constitute a regular subterraneous town, and the galleries of which, composing an immense labyrinth, have been opened in the neighbourhood of and in close proximity to the ancient roads which radiated from Rome towards the surrounding districts. The appropriation of these Catacombs for Christian burial-places unquestionably dates from the first century of Christianity. The best known and the most famous are those which extend beneath the basilica of St. Sebastian, and form part of what was called the Cemetery of St. Calixtus, beneath the Appian Way. Since the sixteenth century, when these Catacombs were first explored and thoroughly studied, this generic name has been given to all excavations which have led to the discovery of Christian graves. Each catacomb was called after the martyr whom the faithful had interred there during the persecutions, and whose relics have been found beneath altars, which were chiefly erected and decorated during the eighth century.

Fig. 365.—Crypt of the Chapel of St. Agnes, in the Catacombs at Rome, set apart for the interment of Christians.—From M. Perret’s work, “Les Catacombes de Rome.”

The Catacombs are composed of very narrow galleries, from ninety-seven centimetres to one metre thirty centimetres in breadth (thirty-eight to fifty-oneinches), cut irregularly through the stone. These galleries, most of them very short, crossing each other in such a way as to form an inextricable maze of streets and crossways, had an arched roof supported by masonry here and there. At intervals there were chambers, orcubicula(Fig. 365), hollowed out by the Christians to serve as chapels or oratories; these were either quadrangular or circular, of small dimensions, and often decorated with fresco paintings of different epochs dating from the first to the fourth century. But little fresh air could penetrate into these galleries by the openings which had been made here and there, and also through old shafts situated at intervals of about three hundred yards from each other, which had been used in working the quarries. In the lead-lined partitions, the graves, most of which are still intact, were ranged in rows one above the other. Each grave was a hollow of about the size of a human body hewn lengthwise in the side of the gallery and closed with a large brick, or with a stone or marble slab, set in cement. Five or six bodies—sometimes as many as twelve—were so placed one above the other. The paintings (Fig. 366), the sculptures, andthe mosaics of the Catacombs, are the first products of Christian art as it shook off the traditions of paganism, and the subjects represented are generally taken from the Holy Scriptures; such as the Leaving the Ark, Abraham’s Sacrifice, Jonah, the Good Shepherd, the Raising of Lazarus. Many very touching funeral epitaphs have also been discovered on them.

Fig. 366.—Funeral Fresco discovered in the Cemetery of St. Pretextat, in the Catacombs at Rome. The two doves, emblems of marriage, indicate the tomb of the husband and wife.—From M. Perrét’s work, “Les Catacombes de Rome.”

Nor is it merely from the day when the triumphs of Christianity led to the building of the basilicas in Rome that personages of rank have been buried inside the churches. The bodies of bishops and leaders of the Catholic community, those of patricians and of barbarian princes who succoured the Church in her early days, were the first to be received within the sanctuary in as close proximity as possible to the relics of the saint to whom the building was dedicated.

Very soon these burial-places began to be classified according to the individual merit of the dead, and the importance of their rank or fortune. Laymen and priests had a right to be buried in the aisles of the church, or in the part corresponding to the apse, and it is no exaggeration to say that the interior was often so full of graves that they extended outside the building. Such was the case after the seventh century. A small space, either round or square, was left in front of the façade of the churches, to be reserved as a privileged place of burial, and was called theaitreorparvis(paradisus); hence the origin of the rural cemetery which extends along the sides of a country church, or forms a green in front of it.

Fig. 367.—The Cross of the Bureau Family, formerly in the Cemetery of the Innocents, Paris.—Lenoir’s “Statistique Monumentale de Paris.”

Fig. 368.—The Knight of Death, by Albert Dürer.—This celebrated engraving, so characteristic of the fantastic genius of the Middle Ages, represents a fully-armed knight going to the wars with a presentiment of coming evil, and accompanied by Sin and Death, personified as his running footman and esquire.—After the Fac-simile of the original Engraving, dated 1513, by one of the Wiericx (1564).

Burial in the churches was at first interfered with, if not prevented, even under the Christian emperors, by the Roman law, which prescribed that the cemeteries should be extramural. Thus, according to tradition, many of the early French saints were first of all buried outside the towns, and their remains were subsequently placed within some consecrated building or a church, erected over their original grave. The ancient cemetery in some cases developed into an inhabited suburb, as at Tours, where the Quartier de St. Martin occupies the ground where that saint originally reposed. In other districts, the Christian cemeteries occupied the same site down to the thirteenth century, as at Arles, Autun, Bordeaux, the cemeteries of the Aliscan (Elisii campi), St. Seurin, and Champ-des-Tombes. Other cemeteries, rendered necessary by the increase in the size of the towns, were made at about this period. Thus, after the accession of the Capet dynasty, the capital increased so much in size that it was necessary to limit the space accorded to burying-places, and twenty-two parishes on the right bank of the Seine had no cemeteries of their own. A track of waste land at Champeaux, running along the Rue St. Denis, was converted into whatwas called the Cemetery of the Innocents (Fig. 367), and it consisted of a large enclosure with three gateways; the first at the corner of the Rue aux Fers; the second at the corner of the Rue de la Ferronnerie; and the third in the Place-aux-Chats. Philip Augustus surrounded it with a wall in 1186, to prevent it being overrun by animals and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. To this wall was afterwards added a covered gallery, called thecharnel-house, in which were buried those whose fortune allowed them to purchase the privilege of being interred apart from the masses. This charnel-house, which was damp and dismal, was paved with tombstones, and its walls were covered with epitaphs and funeral monuments. In the thirteenth century it became a fashionable resort in which tradesmen placed their wares for sale, and the abode of death was converted into a place of rendezvous and promenade for the idle.

This long gallery was built at different epochs, out of the largesses given by several inhabitants of Paris. Marshal de Boucicault built part of it in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and the famous Nicholas Flamel, who is said to have had a bookstall in the charnel-house, built at his own cost the whole side which ran parallel with the Rue de la Lingerie, and in which he and his wife Pernelle were buried. This charnel-house was surmounted by largegaletas(lofts) in which the bones of the dead were preserved. The famous “Danse Macabre” (Figs. 369–392), that philosophical allegory in which death was leading in the dance “persons of all conditions,” was painted about the year 1430 upon the walls of the charnel-house, on the Rue St. Honoré side.

Figs. 369 to 392.—The Dance of Death, a Fac-simile of Wood Engravings executed after the Holbein Drawings in the “Simulachres de la Mort;” small 4to, Treschel Brothers, Lyons, 1538.—“As fish are taken speedily with the hook (aine), so does death take men; for death spares no man, king nor emperor, rich nor poor, noble nor villain, wise nor fool, physician nor surgeon, young nor old, strong nor weak, man nor woman. Nothing is more certain; all have to take part in death’s dance.”—Explanation taken from the “Forteresses de la Foy,” Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the Library at Valenciennes.

The Dance of Death, after Holbein’s Drawings (continued).

When Charles V. began to construct his château of the Louvre, in 1363, Raimond Dutemple, the builder, purchased from the churchwardens of the parish of the Innocents ten ancient tombs, each of which cost him fourteen sous parisis, for the purpose of using the stones for his masonry work—a proof that funeral monuments were not treated with much respect at that epoch. At this same period, the clergy of the Innocents’ parish sold part of the cemetery, already too small, to the chapter of St. Germain l’Auxerrois, who built thereon houses and stalls for the markets. It is estimated that more than two million persons were buried in the Innocents’ cemetery in the course of six centuries. In it were accumulated masses of stones, crosses, human remains, and filth; the grass was growing in the midst of heaps of skulls; the floors of the charnel-houses bent beneath piles of decomposedbones; graves had been dug in every available space of ground, and the smell of the corpses was unbearable. Notwithstanding, this was the most celebratedcemetery of the Middle Ages, and the charnel-house which enclosed it upon three sides served as a model for all those constructed for other Christian churches and cemeteries, in accordance with a custom dating back, it is reported, to the fifth or sixth century. Still, no traces can be found of any such constructions around the Gallo-Roman cemeteries, unless it be a rudelybuilt boundary-wall. At a later date, the cemeteries contiguous to parish churches or to the chapels of hospitals were surrounded with cloister-like galleries, between the roof and ceiling of which was the charnel-house, where the bones dug up when fresh graves were made found a last resting-place.

Inside the cemeteries there were other erections never omitted, as, forinstance, a large stone cross with florid decoration and varying in design, many of which date back to the eleventh century. After this period came into vogue a small lantern, built in the shape of a very narrow tower, like a hollow column, from twenty-six to forty feet high, the summit of which was surmounted by arcades, through which glimmered the faint light of asuspended lamp. This small building was called “the lantern of the dead” (Figs. 394–396); it was also termed a beacon (fanal), a lighthouse (phare), and a little tower (tourniele). These beacon-towers, intended to indicate from afar during night-time the presence of a cemetery, generally had a door somewhat above the ground, which was reached by a ladder or flight of steps.

Upon the side opposite to the door, an altar jutted out at the base of the tower. This altar was never consecrated, as the canons forbid any celebration to be held upon those which were in the open air (sub dio). There are many monuments of this kind in Maine, Berry, Angoumois, and Gascony; they are all of Roman architecture, or of Gothic bordering uponRoman, and, consequently, do not date back further than the eleventh century.

There was a tower of this kind in the Cemetery of the Innocents, at Paris (Fig. 397), but of larger dimensions than any of those alluded to above. It was a kind of octagon chapel, about forty feet high, and Gilbert de Metz, who speaks of it, says that he was told it was the tomb of a rich nobleman who had given orders that he himself should be buried beneath it in order to save his remains from being profaned by dogs and vagabonds.

In the fourteenth century the lanterns of the dead, instead of being isolated and inaccessible columns, were built in the form of open chapels, in which a lamp was kept constantly burning. Previous to the erection of these chapels in the cemeteries, there existed others which have often been taken for pagan temples. We know, through writings of the ninth century, that in the cemeteries of the Carlovingian abbeys there were chapels of this kind, with two stories and a crypt; that these funeral chapels were of the same shape as the ancient baptisteries, without the surroundings. They were octagonal buildings, the vaults of which rested upon the boundary-walls of the cemetery. There are still extant two belonging to the Roman epoch, one at Montmorillon, in Poitou; the other, enclosed in the citadel of Metz, was a dependency of the Abbey of St. Arnold.

Having treated of the burial-places and the funeral monuments of the different epochs of the Middle Ages, we may now go on to speak of the funeral ceremonies.

As soon as a king or a queen had breathed their last, the face was covered with wax, in order to take an impression of the features and reproduce them upon their effigies. Pending the completion of this likeness, the body was laid by the chamberlains and the gentlemen of the chamber in a leaden coffin, lined with wood and black velvet, covered with a white satin cross, and was carried by the archers of the body-guard into a richly-decorated chamber, and placed upon a bed trimmed with black cloth hangings which reached to the ground. An altar was erected in the middle of the chamber for celebrating mass while the body remained there.

Fig. 393.—The Torments of Hell.—The Latin inscriptions in this engraving may be translated as follows: At the top, “The worm which feeds on the ungodly man shall never die, and the fire that devours him shall never be quenched;” in the centre, “Jews; Men of war;” beneath, “Monk; Lucifer, or Satan.”—Fac-simile of a Miniature from the “Hortus Deliciarum,” a celebrated Manuscript of the Twelfth Century, executed at the Convent of Hohemburg in the time of the Abbess Herrade de Landsberg; destroyed in the fire of the Strasburg Library during the Prussian bombardment, Sept. 24th, 1870. Reprinted from Count de Bastard’s great work.

When the effigy was completed it was placed in another chamber as richly decorated as the first, and around it were placed seats, orformettes, covered with striped cloth of gold, upon which the prelates, lords, gentlemen, and officers took their places. The state bed, upon which the effigy waslaid, was furnished with a covering of cloth of gold reaching to the ground, and decorated with a bordering of ermine spotted with black, which overlapped by about two feet the covering, and was itself trimmed with Hungarian point-lace.

Fig. 394.—Beacon in the Cemetery of Feniou, near St. Jean d’Angely (Eleventh Century); it is formed of eleven Roman columns.

Fig. 395.—Beacon in the Cemetery of Antigny, Vienne (Fifteenth Century).

Fig. 396.—Beacon in the Cemetery of Ciron, Indre (Twelfth Century).From the “Antiquités Monumentales” of M. de Caumont.

Fig. 396.—Beacon in the Cemetery of Ciron, Indre (Twelfth Century).

From the “Antiquités Monumentales” of M. de Caumont.

The effigy was arrayed in a fine linen shirt, or chemise, trimmed at the neck and sleeves with, black silk, and over this was passed a doublet of scarlet satin, lined with taffeta of the same colour, edged with narrow gold braid. Over the doublet was a tunic of azure satin, spotted with golden fleurs-de-lis, trimmed with a silver and gold lace about four inches wide, the sleeves reaching only to the elbow. Last of all came the royal mantle of purple velvet of an azure hue, spotted with golden fleurs-de-lis, six yards long, open in front, without sleeves, lined with white satin, the ermine collar about a foot deep, the facings and the train trimmed with ermine. From the neckof the effigy hung the royal order; upon the head was a small cap of dark crimson velvet, surmounted by the crown studded with jewels. Upon the legs were buskins of cloth of gold, with bright crimson satin feet; the hands were crossed upon the chest. At the head of the bed were placed two cushions of red velvet, trimmed with embroidery; upon the one to the right lay the sceptre, which was almost the same length as the effigy, while upon that to the left was placed the hand of justice, open, the staff being about two feet and a half long. The bed, which was devoid of curtains, was surmounted by a very rich dais. Beside the head of the bed, to the right, was the chair covered with cloth of gold, with a cushion of the same material. At the foot was a stool, also covered with cloth of gold, for the silver vessel containing the holy water, and upon each side were two other seats covered with striped cloth of gold for the heralds, arrayed in their coats of mail, who presented holy water to the princes that came to view the body. The lower end of the mortuary chamber, which was just opposite the effigy, was occupied by a very richly decorated altar.

Fig. 397.—Tower of Notre-Dame-du-Bois, constructed during the Eleventh Century, in the Cemetery of the Innocents, Paris; demolished in 1786.

The royal effigy was laid in state for eight or ten days, during which time the ordinary service of the palace went on just the same as during the king’s lifetime. At the dinner and supper hours the table was laid by the officers, and the courses arranged by the gentlemen-in-waiting, preceded by the usher, and followed by the officers of “the king’s buttery,” whoapproached the table with the customary obeisances. The bread was then cut and placed ready for being handed round, the dishes were brought to the table by an usher, the maître d’hôtel, the pantler, the pages, the squire of the kitchen, and the keeper of the plate; the napkin was presented by the maître d’hôtel to the highest personage present; grace was said by a prelate or an almoner, who recited the prayers for the dead. All those who were in the habit of eating at the king’s table during his lifetime were expected to be present at each of the repasts, together with the other persons of his household, the princes, princesses, and prelates. The dishes were afterwards distributed amongst the poor.

When the effigy had been removed the embalmed body was brought into the middle of the same room, and the coffin—covered with a pall of black velvet which touched the ground, with a large cross of white satin in the centre, and on each side a scutcheon representing the arms of France—was placed upon trestles; over the whole was thrown another large pall of cloth of gold with fringes, which had also in the centre a white satin cross, and at each extremity the arms of France, but smaller than those on the under pall. The pall was trimmed with violet velvet of a fine azure, spotted with fleurs-de-lis, and bordered with ermine. At the head of the coffin was a cushion of cloth of gold, upon which lay the royal crown, with the sceptre to the right and the hand of justice to the left; at the foot there was a cross of silver-gilt, and over it a splendid dais of black velvet; upon a form stood the vessel for holy water, with a stool on each side for the two heralds arrayed in their coats of arms,chaperons en tête. Beside the heralds there was a bench covered with black cloth for the princes and cardinals, who were seated on it during the celebration of mass. The coffin was surrounded by a black wooden railing. At the lower end were two altars standing in close proximity to each other; that of the chief chapel for the high masses for the dead which was chanted, and that of the oratory for low masses said by the chaplain in ordinary to the late king. The nobles, several gentlemen, the officers and the body-guard, all in mourning, were present at these services. A few days previous to the interment the new sovereign repaired to the mortuary chamber, attired in a purple mantle—purple was the mourning colour for kings, astanné(brown) was that for queens—the train being borne by five princes, each wearing a hood of the same colour. The chief gentleman of the chamber presented him the cushion, on which the king knelt in prayerafter making the customary reverences. Then taking theaspersoriumfrom the hands of a prelate, he sprinkled the coffin with holy water; this done he withdrew, after making the reverences usual upon such occasions.

When a king or a queen died in Paris, a procession was formed to their residence to conduct the body to the place of interment; if he died outside the city, the cortége started from Notre-Dame des Champs or St. Antoine des Champs to meet it at its arrival. This cortege was composed of the presidents and other officers of the parliament in black robes, the officers of exchequer, of taxes, and of the treasury, of the delegates, the provost of the merchants, the aldermen, and the councillors of the city, all in mourning.

Fig. 398.—Obsequies of St. Cesarius, physician to the Emperors Constantius and Julian; died in 369.—Fac-simile of a Miniature from a Greek Manuscript of the Ninth Century, in the National Library, Paris.

Early the next morning, the twenty-four criers of the city announced the event “en la Chambre du plaidoyé, Table de marbre, et par les rues,” enumerating the titles and qualities of the deceased monarch in the form laid down by the Grand Council, and not by Parliament, which had refused to draw up this cry for King Henry II. (27th of July, 1559), in compliance with the request of his widow.

In the afternoon, the body was taken to the Church of Notre-Dame, in Paris, and the effigy of the king was laid upon the coffin, in order to impress yet more deeply the people who were admitted to do him homage.

By special privilege thehanouars, or bearers of salt, carried the coffin; but at the interment of Charles VIII. twenty gentlemen of his household volunteered to act as bearers of the body from Notre-Dame des Champs to St. Denis. At the death of Louis XII., the hanouars demanded and obtained the restoration of their privilege.

Fig. 399.—Funeral of St. Edward the Confessor, the Anglo-Saxon king, who died on the 5th of January, 1066.—The body, covered with an embroidered pall surmounted with two small crosses, being carried by eight men to Westminster Abbey, of which he was the founder. Behind come priests chanting the Psalms for the Dead, while two clerks are ringing bells.—From the Bayeux Tapestry (Twelfth Century).

The ceremonial was altered at the funeral of Francis I. and Henry II., the body being placed in thechariot d’armes ou de parement, and the honours due to the body, which was in the hinder part of the procession, were paid to the effigy. The gentlemen of the chamber to Francis I., “with straps around their necks,” esteemed it an honour to bear the effigy of their late master; those who had been in the service of Henry II. only walked by the side of his effigy, holding up the pall of cloth of gold. The Parliament, which had always enjoyed the privilege of walking in front of, as well as of surrounding and following, the body and the effigy, felt annoyed at being exclusivelyattached to the latter, which still represented life; whereas the body, representing death, was already, so to speak, separated from the honours of royalty.

Fig. 400.—Mortuary Cloth from the Church of Folleville (Somme), now in the Museum at Amiens (Sixteenth Century).—The cloth thrown over the coffin formed three crosses; the centre of the largest of these lay over the breast of the deceased, the two others covered the two sides of the bier; upon the white crosses are death’s heads crunching bones between their teeth. Two yellow-hued mirrors reflect the image of a human skull. The crosses bear the Latin inscription, “Memento mori.”

The funeral procession proceeded in the following order through the streetsof Paris to the Abbey of St. Denis. First came an esquire in mourning and on foot, carrying the banner of France covered with black crape; then followed, bareheaded, the players of the hautboy, the tabor, and the fife, with their instruments reversed, and in their rear trumpeters with their bannerols flying.

Fig. 401.—Triumphal Vessel, which was drawn upon a car in the solemn funeral ceremony celebrated at Brussels, upon the 29th of December, 1558, in honour of the Emperor Charles V., who died on the 21st of September, in the same year, at the Monastery of St. Just.—This vessel gives some idea of the shape as well as of the magnificence of the galleys constructed at that period. Three symbolic personages are conducting the vessel towards eternity: in the stern stands Charity (Charitas), ever glowing with love; amidships is Faith (Fides), with her eyes fixed upon the image of Christ; and at the prow, above the gilt beak-head, is Hope (Spes), standing with one hand placed upon the anchor of safety. The masts and bulwarks of the ship are decorated with flags upon which figure the arms of the different Netherland States, of Burgundy, and the Tyrol—all direct fiefs or conquests of the deceased emperor. The triangular sail in the stern indicates, by its colour (black), that the vessel is in mourning. The marine monsters which are seen swimming around it represent the enemies vanquished by Charles V., and the columns of Hercules, surmounted by the crown and the tiara, typify the alliance between the Empire and the Church, an alliance to which the Cesarean motto—“Non plus oultre,” lends special significance.—From the “Magnifique et Somptueuse Pompe Funèbre faite aux Obsèques du très-grand Empereur Charles Cinquième en la Ville de Bruxelles” (Plantin, Antwerp, 1559). In the Collection of M. Ruggieri, Paris.

After these came thechariot d’armes, hung with black velvet which reached to the ground, and upon it a large cross in white satin, and twenty-four shields representing the arms of France. The coach was drawn by six horses with black velvet trappings and the large white satin cross, and on the near wheeler and leader postilions in mourning and bareheaded. Around the coach were armourers andsommeliers d’armes, together with some members of the four mendicant orders, carrying tapers to which were affixed armorial shields. Twelve pages followed, dressed in black velvet, who rode, bareheaded, upon twelve horses, also caparisoned in black velvet with a white satin cross, each led by a footman dressed in mourning and also bareheaded.

Fig. 402.—Mourning Costumes.—Group consisting of Gold Fleece, Herald of Spain; of King Philip II., son and successor of Charles V., accompanied by Henry IV., Duke of Brunswick; of the Duke d’Arcos, Spanish Grandee; of Ruy Gomez de Sylva, Count of Melito, and of Emanuel-Philibert, Duke of Savoy. The last-named wears, like King Philip, the mourning hood, being the son of Beatrice of Portugal, sister-in-law of Charles V. The hood was only worn by the heirs of the deceased sovereign.—From the work on the funeral of Charles V., quoted on the previous page (see Fig. 401), published by Plantin, at Antwerp, in 1559. In the Collection of M. Ruggieri, Paris.

One of the esquires of the stable carried the spurs and another the gauntlets; a third, the arms of France, in the form of an escutcheon, with the crown; a fourth bore at the end of a staff, in the form of a gallows, the coat-of-arms made of violet velvet, and studded with golden fleurs-de-lis. The first esquire, or, in his absence, the eldest, carried the royal-crested helmet.

The state charger, with his housings entirely covered with crimson velvet studded with Cyprus fleurs-de-lis of gold, was led by two esquires; and upon each side came dismounted heralds-at-armschaperon en tête.

Behind the master of the horse, hooded and wearing at his side the royalsword, followed the effigy, drawn upon a car, and holding in its right hand the sceptre and in its left the hand of justice.

It was succeeded by the personage who was conducting the funeral procession, and by the first or high chamberlain, bearing the banner of France. Next to them marched the provost of the merchants and the aldermen in full dress, bearing the dais and the pall which had been used in the mortuary chamber, and which were carried at a certain distance from the effigy, so as not to prevent the latter from being seen.

Then came the princes, mounted upon small mules, the trains of their mantles being each held up by a gentleman on foot in deep mourning. After the princes were the ambassadors, dressed in mourning, but without hood; the royal knights, wearing their insignia and a mourning hood; the lords and gentlemen of the chamber; the captains of the guards and archers in mourning, with their silver-coatedhocquetons(a sort of jacket). Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, the prelates and almoners also followed the cortége.

In the evening a solemn service was celebrated at Notre-Dame, and another the next morning. In the afternoon of the latter day the cortége repaired in the same order to St. Denis, stopping half-way at a stone cross called theCroix du Sien, where the monks of the abbey came out in procession to receive the king’s body and effigy from the Archbishop of Paris, who thereupon withdrew, accompanied by his clergy. As soon as the body entered the town of St. Denis, the monks of the abbey bore the pall. In the evening the service was celebrated in the cathedral, and on the following day the body was placed, covered by the great pall of cloth of gold, in achapelle ardente. The effigy was removed, and the crown, the sceptre, and the hand of justice were given to the heralds, who handed them over to three princes of the blood. The gentlemen of the king’s chamber then took charge of the body and carried it to the entrance of the vault in which it was to be interred, and into which one of the kings-at-arms descended, and in a loud voice bid the other kings-at-arms and heralds to do their duty. Thereupon they all came forward and divested themselves of their coats-of-arms. The king-at-arms standing in the vault bid five esquires bring him the spurs, gauntlets, shield, coat-of-arms, and crested headpiece; from the firstvalet tranchanthe received the fanion, and from the captains of the Swiss and the archers of the guard their insignia; the master of the horse handed him the royal sword; the high or first chamberlain, the banner of France; the grand master and all themaîtres d’hôtelthrew their staves into thevault; the three princes brought to him the hand of justice, the sceptre, and the crown. He then cried three times in a loud voice, “The king is dead; pray to God for his soul!” and he then added the cry, also three times repeated, “Long live the king his successor!” This cry was taken up by another herald; the trumpets sounded, and the ceremony was at an end. After this the grand master, accompanied by the prelates and knights of the royal orders, repaired to the principaltableof the Parliament, where the officers of the king’s household were collected, and there he broke in their presence “the magisterial staff,” telling them that they were henceforth without a master.

Fig. 403.—Funeral Service for Anne of Brittany, Queen of France, who died on the 9th of January, 1514, at the Castle of Blois.—The service was celebrated on the 4th of February, in the Church of St. Sauveur, Blois.—In the middle of the choir was laid “the body of the noble lady, beneath achapelle ardente(catafalque) which had five pinnacles, each ornamented with a double cross with lighted tapers, crowned with a circle of black velvet, and decorated with several escutcheons.” In front of the coffin stood the effigy of the Queen, holding the crown and sceptre. Around are kneeling Franciscan and Jacobine nuns. Mass is being said by the Bishop of Paris.—From a Miniature in a contemporary Manuscript, the “Trespas de l’Hermine regrettée;” in the Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

A similar order of proceeding was observed at the funeral of a queen, where the crowned effigy, with the royal mantle studded with fleurs-de-lis, and with the sceptre in the right hand and the hand of justice in the left, also figured in the ceremony. But in addition to the princes, the body was followed by the princesses, and by several ladies and maids-in-waiting, all of them dressed in mourning.

Isabel of Bavaria, widow of Charles VI., is the only queen of France who was not buried with the honours due to her rank; her body having been taken to Notre-Dame (1435), where the customary prayers were said, the funeral procession and the Parliament followed it to the Port St. Landri, where the coffin was placed in a boat, and taken by water to St. Denis under the escort of two clerks and a chaplain.

Under the first Merovingian dynasty, immediately on the death of the king, his body was washed, embalmed, and arrayed in the royal robes; it was then taken to the church, which was always some basilica of note previous to St. Denis being selected as the royal burying-place.

Fig. 404.—Death of St. Benedict, surrounded by his monks, in his Abbey of Monte Cassino, on the 21st of March, 542.—The “Légende Dorée” says, “At the moment of his death, one of the monks who had remained in his cell saw him ascend to heaven; and St. Maur, his disciple in France at the time, also saw what appeared to be a street, hung with rich tapestry and brilliantly lighted, which reached from St. Benedict’s cell to heaven. A man of majestic appearance approached him and said, ‘Behold the road by which Benedict, the servant and friend of God, is travelling to the presence of the Divine Majesty.’” The artist has grouped the various incidents of this story into his painting.—Fresco by Spinelli d’Arezzo (1390), in the Church of San Miniato, near Florence.

At that period the kings of the Franks assisted in person at the obsequies of the kings and queens their predecessors. Thus, Childebert and Clotaire I. accompanied the body of their mother, Clotilde, from Tours, where she died, to the Church of St. Geneviève, in Paris, where she was buried. The four sons of Clotaire brought their father’s body from Compiègne to the Abbey of St. Médard de Soissons, where it was finally laid. Louis VI. followed on foot the body of his father, Philip I., from Melun, where he died, to St. Benoît-sur-Loire, where he was interred. Philip III. helped to carry his father’s bier from the Church of Notre-Dame, in Paris, to St. Denis. The three sons of King John—Charles V., Louis, Duke of Anjou, and Philip, Duke of Burgundy—followed their father’s body to the grave; but the fourthson, John, Duke of Berri, detained as hostage in England, was unable to take part in the ceremony. Henceforward, the kings of France gave up the custom of being present at the obsequies of their predecessors and of members of the royal family. The sons of Henry II., however, with the exception of the dauphin Francis, who merely sprinkled holy water over the corpse, followed their father to the grave.

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