The body was swathed in linen, sometimes with the insignia of office, or with ornaments of gold, or gems placed in the coffin or sarcophagus.—Euseb. _Vit. Const._ iv. 66; Ambros. _Orat. in obit. Theodos_; _August. Conf._ ix. 12, cited in Smith’s _Dict. of Christ. Antiq._, _sub voce_ “Burial of the Dead.” The insignia of office, if the deceased had held any such position—gold and silver ornaments in the case of private persons—were often flung into the open grave, and the waste and ostentation to which this led had to be checked by an imperial edict.—_Cod. Theodos._ xi. tit. 7, 1, 14. _Ibid._ So common was the burial of weapons and ornaments in Early Christian times among the Franks, that enactments against the violation of graves in search of treasure form a special feature in the Salic Laws. Gregory of Tours tells of the robbery of the grave of the wife of Gonthram, who was buried in the Church of Metz, “cum auro multo rebusque preciosis;” and Montfaucon adds that from this we see that it was not the kings only, but the great of the land also, who were at that time buried with things of price. ----- Although the Pagan form of burial in which the dead were placed in their tombs, apparelled in their richest robes, and with their arms, ornaments, and insignia, is clearly opposed to the doctrine taught in all ages of the church, that the dead are for ever done with the things of this life,[2] we find it strangely surviving as a Christian ceremonial in the burial of kings and clergy. Childeric, the last of the Pagan kings of France, was buried seated on a throne, in his kingly robes, and with the arms, ornaments, and insignia of royalty. Charlemagne, the establisher of Christianity (who meted out the punishment of death to the Saxons who dared to burn their dead after the old manner),[3] was also buried seated on a throne, with his royal robes, his arms and ornaments, and the book of the Gospels on his knee. The Scandinavian Viking was buried with his arms because his Valhalla was a fighting place; but the Christian kings of Denmark continued to be buried with their arms although there was no Valhalla prepared for them.[4] Giraldus Cambrensis, describing the miserable death of Henry II. of England, laments that when the body was being prepared for burial “scarcely was a decent ring to be found for his finger or a sceptre for his hand, or a crown for his head, except such a thing as was made from an old head-dress.” When the custom was disused for kings, it was retained for the clergy.[5] Archbishops and bishops have always been buried with their insignia and robes of office.[6] Their graves, containing the crosier or staff, the chalice and paten, the robes and ring, although necessarily of Christian time and Christian character, are directly related in the line of archæological succession to those of the earlier Paganism. The custom also survives in the pompous accessories of a military funeral.