Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age — John Shaqi
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
Bernard, grandson of Charlemagne, who died in 818, was found with
shoes on his feet when his coffin was opened in 1638. William
Lyndewode, Bishop of St. David’s, who died in 1446, was buried in St.
Stephen’s. When his grave was recently disturbed during repairs, the
body was found unclothed, but with shoes on the feet.—_Archæologia_,
vol. xxxiv. p. 403. In the cathedral of Worcester a skeleton was found
in 1861 having shoes or sandals on its feet, the soles of which were
quite entire.—_Gent. Mag._, Oct. 1861. The Abbé Cochet mentions a
large number of instances in France, proving the existence of the
custom there from the twelfth century to the seventeenth. In an
account of the funeral expenses of Roger Belot, who died in 1603,
there is a charge of twelve sous six deniers for a pair of shoes to
place on the feet of the defunct.—_Revue Archæol._, vol. xxv. (1873)
p. 12.
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Broadly stated, the archæological effect of the establishment of
Christianity was to cut off the presence of grave-goods from the burials
of the area. But these examples show that while this was the general and
final result, it was neither obtained absolutely nor at once. The burial
usages of a people are among the most unalterable of all their
institutions. Other observances may change with the convictions of
individuals, but the prevailing sentiment which leads to the disposal of
the dead—"gathered to their fathers"—in the same manner as the fathers
themselves were disposed, resists innovation longer and more stubbornly
than any other. In point of fact we find that from the beginning there
have been but two great typical forms of burial—viz. burial with
grave-goods, which is the universally Pagan type, and burial without
them, which is the universally Christian type.
These typical forms of burial are respectively products of the opposing
doctrines of Paganism and Christianity as touching the future life. I
cannot tell what may have been the precise attitude of mind which
induced my Pagan ancestor to provide his dead with grave-goods. In view
of the general prevalence of the custom, I cannot doubt that it was an
attitude which regarded their provision as a sacred duty, universally
binding and almost universally performed. But the Christian belief in a
resurrection to newness of life recognised no such duty to the dead, and
steadily opposed the practice as amounting to a denial of the faith. On
this account it is plain that when we find the dead in Christian graves
provided with grave-goods we have a form of burial which cannot be
accounted for by anything in the essential elements of Christianity
itself, and therefore it must be regarded as a survival of the older
custom, which logically ought to have died with the death of the Pagan
system,—of which it was a distinctive usage.
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