408 BuoniCattolici
on the day of judgment. Hear me, hear me, and decree that my soul
be gathered into the bosom of Abraham. R.^178The pallbearers then took up the body for the procession to the cemetery.
When all had left the church for the procession, the women resumed the
pianto, joined perhaps by the men and even some of the clergy.^179 When the
procession approached the cemetery, the clergy intoned the last of the three
great funeral chants of the medieval church, ‘‘In Paradiso.’’^180 Psalm 50 , the
penitential ‘‘Miserere Mei,’’ provided the verses for this antiphon, if they
were needed. Its words celebrated the deceased’s entry into paradise, and so
completed the soul’s departure from the earthly city to the heavenly Jerusa-
lem: ‘‘May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you
at your coming, and take you into the holy city Jerusalem. May the choir of
angels receive you, and may you find eternal rest with Lazarus, no longer
poor.’’^181
To enter a cemetery was to enter a sacred space.^182 The communes pro-
tected their burial grounds from both spiritual and physical pollution. They
enacted laws to keep them free of trash and provided funds for their up-
keep.^183 Religion absolutely excluded the unbaptized and criminals from
burial in consecrated ground.^184 Churches set aside an unconsecrated plot
next to the cemetery for unbaptized infants. Special rules governed women
who died in childbirth and their unborn, unbaptized children. Their funeral
rites were conducted outside the church building, as were those of people
who died by violence—lest any blood desecrate the consecrated space. But
no woman was ever to be denied burial in the cemetery because of the
unbaptized fetus within her.^185 Those who unmistakably died in mortal sin—
suicides, those dying in adultery or in a brothel, or in duels, tournaments, or
as a soldier in an unjust war—these went to their grave not with Christians
- As in Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms dccxxxvi, fol. 35 r. The ‘‘Libera’’ was used in a short-
ened form in the rites for the dying: e.g., Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msGaddi 214 , fols.
17 r– 18 r. - For attempts to curtail wailing on the way to the grave, seeOrdo Senensis, 2. 100 ,p. 506 ; San
Gimignano Stat. ( 1255 ), 2. 54 , pp. 713 – 14 ; Ravenna Stat., 341 ,p. 159. - Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms mcix, fol. 56 v; Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms dccxxxvi,
fol. 35 r; Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msConv. Soppr. D. 8. 2851 , fols. 15 r– 16 r; ‘‘Instrumentum
Litis’’ (September 1187 —Galdo,primicerioof San Vincenzo), 1. 1 , pp. 173 – 74 (but sometimes the ‘‘Dirige’’
was substituted: ibid., p. 215 ).Manuale Ambrosianum, 1 : 104 – 9 , goes its own way, giving thirty psalms for use
in the procession. - Text in the Roman Ritual: ‘‘In paradisum deducant te angeli: in tuo adventu suscipiant te
martyres, et perducante in civitatem sanctam Jeruslem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro
quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem.’’ - On cemeteries in medieval canon law, see Marantonio Sguerzo,Evoluzione, 84 – 86 , 93 – 97.
- E.g., Bergamo,Antiquae Collationes Statuti Veteris Civitatis Pergami, 9. 62 – 63 ( 1236 ), col. 2035 ; Mantua
Stat. ( 1303 ), 5. 11 , 3 : 96. - On medieval prohibition of Christian burial of public sinners, heretics, and those under ecclesi-
astical censure, see Marantonio Sguerzo,Evoluzione, 150 – 76. See also Bologna Synod ( 1310 ), 497 – 98. - Sicardo,Mitrale, 9. 50 , col. 430. For further comment, see Lett,Enfant, 211.