FOSSARI, in antiquity, a kind of officers in
the eastern church, whose business was to inter the
dead.
Cicconius relates, that Constantine created 950
fossaries, whom he took out of the divers colleges
or companies of tradesmen: he adds, that they were
exempted from taxes, services, burdensome offices, &c.
F. Gou, in his notes on the Greek Ezechologion,
infuates that the fossarii were established in the times
of the apostles; and that the young men, who carried
off the body of Ananias, and those persons full of the
fear of God, who interred St Stephen, were of the
number.
St Jerom assures us, that the rank of fossarii held the
first place among the clerks; but he is to be understood
of those clerks only who had the direction and intend-
ance of the interment of the devout.