the interment of a deceased person.

The rites of burial are looked upon in all countries, and at all times, as a debt so sacred, that such as neglected to discharge it were thought accursed: hence the Romans called them fula, and the Greeks ἀναποθάνειν, ἀναποθάνειν, words implying the inviolable obligation which nature has laid upon the living to take care of the obsequies of the dead. Nor are we to wonder that the ancient Greeks and Romans were extremely solicitous about the interment of their deceased friends, since they were strongly persuaded that their souls could not be admitted into the Elysian fields till their bodies were committed to the earth; and if it happened that they never obtained the rites of burial, they were excluded from the happy mansions for the term of 100 years. For this reason it was considered as a duty Burial duty incumbent upon all travellers who should meet with a dead body in their way, to cast dust or mould upon it three times; and of these three handfuls one at least was cast upon the head. The ancients likewise considered it as a great misfortune if they were not laid in the sepulchres of their fathers; for which reason, such as died in foreign countries had usually their ashes brought home, and interred with those of their ancestors. But notwithstanding their great care in the burials of the dead, there were some persons whom they thought unworthy of that last office, and to whom therefore they refused it: such were, 1. Public or private enemies. 2. Such as betrayed or confpired against their country. 3. Tyrants, who were always looked upon as enemies to their country. 4. Villains guilty of sacrilege. 5. Such as died in debt, whose bodies belonged to their creditors. And, 6. Some particular offenders, who suffered capital punishment.

Of those who were allowed the rites of burial, some were distinguished by particular circumstances of disgrace attending their interment: thus persons killed by lightning were buried apart by themselves, being thought odious to the gods; those who waived their patrimony forfeited the right of being buried in the sepulchres of their fathers; and those who were guilty of self-murder were privately deposited in the ground, without the accustomed solemnities. Among the Jews, the privilege of burial was denied only to self-murderers, who were thrown out to rot upon the ground. In the Christian church, though good men always desired the privilege of interment, yet they were not, like the heathens, so concerned for their bodies, as to think it any detriment to them, if either the barbarity of an enemy, or some other accident, deprived them of this privilege. The primitive Christian church denied the more solemn rites of burial only to unbaptized persons, self-murderers, and excommunicated persons who continued obstinate and impenitent, in a manifest contempt of the church's censures.

The place of burial among the Jews was never particularly determined. We find they had graves in the town and country, upon the highways, in gardens, and upon mountains. Among the Greeks, the temples were made repositories for the dead in the primitive ages; yet the general custom in latter ages, with them, as well as with the Romans and other heathen nations, was to bury their dead without their cities, and chiefly by the highways. Among the primitive Christians, burying in cities was not allowed for the first 300 years, nor in churches for many ages after, the dead bodies being first deposited in the atrium or churchyard, and porches and porticoes of the church; hereditary burying-places were forbidden till the 12th century. As to the time of burial, with all the ceremonies accompanying it, see the article Funeral Rites.