CEMETERY, Κοιματεριον, from Κοιμαω to "sleep;"
a place set apart or consecrated for the burial of the
dead.
Anciently none were buried in churches or church-
yards: it was even unlawful to inter in cities, and the
cemeteries were without the walls. Among the pri-
mitive Christians these were held in great veneration.
It even appears from Eusebius and Tertullian, that, in
the early ages, they assembled for divine worship in
the cemeteries. Valerian seems to have confiscated
the cemeteries and other places of divine worship, but
they were restored again by Gallienus. As the mar-
tyrs were buried in these places, the Christians chose
them for building churches on, when Constantine estab-
lished their religion; and hence some derive the rule
which still obtains in the church of Rome, never to
consecrate an altar without putting under it the relics
of some saint. The practice of consecrating ceme-
teries is of some antiquity. The bishop walked round
it in procession, with the crozier or pastoral staff in his
hand, the holy water pot being carried before, out of
which the aspersions were made.