a wooden machine for carrying the bodies of the dead to be buried. The word comes from the French bierre, which signifies the same. It is called in Latin feretrum, a ferendo. Among the Romans the common bier, whereon the poorer sort were carried, was called sandopila; that used for the richer sort lectica, lectica funebris, sometimes lectus. The former was only a sort of wooden chest, vultu arca, which was burnt with the body; the latter was enriched and gilded for pomp. It was carried bare, or uncovered, when the person died a natural and easy death; when he was much disfigured or distorted, it was veiled or covered over.

BIER is more particularly used for that whereon the bodies of saints are placed in the church to rest, and exposed to the veneration of the devout. This is also called, in middle-age writers, lectus, feretrum, lectica, and loculus; and was usually enriched with gold, silver, and precious stones, which was the cause that the bier of St Benedict was pillaged, and all its ornaments carried off.