DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0250
XXXVI.]
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
231
of such persons, which usage, however, never formed any part of the pre-
scribed legal punishment of suicide, and was not mentioned in the coroner's
warrant for an ignominious burial. In all likelihood it arose from a belief,
similar to that with which the traveller in Dalmatia, and the collection of
Burchard, make us acquainted; and was therefore not at all meant as an
indignity, but simply as a precaution, which, in consequence of the general
belief in vampires prevalent in England, must have been thought likely to
contribute to the mutual benefit of both the dead man and his survivors,
by ensuring, to the former, the quiet occupation of his tomb, and, to the
latter, freedom from molestation by his nightly rambles.
The Commentator on the Laws of England (Blackstone, Vol. iv.
p. 189) seems to consider that our law " wisely and religiously" acted on
both the reputation and fortune of the felo de se: " on the former, by an igno-
minious burial in the highway with a stake driven through his body; on the
latter, by a forfeiture of all his goods and chattels to the king." The feelings
of the nineteenth century have however made a change in what the law had so
wisely contrived. By an act of Parliament, 4 Geo. I v. cap. 52. intitled "An
act to alter and amend the law relating to the interment of the remains of any
person found Felo de se," it is enacted, that the coroner or other officer " shall
give directions for the private interment of the remains of such person Felo de
se, without any stake being driven through the body of such person, in the
churchyard," &c. It is nevertheless expressly provided, that nothing in the
act " shall authorize the performing of any of the rites of Christian burial on
the interment of the remains of any such person;" and the burial is only to
take place between nine and twelve o'clock at night.
There is only one point left unexplained: why the place commonly chosen
for the English suicide's burial was not simply by the way-side, but where
four roads meet. I conceive that, in the superstitious times when the rite
originated, such places were ordinarily regarded as the most holy that existed
out of consecrated ground; and therefore the humanity of our ancestors,
towards the unfortunate suicide, was as much shewn by the locality which
they selected for his burial-place, as by the rites which they observed in
interring him. It was especially at cross-roads that sepulchral monuments
were erected, by the piety or superstition of our Roman Catholic fore-
fathers, who thus secured the prayers of passers by in favour of the dead 3.
Moreover, "In early times crosses were erected at most places of public
3 Sec Borlask, Antiquities of Cornwall, B. iv. ch. xn. p. 362. where several examples
of these sepulchral monuments arc given, Compare also the Archaeologia, Vol. xui. p. 216'.
They continued to be erected, in Scotland and Ireland, till the beginning of the last century.
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
231
of such persons, which usage, however, never formed any part of the pre-
scribed legal punishment of suicide, and was not mentioned in the coroner's
warrant for an ignominious burial. In all likelihood it arose from a belief,
similar to that with which the traveller in Dalmatia, and the collection of
Burchard, make us acquainted; and was therefore not at all meant as an
indignity, but simply as a precaution, which, in consequence of the general
belief in vampires prevalent in England, must have been thought likely to
contribute to the mutual benefit of both the dead man and his survivors,
by ensuring, to the former, the quiet occupation of his tomb, and, to the
latter, freedom from molestation by his nightly rambles.
The Commentator on the Laws of England (Blackstone, Vol. iv.
p. 189) seems to consider that our law " wisely and religiously" acted on
both the reputation and fortune of the felo de se: " on the former, by an igno-
minious burial in the highway with a stake driven through his body; on the
latter, by a forfeiture of all his goods and chattels to the king." The feelings
of the nineteenth century have however made a change in what the law had so
wisely contrived. By an act of Parliament, 4 Geo. I v. cap. 52. intitled "An
act to alter and amend the law relating to the interment of the remains of any
person found Felo de se," it is enacted, that the coroner or other officer " shall
give directions for the private interment of the remains of such person Felo de
se, without any stake being driven through the body of such person, in the
churchyard," &c. It is nevertheless expressly provided, that nothing in the
act " shall authorize the performing of any of the rites of Christian burial on
the interment of the remains of any such person;" and the burial is only to
take place between nine and twelve o'clock at night.
There is only one point left unexplained: why the place commonly chosen
for the English suicide's burial was not simply by the way-side, but where
four roads meet. I conceive that, in the superstitious times when the rite
originated, such places were ordinarily regarded as the most holy that existed
out of consecrated ground; and therefore the humanity of our ancestors,
towards the unfortunate suicide, was as much shewn by the locality which
they selected for his burial-place, as by the rites which they observed in
interring him. It was especially at cross-roads that sepulchral monuments
were erected, by the piety or superstition of our Roman Catholic fore-
fathers, who thus secured the prayers of passers by in favour of the dead 3.
Moreover, "In early times crosses were erected at most places of public
3 Sec Borlask, Antiquities of Cornwall, B. iv. ch. xn. p. 362. where several examples
of these sepulchral monuments arc given, Compare also the Archaeologia, Vol. xui. p. 216'.
They continued to be erected, in Scotland and Ireland, till the beginning of the last century.