the same with interment or BURIAL.

BURYING Alive was the punishment of a vealife who had violated her vow of virginity. The unhappy priestess was let down into a deep pit, with bread, water, milk, oil, a lamp burning, and a bed to lie on. But this was only for show; for the moment she was let down, they began to cast in the earth upon her till the pit was filled up. Some middle-age writers seem to make burying alive (defolio) the punishment of a woman thief. Lord Bacon gives instances of the resurrection of persons who have been buried alive. The famous Duns Scotus is of the number; who, having been seized with a catalepsy, was thought dead, and laid to sleep among his fathers, but raised again by his servant in whose absence he had been buried. Bartholin gives an account of a woman, who, on recovering from an apoplexy, could not be convinced but that she was dead, and solicited so long and so earnestly to be buried, that they were forced to comply; and performed the ceremonies, at least in appearance. The famous emperor Charles V. after his abdication, took it into his head to have his burial celebrated in his lifetime, and assisted at it. See CHARLES V.

BURYING-Place, The ancients buried out of cities and towns; an usage which we find equally among Jews, Greeks, and Romans. Among the last, burying within the walls was expressly prohibited by a law of the 12 tables. The usual places of interment were in the suburbs and fields, but especially by the waysides. We have instances, however, of persons buried in the city; but it was a favour allowed only to a few of singular merit in the commonwealth. Plutarch says, those who had triumphed were indulged in it. Be this as it will, Val. Publicola, and C. Fabricius, are said to have had tombs in the forum; and Cicero adds Tubertus to the number. Lycurgus allowed his Lacedemonians to bury their dead within the city and round their temples, that the youth, being enured to such spectacles, might be less terrified with the apprehension of death. Two reasons are alleged why the ancients buried out of cities: the first, an opinion that the sight, touch, or even neighbourhood, of a corpse defiled a man, especially a priest; whence that rule in A. Gelius, that the flamium dialis might not on any account enter a place where there was a grave: the second, to prevent the air from being corrupted by the stench of putrefied bodies, and the buildings from being endangered by the frequency of funeral fires.

Burying in churches was not allowed for the first 300 years after Christ; and the same was severely prohibited by the Christian emperors for many ages afterwards. The first step towards it appears to have been the practice of erecting churches over the graves of some martyrs in the country, and translating the relics of others into churches in the city; the next was, allowing kings and emperors to be buried in the atrium or church-porch. In the 6th century, the people began to be admitted into the church-yards; and some princes, founders, and bishops, into the church. From that time the matter seems to have been left to the discretion of the bishop.