New-York daily tribune., 1856-06-07

taking the pcoy hto INT actual corporeal possession
and practically gundng lie repose in heir consecra.ed
erounde; and IL was Judicial, "a we'll in decidse all
controve'sies involving the possession the Of
boy pl'cee or the pecunisry emoluments which they
yielded, az in a broader field, in asjudicatng who
should be Above to lie in consecrat.d Earth, and in
taet, who should be allowed to be inferred at ALL
The deporable supsrstition that could Induce peo-
pie to in'ruet such power to any but its civil gov
eminent and civil courts is amazing and yet We find
the sturdy EnPlsh D6tioD, under the government Of
William OF Normandy, stripping their cherished Anglo
saxon counts Of all power to protect the dead, and
yielding them blibdfold 10 pTesty cognizaDce. As
Mir William Blackstone well says, u was fatal en-
croachmept on the ancient hberties OF Eogand.
Eight centuries have not suffced TO repair the mis-
chief. Anselm and Beckett in modern garb, live
even yet.
The deep-seated, fundamental idea of human burial
lies in the mDgling remains with the mother earth.
The dust TO dust esrh TO earth, ashes TO sshes "
Of the Church. ecboing, in deeper solemnty, the
"ter plioere" Of Horace. and hallowing the dying
wi.b Of Cyrus,-fnds universal iesp0nse in the ho-
est instincts OF man in every age. Here, then,
the tender spot for subtle power TO touch. Logically
pursuing this idea the lesiatical process Of
muncaon prohibited burial in the earth to ALL whether
cODsecrat.d or not. The precise words of the for
nauLa, used in the teLth century, gave over the
body of the contumacious offender for food 10 the
fowls Of the air and the beasts Of the field. Sint
"csdavera eorum, in escam volaibus col ct bestiis
"feTg." In some instances, the sentence was more
definite and ecic confnng the corpse TO the hollow
nuik OF a uee, :" IN concavo uunco iePostum." The
Of The idea being to keep body of the
earth and the surface, II sometimes fSurativey
expressed in monkish rhetoric by "the burial of ao
"ass"-or by stronger and more Characteristic i'm
age, as a dung .hi." "Sepultura asini sepesntu',
net in sterquil,nium super faciem terra sint." The
afflicted but sinful laty to hide the horror OF the
spectacle wont at times TO cover the fostering
dead with pile Of stones, thereby rearing tumuius
or "bLoc;" :" that the process came TO be commonly
Known in mediava Latin o. irablocare corpus" Du
CaI &c Glossary, "Jm6locare."l
The dominant idea Of the unfitness of spiritual
offenders to pOute the earth, can be distinctly traced
through the JUDICIAL ecclesiastical condemnatons for
several centuries. John Huss and Jerome Of Prague,
being burned at the stake for heresy, early in the ff-
teenth century, under the ecclesiastical order Of the
Council OF Constance, their ashes were not allowed TO
miDge with the earth but cast into the Rhine.
The legal process of scattering the ashes Of the
beretc was evidently very significant and cherished
feature in the eccesastca code of procedure; and il
was executed in the different portions of Chstendom
with oil atianabe uniformity and precision. Within
ashes OF the hereto freshly burnt but the moldering
remains Of any who bad been suffered, through mis-
take or inadveteDcy TO slip into their graves. Wick
Ee the rst English trans ator Of the Scriptures, had
veDtured in life TO question certain points of dog
matte theology but dying in his bed III the year 1884,
had been allowed TO sleep for forty-one years 10
ciurchyard in Leicestershire The assembled dgni-
taIies in the Council of Constance, after duly dsposng
of the ashes of Huss and jerome, udcialy declared
the beresy of Wickfffe; and his bones were accord
ingy dug up and buin and the ashes thrown into the
river Avon, in the due exercise OF the executive
branch Of eccesiastical cognzance in the year 1925
of the Christian era.
Nor was the ecclefiastca oognizsnce Of the dead
confined TO cenqut nts of low degree or in the palmer
walks Of hfe The Emperor Of Germany, Henry the
IVth, the victor Of more than sixty battles, dying
under papal accommodation by Hildebrand, the
seventh Gregory was compelled to ne Tor ye years rs
Spires, which his father had commenced and ne had
completed
teal cognizance completely developed in England
in the thirteenth century when 1t reached its culmnat
ing point, with the whole kingdom as the defendant.
From the year 1907 to the year l2l3 the interdct of
InDoc nj the Third kept out of their lawful graves all
the dead from the Channel to the Tweed. No funeral
bell in the kingdom permitted 20 toll; the corpses
thrown into bitches, without prayer or halo~ed
observance; and the ast drop of pne-tly malice and
vengearce was exhausted in compelling all who
wished TO marry TO solemnize the ceremony IN the
cburch-yard.
Itwas during this unbrded career of papal aggran'
dizement through these dark and dismal ages that the
ancient civil courts Of England gradually lost their
original legitimate authority places of interment,
snd g" 'dsr sa Se cesy
nopoizing the judicial power over the subject, bura
was committed solely to ecclesiastical cogoizance,
while the secular courts stripped of all authority over
the dead, were left confne themselves to the pro-
lection of the monument and other external emDeus
Of grief erected by the living But these they guarded
18th singular sohcude The tomb stone, the armoria
e,cutcheo1s, even the coat and pennons and entigns
of honor whether attached to the church edihce or
elsewhere raised, as " ir-looms 10 the ogn'-
40 of unbeatable estates, and descended from heir TO
heir who could hold the parson liable for taxing
them down defacing them. ~,
The reyerent regard of the common law for these
memorials curously manifested by Coke in the Third
Institute D. 2O3, where he expatiates upon nlonu-
mental stone in his time than 400 years DID, IN,
scribed with the name of Jewish Rabbi, ana inlaid
in the al cent wall of LOndon-as II TO intimate that
the law would protect from injury that venerable piece
Of antiquity
Iut at this point the courts of the common law
s,onped and held humble Difference to the eccesi.
st,cal tribunals that the heir could MAINTAIN no cVn
action for ndeccntly even impiousy disturbing The
remains of his buried ancestor declaring the only rem,
cdy TO belong to the parson who, having the ireehou
of the soi could maintain trespass against such as
sbould dig or disturb it, The line OF legal demarka-
tion established in this subject betwt en- the eccesias
tical and the law courts, is thus defined 10y
Coke " IL a nobemaD, knight, esquire, etc., be ou-
ried in church. and have his coat-armour and pen
mons with his ames aud such other lnsigns oil hon
"our belong to bis degree or order, SCI up III sne
church or II grdrt-stone be lad or made tor mem
orv of him albeit the freehold OF the caureh DC ID
the parsOn and that these be annexed 10 thc iiee
hold Yet cannot the parson, or any take or aeiacS
them but he is subject to an action 10 the here ana
ms heres in the honour and memory oil whose an
ces,ors tbey were set up" lst Inst. 4, IL d. In
the Third Institute 203 he asserts the authority
of the Church follows: " 1t Is to be observed, says
he that in every scpuchre that hath monument
1.-Two thjr gs are to be considered viz, the monument
and ihe sep4ure or burial of the dead The 6nr'dH
"of the cddartr, that is, caro- date rernlous nesn
given 10 worms "s nulius IN bonis, AMI belongs 10
"ecclesasticvl cognzanoe; but as to the monument,
action is given, as hath been said al the common
"law, for the defacing thereof"
With all proper re-poct for the legal learning of this
celebrated Judge, may possibly question both the
wdom and tie etymology of this verbal coneet, thus
fantastic and imaginary gift OF outstanding grant
90 The worms In The English jurisprudence, corpse
was not given granted TO the worms, but 1t was
taken and appropriate by the Church In Latin, Twas
n :" co9arerh only because il was something fallen
Ia co5epdo even the remains Of fallen cities IN ne
Al IL II. ~.