Thomas Fuller (1608-1661)

Good Thoughts in Bad Times

and Other Papers

Thomas Fuller  (1608-1661)

"LIVING in a country village, where a burial was a rarity, I never thought of death, it was so seldom presented unto me. Coming to London, where there is plenty of funerals, (so that coffins crowd one another, and corpses in the grave justle for elbow-room,) I slight and neglect death, because grown an object so constant and common.

How foul is my stomach to turn all food into bad humours? Funerals neither few nor frequent, work effectually upon me. London is a library of mortality. Volumes of all sorts and sizes, rich, poor, infants, children, youth, men, old men, daily die; I see there is more required to make a good scholar, than only the having of many books: Lord, be thou my schoolmaster, and teach me to number my days, that I may apply my heart unto wisdom".

Charles Calaby 30th April 1817

© Godric Godricson



Nun lasst uns den Leib begraben

Michael Weiss. 1531

Now lay we calmly in the grave

This form, whereof no doubt we have

That it shall rise again that Day

In glorious triumph o'er decay.

And so to earth again we trust

What came from dust, and turns to dust,

And from the dust shall surely rise

When the last trumpet fills the skies.

His soul is living now in God

Whole grace his pardon hath bestow'd,

Who through His Son redeem'd him here

From bondage unto sin and fear.

His trials and his griefs are past,

A blessed end is his at last,

He bore Christ's yoke, and did His will,

And though he died, he liveth still.

He lives where none can mourn and weep,

And calmly shall this body sleep

Till God shall Death himself destroy,

And raise it into glorious joy.

He suffer'd pain and grief below,

Christ heals him now from all his woe,

For him hath endless joy begun,

He shines in glory like the sun.

Then let us leave him to his rest,

And homeward turn, for he is blest,

And we must well our souls prepare,

When death shall come, to meet him there.

Then help us, Christ, our Hope in loss!

Thou hast redeem'd us by Thy cross

From endless death and misery;

We praise, we bless, we worship Thee!

Sir Horatio Pettus

© Godric Godricson



Subterranean chapels

History of the Christian Church,

Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity.

A.D. 311-600. 

Philip Schaff (1819-1893)

"Finally, after the time of Constantine it became customary to erect small houses of worship or memorial chapels upon the burial-places of the martyrs, and to dedicate them to their memory.  Hence the name μαρτύρια, martyrum memoriae, confessiones. The clergy who officiated in them were called κληρικοὶ μαρτυρίων, martyrarii. The name capellae occurs first in the seventh and eighth centuries, and is commonly derived from the cappa (a clerical vestment covering the head and body) of St. Martin of Tours, which was preserved and carried about as a precious relic and as a national palladium of France. These served more especially for private edification.

The subterranean chapels, or crypts, were connected with the churches built over them, and brought to mind the worship of the catacombs in the times of persecution. These crypts always produce a most earnest, solemn impression, and many of them are of considerable archaeological interest".