Salem 1692

House of John Procter, Witchcraft Martyr,
1692, by William P. Upham (1902)
Project Gutenburg

"It is well known that the victims executed as witches on Gallows Hill in Salem, in 1692, were thrown into mere shallow graves or crevices in the ledge under the gallows, where the nature of the ground did not allow complete burial, so that it was stated at the time that portions of the bodies were hardly covered at all. It was natural that the relatives of those thus cruelly put to death and left practically without burial, should, where they were able and courageous enough for the dangerous undertaking, remove the bodies to their homes for interment. It is the tradition that this was done in several cases, secretly and during the night, that it might not incur the opposition of the frenzied and deluded people. This removal was made by the children of Rebecca Nourse, and a beautiful monument now marks the spot to which her body was removed. There is a similar tradition in the Procter family, and there is good reason to believe that his body was removed in a similar manner. But if so, the necessary secrecy with which the sad duty was performed has caused the place where he was buried to be known only by the slender thread of tradition which I have mentioned."

All flesh is dust



A Treatise on Relics - John Calvin
(1870) - Project Gutenburg
© Godric Godricson  




"The first Christians left the bodies of the saints in their graves, obeying the universal sentence, that all flesh is dust, and to dust it must return, and did not attempt their resurrection before the appointed time by raising them in pomp and state. This example has not been followed by their successors; on the contrary, the bodies of the faithful,  in opposition to the command of God, have been disinterred in order to be glorified, when they ought to have remained in their places of repose awaiting the last judgment."

Buried under the hearth

Ecclesiastical  Curiosities
Edited William Andrews (1899) Project Gutenburg
© Godric Godricson

Bones, both human and of animals, have been found under hearthstones of houses. When we consider that the hearth is the centre, as it were, and most sacred spot of a house, and that the chimney above it is the highest portion built, and the most difficult to complete, it seems easy to understand why the victim was buried under the hearthstone or jamb of the chimney.

Chumleigh Church, North Devon

Ecclesiastical  Curiosities
Edited William Andrews (1899) Project Gutenburg
© Godric Godricson

There is an interesting custom prevailing in Roumania to the present day which is clearly a remnant of the old idea of a sacrificial foundation. When masons are engaged building a house they try to catch the shadow of a stranger passing by and wall it in, and throw in stones and mortar whilst his shadow rests on the walls. If no one passes by to throw a shadow the masons go in search of a woman or child who does not belong to the place, and, unperceived by the person, apply a reed to the shadow and this reed is then immured. In Holland frequently there has been found in foundations curious looking objects something like ninepins, but which in reality are simply rude imitations of babies in their swaddling bands—the image representing the child being the modern substitute for an actual sacrifice. Carved figures of Christ crucified have been found in the foundations of churches. Some few years ago, when the north wall of Chulmleigh Church in North Devon was taken down there was found a carved figure of Christ crucified to a vine.

East Anglian Prejudice



Ecclesiastical  Curiosities
Edited William Andrews (1899) Project Gutenburg
© Godric Godricson



Yet there are prevalent ideas or notions, about the churchyard and its sleepers, as deep-rooted as any wild superstition, and perhaps as difficult to solve, or to trace to any rational source. I would here mention one of the most strange, and probably one of the most prejudiced notions to be met with relating to burial in the churchyard. I refer to the East Anglian prejudice of being buried on the north side of the church. That this prejudice is a strong one, among the country people in certain parts of England, is proved by the scarcity of graves, nay, in many instances the total absence of graves, on the north side of our churches.

Superstition

Ecclesiastical  Curiosities
Edited William Andrews (1899) Project Gutenburg
© Godric Godricson

In country districts, more than in towns, superstition is rife with regard to our Churchyards. The variety and form of this superstition is well nigh ‘Legion,’ and though many of my readers may enjoy an Ingoldsby experience when read in a well-lighted room, surrounded by smiling companions, few of them, after such an experience would care to pay a visit alone to some neighbouring churchyard, renowned for its tale of ghostly appearances. This will, I think enable me to show that by far the larger number of churchyard superstitions are purely chimerous fancies of the brain, and do not owe their origin, or existence, to any other source, be that source a wilful fraud, or imposition, designed to produce fear, or merely the imaginative delusion of some overstrained, or weak brain, which called first it into existence.

St. Gervasius and St. Protasius

A Treatise on Relics - John Calvin
(1870) - Project Gutenburg

"The sepulchres of these two saints were discovered at Milan in the time of St Ambrose, as testified by him. This fact is confirmed also by the evidence of St Jerome, St Augustine, and several others; consequently Milan maintains its possession of the real bodies of these saints. Nevertheless, they are likewise to be seen at Brissach in Germany, and in the Church of St Peter at Besançon, besides an immense number of different parts of their bodies scattered throughout the land, so that each of them must have had at least four bodies. "

Saint Odhran - Buried alive

Ecclesiastical  Curiosities
Edited William Andrews (1899) Project Gutenburg
© Godric Godricson

It is said that St. Odhran expressed his willingness to be the first to be buried in Iona, and, indeed, offered himself to be buried alive for sacrifice. Local tradition long afterwards added the still more ghastly circumstance that once, when the tomb was opened, he was found still alive, and uttered such fearful words that the grave had to be closed immediately.

First burial in a graveyard

Ecclesiastical  Curiosities
Edited William Andrews (1899) Project Gutenburg
© Godric Godricson

Even at the present day there is a prejudice more or less deeply rooted against a first burial in a new churchyard or cemetery. This prejudice is doubtless due to the fact that in early ages the first to be buried was a victim. Later on in the middle ages the idea seems to have been that the first to be buried became the perquisite of the devil, who thus seems in the minds of the people to have taken the place of the pagan deity. Not in England alone, but all over Northern Europe,  there is a strong prejudice against being the first to enter a new building, or to cross a newly-built bridge. At the least it is considered unlucky, and the more superstitious believe it will entail death. All this is the outcome of the once general sacrificial foundation, and the lingering shadow of a ghastly practice.

Grimm, in his “Teutonic Mythology,” tells us that when the new bridge at Halle, finished in 1843, was building, the common people got an idea that a child was wanted to wall up in the foundations. In the outer wall of Reichenfels Castle a child was actually built in alive; a projecting stone marks the spot, and it is believed that if this stone were pulled out the wall would at once fall down.

Holsworthy Parish Church

Ecclesiastical  Curiosities
Edited William Andrews (1899)
Project Gutenburg
© Godric Godricson

In 1885, Holsworthy Parish Church was restored; during the work of restoration it was necessary to take down the south-west angle of the wall, and in this wall was found, embedded in the mortar and stone, a skeleton. The wall of this part of the church had settled, and from the account given by the masons it would seem there was no trace of a tomb, but on the contrary every indication that the victim had actually been buried alive—a mass of mortar covered the mouth, and the stones around the body seemed to have been hastily built. Some few years ago the Bridge Gate of the Bremen city walls was taken down, and the skeleton of a child was found embedded in the foundations.

The practice of our masons of putting the blood of oxen into mortar was no doubt in the first instance associated with the idea of a sacrifice; however this may be, the blood had no doubt a real effect in hardening the mortar, just the same as treacle, which has been known to be used in our days. The use of cement when any extra strength is needed has put aside the use of either blood or treacle in the mixing of mortar.

Fra Dom Vincenzo Labini




Maltese Death, Mourning, and Funeral Customs
A. Cremona
"Folklore"  Vol. 34, No. 4 (Dec. 31, 1923)

"The hiring of poor women and beggars to pray over and watch the corpse for the whole night. This custom prevails mostly in Gozo. In old days official female mourners, named neiffiieha (from neiiiiah, " to cry ") were employed. The prac- tice was abolished in Malta during the plague of A.D. 1676.1 Sicilians employed mourners called Praeficae or Reputatrices, a custom of Greek and Roman origin and practised by the Irish until A.D. 1849. It still prevails among the Corsicans and the Sahara tribes of Algeria.

The old ceremonial of the Maltese female mourners is described by Abela as follows :- They wore trailing veils (kurkdr), and when they entered the premises of the deceased they cut down the bower vines in the yard and threw the flower pots from the balconies and windows into the street. They searched the house for the finest piece of china, dashed it on the floor, and mixed the fragments with ashes from the hearth. They boiled the whole together in a pot, and with the mixture washed the door posts and window shutters of the house. During these proceedings they sang couplets which ended in long-drawn sighs and lamentations. Then they gathered round the corpse and knelt down, extolling the virtues of the deceased, the relations joining in their mourning".

Trinitarianism and unity



John Wright Died 1742
"....in the hopes of the Blessed Resurrection...
Saint Andrew - Little Snoring[Link]
© Godric Godricson


The Trinity is a complex doctrine at the core of the Christian faith; requiring study and reflection to be fully understood. 21^st Century denominations often have distinctive views of ‘The Trinity’ and often those denominational views are mutually exclusive and the object of intense rivalry. We can see a continuing development of the doctrine over time from a fairly limited statement of belief by the 4^th Century Church at Nicea to a much more developed statement of  belief during the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council. How a Trinitarian perspective would impact on the afterlife and faith in the resurrection remains a quiet point. Are we, in effect, being lead into doctrinal error by contemporary Catholicism?

Many people initially hear their first account of ‘The Trinity’ from Church services in the Nicene Creed which exposes people to the doctrine and emphasises the central importance of the doctrine. The Trinity is developed as an idea in the Athanasian Creed.

“I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who together with the Father and the Son is to be adored and glorified, who spoke by the Prophets”.

Wilhelm, Joseph. "The Nicene Creed." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 15 Nov. 2009

The Nicene Creed sets out the very basic and unelaborated tenets of the doctrine without explaining that doctrine in detail and this ‘vagueness’ allows debate, confusion and conflict. The creed also fails to define what it would be like to integrate a Trinitarian perspective into life and also into death.



The traditional power of Catholic theology
Saint Mary - Great Snoring [Link]
© Godric Godricson


 The Roman Catholic Church tried to explain and codify the doctrine as part of the “Catechism of the Catholic Church”. Emphasising that the doctrine is a core  ‘mystery’; the Catechism teaches the doctrine in a ‘pithy’ style that draws upon the historical teaching and cultural traditions of this particular denomination. The Trinity  is a mystery that relies upon God to reveal the mystery to others and cannot, in isolation, be understood by humanity with reference to human reason alone. Equally, the Trinity cannot be understood without reference to the Incarnation. The catechism is a succinct  (although sometimes legalistic) statement of doctrine that tries to free the denomination from perceived doctrinal error. The Catechism also introduces  specific Church terminology such as "consubstantial Trinity"  which are explained; although,  the explanation is sometimes so highly refined that it is inaccessible as a means of  informing Christian life. There is a gap in logic in the that we may expect the Trinity to encourage a greater relatedness on Earth between humans and between the living and dead to mirror an eternal, heavenly,  integration

Building on earlier explorations of the doctrine (and acknowledging that some Protestant denominations totally refute the doctrine); Karl Rahner (SJ) has written extensively in this area such as “The Trinity” (1967). Rahner  developed earlier Creedal statements and catechism towards a  further refined perception and enhanced an understanding of this doctrine by exploring themes such as the “Economic Trinity”  and the “Immanent  Trinity”. Such developments are intellectually complicated and sometimes esoteric although, ultimately, Rahner encourages thinking about the doctrine without reaching an ultimately satisfying conclusion.



"Tradition" filling in the gaps
within Catholic theology
Saint Mary - Great Snoring [Link]
© Godric Godricson


The doctrine of The Trinity is at the heart of the Christian faith and yet the doctrine is one of the hardest to conceptualise and teach for both for clergy and  the laity. The doctrine tries to say something about the nature of God and to reconcile a simple monotheism  with a more complex  ‘Triune deity’.  The doctrine also fails to be a ‘theory of everything’ and sometimes remains an attempt to explain God. The doctrine refutes any assertion that we have three distinct Gods within the Trinity, instead, we have the proposition that within the Trinity we have three distinct personalities; all of which are co-equal and indivisible within a mystical union. Causing much controversy; the doctrine did not become accepted until the 4^th Century at the Councils of Nicea. Some non-creedal Protestant denominations have abandoned the doctrine altogether. A stumbling block for some Protestants; the Trinity is a conundrum whereby any discussion about the ‘one’ inevitably becomes a discussion about the ‘three’ and a discussion about the ‘three’ becomes a discussion about the ‘one’.  In explaining the Trinity It has often been argued (in simplistic terms) that God the father is ‘love’; Jesus as the son is that  Incarnate ‘love’ sent to the world and the Holy Spirit is how that divine ‘love’ is communicated to humanity. There is no attempt to explain how humanity and the history of humanity would be different if we truly understood the Trinity and incorporated Trinitarian beliefs into faith. 

The language surrounding the Trinity is specialist and exclusive; almost  legalistic. In discussing the Trinity, the theological term ‘person’ can be seen as being outside of common English usage. ‘Person’ may be conceptualised in terms of a separate and  unique. Person in this sense is not like a ‘human person’ or an individual. However, we cannot define ‘person’ simply by reference to what the ‘person is not. Instead, we may use our imprecise language to say that we believe each person of The Trinity to be perfect and whole and co-equal to the other persons of The Trinity.

Substance tries to unify confused human thinking and the imprecise vocabulary used in describing ‘God’ so that ‘Substance’  describes the state whereby the three persons within ‘God’ are unified into one and humanity comes to know God as a unified reality rather than a confused mélange.  The three persons of the Trinity are comprised of the same material or ‘substance’ with no differences between them.

Rather than dealing with the human idea of financial economics,  the Economic Trinity is a theological term that describes the aspects of The Trinity that are revealed to humanity and which are part of and involved with the ‘Economy’ of salvation. It has often been believed in the Latin rite Churches that Jesus is particularly involved with Salvation and Redemption through His Incarnation, Passion death and Resurrection.

The Immanent Trinity is that way of perceiving the  Triune Deity, as having an ‘essential existence’ that is outside of the comprehension and understanding of humanity and which is ‘unseen’ by humanity and which is essentially unravelled to humanity.  In accepting the ‘Immanent Trinity’, humanity has another way of conceptualising ‘God’ who was revealed to humanity through the Economic Trinity. 

Perichoresis; is a term from the Greek language used in English to try and describe a particular situation where the three ‘persons’ of The Trinity are unified together and are sometimes seen to be ‘in community’ or be an intimately close and shared/ inter-related state of existence. Whilst the English language may be blunt and imprecise when dealing with theological concepts first addressed in Greek; perichoresis as a concept attempts to render into a coherent form the idea of a Deity that is  “three personned” and indivisible rather than being three separate ‘persons’ who act in isolation from each other.

The practical implications of the doctrine of the Trinity for Christian life in the 21st century is immense. The Trinity is clearly expressed in the work of Roman Catholic theologians and the Roman Catholic Church and has reference to the West and I wonder what Orthodox Christians would make of The Trinity and especially with the unity of the living and the dead.  I suggest that  the doctrine of The Trinity was ‘simplified’ in the 4th century CE to make the teaching of essential Christian doctrine easier for Christians to understand and this’ simplification’ was redressed from the 1960’s onwards.  I will suggest that that a developed understanding of the ‘Holy and undivided Trinity’  places a greater emphasis on Christians to understand ‘diversity’, the liturgy and particularly the Eucharist as part of Christian life and community. I would also suggest that The Trinity also encourages humanity to consider the unity of all forms of life and the link between the living and the dead.

I suggest that we need to recognise an inconsistency in Latin Rite Christianity before exploring the practical implications of The Trinity for Christian life.  This inconsistency can most clearly be perceived in the documents of the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council (1962-1965) which give the impression that the Trinity is at the heart of Christian life and doctrine. However, the documents are formed within a religious and cultural tradition which is largely “monotheistic”  in outlook and which finds it difficult to incorporate the Trinity. As a result it is often difficult to define what Catholic Christians actually understand about ‘God’ and what Christian communities would be like if a community of believers  embraced more overtly Trinitarian perceptions of God and implemented such perceptions into society.  History and liturgy points towards a monotheistic faith rather than a Trinitarian faith

One problem seems to be that Christian communities have; from the witness and ministry of Augustine of Hippo in the 4^th Century, been taught to view God as a rather monotheistic Deity or as ‘a unity’ and that minimises the ‘triune’ qualities of God.  In effect, the complexities of a ‘triune’ deity have been ‘ironed out’ and ‘simplified’.  A renewed emphasis on the Trinity  would set the church free from any Augustinian perception that stressed the ‘unity of God’ and effectively strip away the Trinitarian qualities from an essentially ‘triune’ deity.  It is unclear what a Church would look like if ‘set free’ from confines that have been in place for so long. In effect, we recognise that The Trinity is confusing, complicated and challenging to understand although it does open up to the Human experience to the concept of ‘diversity’, ‘mystery’ and co-operative endeavour as opposed to individualism.

‘Lumen gentium’, promulgated by Pope Paul (1964) as part of Vatican II, clearly moves on a little from Augustine’s simplified statements and acknowledges  that the doctrine of the Trinity is at the heart of the Christian community.  ‘Lumen gentium’ is a document set within the historic epoch of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960’s and acknowledges that the Church has been made one with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  In effect, the modern ministry of the Church is officially and formally identified with the ‘ministry’ of the Economic Trinity without which Christian life and community is devalued. As part of the process of change within the Church; the ideas of the French ‘Nouvelle Théologie’ often focused and amplified the 16 documents of Vatican II  and concerned itself with renewing Christian life and Catholic expressions of worship.

An intellectual, academic and hierarchical  ‘re-discovery’ of the Trinity  became possible in the 1960’s. Catholic ‘intellectuals’ in the widest sense  began  the process of re-discovering The Trinity and also re-conceptualising humanity's relationship with a Triune God. Rather than simply seeing God the Father as a remote and distant figure; Latin Rite Christians are now more easily able to perceive God ‘in community’ or in ‘perichoresis’ with the other personalities of the Economic Trinity. A strengthened emphasis on the Trinity paradoxically informs humanity’s own relationships with each other, the living and dead. The worldwide Church is potentially offered the option of moving away from hierarchical and domineering structures based on ‘power’ and move towards patterns of behaviour that are inherently more collegiate. If we see the Latin Rite tradition as re-discovering the Trinity from the 1960’s;  we may also suggest that the Church  has the possibility of contemplating the more perfect interaction of the Church (as the mystical body of Christ on Earth)  with the Triune Deity.  It is probably in the hands of the laity how long they will allow the ‘formal Church’ to take in this reflection on purpose and direction before deciding to press the matter by either their action or increased indifference.

Whilst the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church and a well educated Catholic elite has been able to re-discover a Trinitarian God hidden behind monotheistic ‘overlays’; it is not always clear that official teaching has effectively been communicated ‘downward’  to Catholic Christian communities. It is not apparent that parishes understand what a more Trinitarian God would mean for a Christian life in the 21^st Century or their own relationship with God or participation in The Eucharist.  There always remains a question about the resources that are given over to the training and education of the laity in parishes. In an age when people perceive a shortage of priests it seems convenient to train the laity.

For contemporary parishes and communities; It is in the Eucharist that they collectively come into the Presence of God in the most meaningful way. This is a very real although undeclared problem for Catholic Christians. That problem seems to relate to the question, “Is  it just Jesus that I receive at the Eucharist?”. For many Catholic Christians; the answer to this is “Yes!”. The common sense  perception being that the words of institution were delivered by Jesus and that Jesus alone is present in the Eucharist.  However, this cannot be correct.   Rather than the common sense perception of Jesus alone being present at the Eucharist; a restatement of the Trinitarian dimension is required whereby the Eucharist sees us  unified with all the consubstantial persons of the Trinity joined in ‘circumincession’.  The Trinity also re-states an idea of reintegration that is hard to accept from a monotheistic standpoint.

Despite reforms in the 1960’s. the present celebration of the liturgy may be characterised as being monotheistic in nature; even if the actual words reflect the Trinitarian formula. We perceive the current Eucharist as  a “fragmentation” of God into constituent  parts and this is unhelpful.  Christians should arguably  “Live the life of The Trinity” within the Eucharist and this is perhaps the direction of travel as a logical consequence of Vatican II; post conciliar theologians and even the development of alternative and diverse theologies such as “Liberation theology” and even “Queer Theology”. Humanity may begin to see ‘Diversity’ and ‘Freedom’ as a major outcome of a re-exploration of ‘Trinitarianism’. Rather than the rather false and self conscious ‘sign of peace’ given in English parishes at the Eucharist are we being directed towards a real and more perfect unity as Christians that reflects the unity of the Trinity?

The modern Church forgetting
old knowledge

© Godric Godricson

One  area of Christian life to be addressed as a result of  Vatican II is the collegiality of the Church and in I do not simply mean the Collegiality of the Episcopacy. Instead, the Church itself seems to require a degree of change that leads to a ‘real’ diversity being developed. Just as Jesus is not present in The Eucharist in isolation; then no one group in society can be seen as being dominant or the sole representative of humanity within the Church. Can humanity  collectively aim to form  individual societies on Trinitarian principles of perichoresis? In effect such unity would require the diminution of  social distinction and a situation whereby social class is less important than it was and whereby other divisions of status and rank are erased in our collective service to a Triune God. This will be extremely painful for organised religion which often works within the frameworks of society. I hesitate to use the term ‘the Priesthood of all believers’, although the idea of a unified Trinity does perhaps communicate something to us of the unity that God sees as being both natural and part of that Immanent Trinity that remains mysterious. I also believe that a Trinitarian view of faith allows humanity to integrate the living and the dead.

In considering the practical implications of the doctrine of the Trinity for Christian life, it is evident that humanity is heir to a diverse Christian heritage  which requires hermeneutics to fully determine. Society is very far from the unique perfection inherent in the Trinity. However,  from the 1960’s and the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council we may question whether or not we are experiencing a process whereby the Holy Spirit is directing Christian life as a whole and Catholic theological study in particular towards a more reflective position. It is the case that if the Latin Rite Churches are to survive that they must change radically and it may be that ‘et Unum Sint’ (that they may all be one) is the direction in which the Trinity offers to humanity as a model for Christian life?

Living animals as sacrifice



Ecclesiastical  Curiosities
Edited William Andrews (1899) Project Gutenburg
© Godric Godricson



In our own time the burial of a bottle with coins under a foundation stone is the faded memory of the immuring of a human victim. So hard does custom and superstition die that even in the prosaic nineteenth century days we cannot claim to be altogether free from the bonds and fetters with which our ancestors were bound.

Grimm, in his German Mythology, tells us: “It was often considered necessary to build living animals, even human beings, into the foundations on which any edifice was reared, as an oblation to the earth to induce her to bear the superincumbent weight it was proposed to lay upon her. By this horrible practice it was supposed that the stability of the structure was assured as well as other advantages gained.” Of course the animal is merely the more modern substitute for the human being, just in the same manner as at the present day the bottle and coins are the substitute for the living animal. In Germany, after the burial of a living being under a foundation was given up, it became customary to place an empty coffin under the foundations of a house, and this custom lingered on in remote country districts until comparatively recent times.

Ancient legend and sacrifice

Ecclesiastical  Curiosities
Edited William Andrews (1899) Project Gutenburg
© Godric Godricson

It is said that when Romulus was about to found the city of Rome he dug a deep pit and cast into it the “first fruits of everything that is reckoned good by use, or necessary by nature,” and before the pit was closed up by a great stone, Faustulus and Quinctilius were killed and laid under it. The legend of Romulus slaying his twin brother Remus because he jumped the walls of the city to show how poor they were,  probably arises out of a confusion of the two legends and has become associated with the idea of a sacrificial foundation. To the present day there is a general Italian belief that whenever any great misfortune is going to overtake the city of Rome the giant shadow of Remus may be seen walking over the highest buildings in the city, even to the dome of St. Peter’s.

Relics and the veneration of the dead

© Godric Godricson

Folklore about Church foundations

Ecclesiastical  Curiosities
Edited William Andrews (1899) Project Gutenburg
Kalkara - © Godric Godricson

Afzelius, in his collection of Swedish folk tales, says: “Heathen superstition did not fail to show itself in the construction of Christian churches. In laying the foundations the people retained something of their former religion, and sacrificed to their old deities, whom they could not forget, some animal, which they buried alive, either under the foundation, or within the wall. A tradition has also been preserved that under the altar of the first Christian churches a lamb was usually buried, which imparted security and duration to the edifice. This was an emblem of the true church lamb—the Saviour, who is the corner stone of His church.

When anyone enters a church at a time when there is no service, he may chance to see a little lamb spring across the choir and vanish. This is the church-lamb. When it appears to a person in the churchyard, particularly to the grave-digger, it is said to forbode the death of a child that shall be next laid in the earth.”

Full of life

God in the sacraments in Malta
© Godric Godricson

The ‘God of hope’ seen in Jesus is one and the same as that same God seen in the Book of Exodus. We can see that instead of a new idea born out of nothingness He is "the absolute future" (Karl Rahner) or, figuratively, the Lord of the future, who says, "Behold, I make all things new." 

It may be deduced that the Revelation of God to mankind contained within the Hebrew Bible must be understood to be able to understand subsequent developments in terms of hope and the development of hope for mankind.

In the debate,  we can see that the idea of ‘hope’ was always contained within God’s relationship with mankind as portrayed both within the Hebrew Bible and in God’s message to the people of Israel. The idea of ‘hope’ for the future remained  ultimately undeveloped in the area of Sheol and the afterlife although it became amplified through time and was ultimately revealed. 

In the Resurrection of Jesus we have a fulfilment of the earlier messages contained within the Hebrew Bible and so strongly is that message of Resurrection hope portrayed; that Saint Athanasius, writing in the 9th Century AD,  can evoke the story of Lazarus in such terms.

God in the sacraments in Malta
© Godric Godricson

 “…but into the midst came Jesus, the Storehouse which is full of life, the Mouth which is full of sweet odour, the Tongue which frightens death, the Mighty One in His commands, the Joy of those who are sorrowful, the Rising of those who have fallen, the Resurrection of the dead, the Assembly of the strong, the Hope of the hopeless.”

Humanity has been given hope in Jesus and the suicidal God becomes the store for all that is good. It is hardly surprising that death is vanquished and burial becomes associated with religion. Churches become the focus for burials and the horrors of overcrowded burial sites become understandable

The skull of St. Clement of Ancyra

A Treatise on Relics - John Calvin
(1870) - Project Gutenburg

"He suffered under Dioclesian, and is ranked by the Greeks among the great martyrs. His modern Greek acts say, his lingering martyrdom was continued by divers torments during twenty-eight years; but are demonstrated by Baronius and others to be of no authority. Two churches at Constantinople were dedicated to God under the invocation of St. Clement of Ancyra; one called of the Palace, the other now in Pera, a suburb of that city. Several parts of his relics were kept with great devotion at Constantinople. His skull, which was brought thence to Paris when Constantinople was taken by the Latins, in the thirteenth century, was given by queen Anne of Austria to the abbey of Val de Grace."

Sacrifical Foundations

Ecclesiastical  Curiosities
Edited William Andrews (1899) Project Gutenburg
© Godric Godricson

In early ages a sacrifice of some sort or other was offered on the foundation of nearly every building. In heathen times a sacrifice was offered to the god under whose protection the building was placed; in Christian times, while many old pagan customs lingered on, the sacrifice was continued, but was given another meaning. The foundation of a castle, a church, or a house was frequently laid in blood; indeed it was said, and commonly believed, that no edifice would stand firmly for long unless the foundation was laid in blood. It was a practice frequently to place some animal under the corner stone—a dog, a wolf, a goat, sometimes even the body of a malefactor who had been executed.

Darrington Church and foundations



Ecclesiastical  Curiosities
Edited William Andrews (1899) Project Gutenburg
© Godric Godricson



A foundation sacrifice is suggested by the following curious discovery, reported in the Yorkshire Herald of May 31st, 1895: “It was recently ascertained that the tower of Darrington Church, about four miles from Pontefract, had suffered some damage during the winter gales. The foundations were carefully examined, when it was found that under the west side of the tower, only about a foot from the surface, the body of a man had been placed in a sort of bed in the solid rock, and the west wall was actually resting upon his skull. The gentle vibration of the tower had opened the skull and caused in it a crack of about two-and-a-half inches long. The grave must have been prepared and the wall placed with deliberate intention upon the head of the person buried, and this was done with such care that all remained as placed for at least 600 years.”

The majority of the clergy in the early part of the Middle Ages doubtless would be very strongly imbued with all the superstitions of the people. The mediæval priest, half believing in many of the old pagan customs, would allow them to continue, and it is both curious and interesting to notice how heathenism has for so long a period lingered on, mixed up with Christian ideas.