(Koepatogia, from Koepa, to "sleep"); a place set apart or consecrated for the burial of the dead.

Anciently none were buried in churches or churchyards; it was even unlawful to inter in cities, and the cemeteries were without the walls. Among the primitive 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 martyrs were buried in these places, the Christians chose them for building churches on, when Constantine established 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 cemeteries 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.

**CENCHRUS.** See Botany Index.

**CENEGILL,** in the Saxon antiquities, an expiatory mulet, paid by one who had killed a man to the kindred of the deceased. The word is compounded of the Saxon cinne, i.e. cognatio, "relation," and gild, solutio, "payment."

**CENOBIOTE.** See COENOBITE.

**CENOTAPH,** in antiquity, an empty tomb, erected by way of honour to the deceased. It is distinguished from a sepulchre, in which a coffin was deposited. Of these there were two sorts; one for those who had, and another for those who had not, been honoured with funeral rites in another place.

The sign whereby honorary sepulchres were distinguished from others, was commonly the wreck of a ship, to denote the decease of the person in some foreign country.

**CENSER,** in antiquity, a vase containing incense to be used in sacrifices. Censer is chiefly used in speaking of the Jewish worship. Among the Greeks and Romans it is more frequently called thuribulum, θυριβολος, and acerra.

The Jewish censer was a small sort of chafing dish, covered with a dome, and suspended by a chain. Josephus tells us, that Solomon made 20,000 gold censers for the temple of Jerusalem, to offer perfumes in, and 50,000 others to carry fire in.

**CENSIO,** in antiquity, the act or office of the censor. See CENSUS.