Purgatory to the Catholics of the Middle Ages was a place of pain and suffering. It was the place where one would suffer for the sins that had not been cast off during life. The soul is often tormented for many years in Purgatory before satisfaction is granted and it can ascend to eternal life. Living mourners who had prayed for the dying persons’ soul before death continued to pray for the soul after death, believing that their prayers would help the dead souls through Purgatory faster. This linked the dead to the living spiritually. Not only could living mourners pray for the souls of loved ones, but also priests, monks, and nuns could be paid to pray or intercede for the soul of the deceased. After funerals, alms were given to the poor so that they would in turn pray for the soul of the dead as well. Good Catholics would pray to Mary and the saints to intercede on behalf of the soul. After a time the RCC allowed indulgences to be bought on behalf of the deceased soul, just to speed the process of Purgatory. Intercessions and indulgences were the main currency in the economy of salvation. Intercessions could be bought for years in the future. Rent for the dead. People started to view these pricey intercessions and indulgences as a way of preying on the superstitions and fears of the common man.
Attitudes towards Purgatory and intercessions changed in the 1500’s. In Germany, theologians like Gansfort, Karlstadt, and Luther preached and published about a different kind of Purgatory. Gansfort argues that the fire of Purgatory “does not torment, but rather cleanses the inward man of the impurity which accompanies him even when released from the flesh…Cleansing is understood as a ‘burning, deferred, thirsting love, that is set on fire of itself (Koslofsky, p.29)”. Karlstadt published the first Reformation tract on Purgatory in 1523. It proposed the existence of a “spiritual Purgatory” and “attacked the Roman doctrine which connects Purgatory with suffrages for the dead, asserting that the souls of the departed can be purified only by Christ and not through any earthly intercession (Koslofsky, p.21)”. Luther, by 1530, published his Repeal of Purgatory where he denied the existence of Purgatory at all. He also proposed that the soul sleeps after death. Luther said, “the deceased who have died in the Lord are holy…they rest and are at peace, as Isaiah 57 says that the just…go in peace when they die, as if to bed…and so they are called the sleepers, and their death is called sleep throughout the Scriptures (Koslofsky, p.37)”. Luther had earlier, in 1521, written On the Misuse of Mass. In this publication he denounces intercessory masses as “ a diabolically successful trick which has brought matters to a point where the mass is held mostly for the dead, although it was given and instituted as a consolation only for living Christians (Koslofshy, p.34)”. These reformers sought to separate the living from the dead completely. That meant no work on behalf of the dead, no intercessions, no vigils, no masses. A Nuremberg jurist said, “after death a person is freed from all human authority and stands in God’s Judgement alone (Koslofsky, p.39)”.
Salvation by faith alone. With this doctrine, one can see the obvious conflictions it has with the RCC. There was no longer any need for intercessions, indulgences for the dead, or consecrated ground. According to Lutheran doctrine, death should be dealt with by quiet meditation and personal prayer. Prayer after death should be for the living, it should express the living mourners’ acceptance of God’s will.
When a Catholic confronted death a priest was by his side to serve him the last rights: the confession, communion, and the extreme unction. Funeral and burial ritual varied from region to region and with social status, but one theme was fundamental: the intercession of the living for the dead. From the deathbed vigil to the funeral service and masses, to the churchyard to be buried, and on every conceivable holiday there after, the living interceded for the dead through prayer.
When a Lutheran confronted death it was with his beloved by his side and then God alone. Honorable burial was still very important to the Protestants. But there were no intercessions, no masses or vigils. Also, alms were not given as much to the poor but the money instead went to the choir boys who sang during the processions from house to church to cemetery and then back to house. The Lutherans spiritually detach the living from the dead in this way. Extramural burials were a way to separate the living from the dead physically.
Extramural burials were a reaction to the high mortality rate during the Plague years. The Catholic churchyards could not keep but with the high number of burials, and bodies began to stack up…and smell. For medical reasons, believing the bad smell to be toxic vapors that spread the plague, extramural burial grounds were set up outside city walls. Originally these were only supposed to be temporary, but with the new thoughts and beliefs of the reformation, the extramural burials became permanent. Not all the people were happy about this. City councils dominated by Lutheran Merchants passed extramural burial ordinances and butted heads with resident Catholics. During the Leipzig Burial Controversy of 1536, the city council led by merchants and the university led by Dominicans came into an almost violent conflict. For medical reasons the city council passed an ordinance that forbade anyone to be buried in the city churchyard anymore, and would only allow extramural burials. The Dominicans were furious, as well as the other common Catholics. Their argument resounded throughout the Empire. They desired to be buried with their ancestors on consecrated ground, plus the loss of revenue from intercessions, vigils, masses, burial fees, etc., made the deal even more sour. Not to mention the fact that most urban centers had more than one type of Catholic Church (Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans) that were already in competition with each other for burial revenue. It just so happens that the plague hit at the same time as the Reformation. The Catholics began to accuse the Protestants of using extramural burial as a tool of reform. Extramural burials were a perfect parallel between the spiritual and physical separation of the living from the dead.
The uselessness of intercessions exposed and extramural burials marked a fundamental shift in how people dealt with death. Catholic theologian Witzel made several good points, “We have reached the point where Christians will not tolerate a dead body in the city. Instead one is carried out to the field…what should inspire (the living to remember the dead) out in a field? Especially when one scarcely goes out there two or three times a year? …So it will happen that because one no longer see the grave-digger every day, few will know how to face death, and the rude masses will think that no one dies anymore (Koslofsky, p.50)”. But Protestants saw burial in a different light. Many Protestants thought, “ What does it matter where I am buried, as long as my soul fairs well (Koslofsky, p.50)”? Catholic leaders tried to control the rash of reformist thought by condemning all those who did not take part in last rights to a dishonorable burial on unconsecrated ground. But this of course backfired since all those not taking part in Catholic death rituals did not care if they were buried on consecrated ground; in fact they preferred not to be.
Funerals for those supporters of the Reformation happened out in the fields, beyond city walls. With the traditional way of performing funerals out of the picture, reformists had to come up with a new picture. For a few years, Lutheran funerals were seen as dry and without emotion or honor. But with time the reformers merged the two forms of ceremony to come up with a balanced one with honor and pomp while maintaining the separation of living from dead. Funeral practice varied form region to region, the country areas holding faster to the traditional catholic methods while urban centers threw them away completely. The funeral sermon became the main way that status was displayed at a Protestant funeral. The family of the deceased paid pastors handsomely for sermons filled with praise of the dead and his family.
Death for those of dishonorable reputation changed as well. In Medieval times, criminals that were sentenced to death by hanging, or what have you, but if they died before execution, they still received the punishment. Why hang a dead man to punish his soul when humans have no hand in his judgment after his death anyway? So the ritual abuse of dead bodies of criminals began to stop and was reflected in the criminal codes of the times. Those of dishonorable reputation were still given burials without singing, church bells, or loved ones.
As one can assess, the Reformation had a lot to do with peoples changing attitude towards death. It all started with the challenge made on the cult of Purgatory. Without the fiery torment of souls to pray for, Catholic credibility dropped. Intercessions may have been a useful grieving technique for some, but the Protestants let it be known that it is was not right for all. The timing of the Plague could not have been more in tune with the song of those seeking reform within the RCC. The reform of the RCC was not being done fast enough, or extensively enough, for some. Death was the issue most prevalent at the time. People began to look at death in different ways. People began to seek alternative explanations and methods of coping. The changing social climate affected peoples’ attitudes towards religion in general, as well as issues closely related, like death.
Bibliography
Basset, Steven (1992), Death in Towns: Urban Responses to the Dying and the Dead, 100-1600, Leicester, Leiceter University Press.
Geary, Patrick J. (1994), Living With the Dead in the Middle Ages, Ithica
, Cornell University Press.
Koslofsky, Craig M. (2000), The Reformation of the Dead: Death and Ritual in Early Modern Germany 1450-1700, New York, St. Martins’ Press, Inc.
