DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0287
Death, Ftmeral Rites, and Ancestor-worship. 275
permit special masses to be offered for the souls of deceased
relations, it introduces a prayer for the dead into the regular
daily mass1.
According to the Protestant creed, on the other hand, the
condition of the dead is irrevocably fixed. To think of ame-
liorating it by human intercession is nothing short of heresy.
Nor is it customary to perpetuate by any kind of act, peri-
odically repeated, the memory of one's nearest and dearest
relatives. It is no doubt true that tombs are occasionally
visited, and perhaps in the case of royal personages me-
morial services may be performed; and we have lately been
informed, on the authority of an eminent Bishop2, that the
Church of England does not condemn special services for the
spirits of the dead 3.
It is also true that every respectable man who has had a
respectable father or mother will be careful to reverence their
memory4, but I question whether the same man ever feels it
his duty to bestow a single reverential thought on either of
1 Our prayer for the Church militant has, I believe, taken the place of
this. In some Roman Catholic countries it is customary to exhume
skeletons at intervals of several years, and to place their skulls in a
small chapel adjoining the parish-church. This chapel is in German
Switzerland called the Schadel-haus, 'Skull-house,' and is used as an
oratory where people pray for their dead relations and friends.
2 According to the Bishop of Peterborough, the belief was undoubtedly
general in the early Church that the souls of the faithful, though free
from all suffering, were capable, while awaiting their final consummation
and bliss, of a progress in holiness and happiness ; and that prayers for
such progress might lawfully be made in their behalf. Accordingly,
prayers for 'the rest and refreshment of the departed' abound in the
early liturgies of the Church. See the Bishop's letter to the Rev. J.
Mason's parishioners who complained of Mr. Mason's having given
notice that he intended celebrating the Holy Communion for the repose
of Dr. Pusey's soul.
3 All Saints' Day is observed in the Church of England as well as in
the Church of Rome. In some Roman Catholic countries great feasting
takes place on this day, and the souls of the dead are supposed to join in
the festivities and consume the essence of the food before it is eaten.
* The feeling seems to find vent in putting periodical advertisements
' in loving memory' in the obituary of the newspapers.
t a
permit special masses to be offered for the souls of deceased
relations, it introduces a prayer for the dead into the regular
daily mass1.
According to the Protestant creed, on the other hand, the
condition of the dead is irrevocably fixed. To think of ame-
liorating it by human intercession is nothing short of heresy.
Nor is it customary to perpetuate by any kind of act, peri-
odically repeated, the memory of one's nearest and dearest
relatives. It is no doubt true that tombs are occasionally
visited, and perhaps in the case of royal personages me-
morial services may be performed; and we have lately been
informed, on the authority of an eminent Bishop2, that the
Church of England does not condemn special services for the
spirits of the dead 3.
It is also true that every respectable man who has had a
respectable father or mother will be careful to reverence their
memory4, but I question whether the same man ever feels it
his duty to bestow a single reverential thought on either of
1 Our prayer for the Church militant has, I believe, taken the place of
this. In some Roman Catholic countries it is customary to exhume
skeletons at intervals of several years, and to place their skulls in a
small chapel adjoining the parish-church. This chapel is in German
Switzerland called the Schadel-haus, 'Skull-house,' and is used as an
oratory where people pray for their dead relations and friends.
2 According to the Bishop of Peterborough, the belief was undoubtedly
general in the early Church that the souls of the faithful, though free
from all suffering, were capable, while awaiting their final consummation
and bliss, of a progress in holiness and happiness ; and that prayers for
such progress might lawfully be made in their behalf. Accordingly,
prayers for 'the rest and refreshment of the departed' abound in the
early liturgies of the Church. See the Bishop's letter to the Rev. J.
Mason's parishioners who complained of Mr. Mason's having given
notice that he intended celebrating the Holy Communion for the repose
of Dr. Pusey's soul.
3 All Saints' Day is observed in the Church of England as well as in
the Church of Rome. In some Roman Catholic countries great feasting
takes place on this day, and the souls of the dead are supposed to join in
the festivities and consume the essence of the food before it is eaten.
* The feeling seems to find vent in putting periodical advertisements
' in loving memory' in the obituary of the newspapers.
t a