PART THREE - Ecclesiastical Law in Hamlet

The first grave digger in Hamlet believed that if Ophelia had not been a gentle woman she would not have Christian burial. The second grave-digger promptly answers that she is, because the "crowner" (coroner) has set upon her and finds that she is to have Christian burial.

By the canon law, whether Ophelia was sane or insane, if she deliberately caused her own death, she was not entitled to the burial rites of the church, for churchmen contended then as now that in all cases of suicide the deceased should be denied the burial rites of the church, and the clergy ought not to be bound by the decision of the Coroner's jury in such cases. *

The practice was when the coroner delivered the custody of the body to the relatives and friends, that the same should be buried by the parish priest in the manner and form his discretion and church regulations might allow, excepting so far as positive statute law compelled him to act. The statute law compelled him to attend and bury all persons in the parish churchyard, and to read or sing certain prescribed prayers and portions of the bible as prescribed in the act of uniformity of worship without regard to the religious belief or doctrine of the deceased.†

The Book of Common Prayer as we have it now was not yet settled in many particulars. It was not until 1603 that the 68th canon of the Church of England required that the minister (priest) should, when requested, under a penalty, use the forms of burial service as prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer. Until then it was left to the act of uniformity before mentioned.

Before the rubrics of 1662 they did not exclude the service for suicides, much to the dissatisfaction of churchmen and the clergy. Under the ancient law as well as under the 39 articles of the church, the decision of the coroner's jury, he being a magistrate, must be followed by the church as to the voluntary or involuntary act of self-destruction. If the former was found by the coroner, the body was denied the church rites of burial and was buried by the coroner according to the local custom of the parish. If the latter was found, as was the case when the subject was deemed insane, then the rites of burial must be used by the ministers, but only in the parish churchyard, under the penalty prescribed in the act of uniformity of Elizabeth and in the 68th canon of 1603.

This humiliation of the church authorities to the civil authorities was compensated in part by the exclusive right of the bishops to administer upon the goods and chattels real and personal of a deceased in his parish, in all cases where they were not forfeited to the Crown. When the coroner's jury decided that a suicide was sane, the personal property of the deceased was forfeited to the Crown the same as on conviction of any other felony, and the burial of the body was by the coroner generally at cross-roads.‡

This burial at the cross-roads and without religious rites, was to give as strong an impression as possible of a heathen burial, and also of a criminal act, for the heathen Teutons there executed their criminals by sacrificing them to the gods on their altars, which were mostly at the junction of the cross-roads, and the body was pinned to the earth by an iron pointed stake, and passers-by would cast a stone at it.

This mode of disposing of the body of suicides was an ancient custom brought into England by the Saxons, and did not prevail in all parts of England and Wales.

There were three kinds of places of burial of suicides that prevailed in England.

When the church officers performed the burial rites which the law compelled them to do, when the coroner's jury had decided the suicide to be an insane act, the body was entitled to be buried in the parish churchyard, but the canon and statute law allowed the place of the grave to be selected there by the parish priest, because the freehold of the church property is in the rector (priest.) This privilege was frequently exercised by priests as to the bodies of suicides and others in a peculiar manner. In some places the coroner buried suicides in the parish churchyard. When they were buried in- the parish churchyard they were placed in the most obscure parts of it.

In many churchyards in the northern parts of England may be seen a row of graves on the extreme verge of the north side of the graveyard, apart from that in which the bodies of the inhabitants in general are deposited. Some of the graves do not lie east and west as do those who have Christian burial. These are occupied by the bodies of still-born infants, suicides and excommunicated persons, and those who it is termed are "buried out of the sanctuary," because they are not entitled to the full church rites of burial and are not in consecrated ground.

The first grave-digger in Hamlet, when he asked if the grave should be made "straight," was evidently accustomed to that part of England where a suicide's grave was not made east and west, as the church stood, and as other graves run, but was to be made "crooked," or not parallel to them.

The canon of Edgar before mentioned shows that the carrying of palms by the clerical attendants as emblems of victory at funerals was the custom in regular burials in England.

The usual burial ceremonies for those who died in the faith in Shakespeare's time were more or less imposing or elaborate, according to the rank of the deceased.

The priest leading the funeral cortege following the corpse carried feet foremost on the way to the churchyard, the friends of deceased carrying rosemary as a token of remembrance, the clerks carried five or six lighted torches as an emblem of Christian faith, of triumph over death by belief in the resurrection and immortality, singing psalms of victory and peace This was when the procession started from the house where the deceased was to be taken to the churchyard. This is also alluded to by Gay, who wrote a century after Shakespeare lived.

It was a special favor to do this for which the parson expected to be paid by the friends of deceased.

The legal ritual only required that the corpse be met by the priests and clerks in their robes at the "church style."

In the burial of Ophelia the funeral cortege is first seen by Hamlet in the rural churchyard. I will therefore only describe the full burial rites in the churchyard at that time.

The priests and clerks in their robes meet the funeral cortege at the entrance of the churchyard, forewarning of which is given by the church bell, and they lead the procession in the following order: The cross-bearer at the head of the corpse, the officiating priest at the feet, the person carrying the holy water a little behind the officiating priest at his right hand, and the other persons who sing are arranged on each side in the order of their church rank, so as to leave room for the officiating priest in the middle. The four or six torches of wax are lighted and given to those who are appointed to carry them. The priest going before the corpse, all followed by the relatives and friends of deceased carrying sprigs of rosemary. In this manner they proceed to the grave, singing psalms and hymns. When they arrive at the grave the bearers lay the coffin on the brink of the grave with its feet turned towards the east. (The coffin is sometimes opened for a view of deceased and then the entire top is removed.) The priest then standing before the cross with his face turned towards the body he sprinkles the corpse (or coffin) thrice with holy water without saying anything, and then blesses it by a prayer, then an anthem or psalm is sung, after which he again sprinkles and incenses the body, and also the grave, then the friends of deceased (if the coffin is open) are allowed to look for the last time upon deceased. When the corpse is being made ready to be laid into the earth and the coffin is lowered into the grave a dirge and anthem is sung. Then the holy Eucharist is administered. Then after again sprinkling the coffin with holy water and a handful of earth is cast upon the coffin by the priest in the form of a cross, he saying the prescribed prayer, and then sprinkling it with holy water, an anthem is chanted, and then a prayer said; then the relatives and friends of the deceased come before the earth is thrown into the grave and sprinkle it with holy water supplied by the priest, and such other emblems as custom allows. They all stay until the grave has been filled up, the company condole with the relatives of the deceased, and then the bell rings, all return to the church, where a requiem mass was (formerly) sung and a funeral sermon preached. Sometimes the ceremony terminated by the singing of a requiem mass at the grave after it was filled up.

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* Coke says he is called coroner or coronator because he hath principally to do with pleas of the crown, or such wherein the King is more immediately concerned. The office is of equal antiquity with that of sheriff. Mention is made of him in a charter of King Athelstan, A.D. 905. Forfeiture of personal property for a felony was not introduced into the English law until the beginning of the 12th century. back

† Dissenters did not have their own churches and burying grounds, until long after Shakespeare's time. back

‡ Coroner's juries almost always decided that the deceased was insane, and therefore there was no forfeiture. Perhaps this was influenced by the fact that suicides at that time had little or no property to forfeit to the Crown -- another fact, that if property was forfeited, the coroner got no fees. back