western attitudes toward death: from the middle ages to

Grand portal ("The Last Judgment") of the Cathedral of St. Etienne,

Bourges. Photo Lauros-Giraudon.

f'('· ss� � 2

l I

Th':1 0 eCLt\A '\ �' --s,-� <\

Wee..v,, S

Western Attitudes toward DEATH: From the Middle Ages to the Present

by PHILIPPE ARIES

translated by PATRICIA M. RANUM

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS

Baltimore and London

Thy Death 1:us fo we have illust<ated two attitudes ,,

toward death. The \firoS_t,...1h.�J.4g.t, the longest held, and the most common one, is the familiar resignation to the collective destiny of the specie� and can be summarized by the phrase, Et morie

mur, and we shall all die. The second, which ap-..

.

�

peared in the twelfth century, reveals the impor-tance given throughout the entire modern period to the self, to one's own existence, and can be expressed by another phrase, la mart de soi, .9ne'� own death.

Beginning ';Xith the .. ��htc;t;!J1J;h_&e.n.t\lt.i,,,_!!)..fil! in western societies tended to give death a new mean-

55

WESTERN ATTITUDES TOWARD DEATH

ing. �xalted it, dramatized it, and thought of it ��_di�q.uis:!i!.!g...,uid,.gr,eJ;d}r,,., But he already was less concerned with his own death than with la mart de

toi, the eat 1. of, the o�er per�OIJ;.:g whose loss andmemory inspired in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the new cult of tombs and cemeteries and the romantic, rhetorical treatment of death.

* * *

t� A major p�mg.non_o.c.curr.�d between the six-

teenth and eighteenth\�� phenomenon which we musttoucliu.pon here, even if we do not analyze it in detail. This phenomenon did not occur in the world of real, acted-out events which the historian can easily collect and measure. � curred in the obscure and extravagant world gf phanta_E!ls, and the historian studying it ought to g_ansform himself into a psychoanalyst.:,.,

\!._\:,t,_the e�d of th� fifte.futh .kmtuq:., .we se,e the_t��;?�JJ:li,gg_.9:�Jh_b.�.gi!URJ_ake on an erotic :µiean�ripj In the oldest dances of death, Death scarcely touched the living to warn him and designate him. In the new iconography of the sixteenth century, �d..,th�.J,i;irui.-g.,..1 From the six-

1For example, the paintings by Hans Baldung Grien (d. 1545), "Rider with Death and a Maiden," in the Louvre, and "Death and the Woman," in the museum of Basel.

THY DEATH

teenth to the eighteenth centuries, countless scenes or �and.in.literature assogat�de.ath with love, Thanatos with Ero�Jhese are erotico_giacabre themes, or simply morbid ones, which reveal extreme complaisance before the spectacles of death, suffering, and torture. Athletic, nude executioners strip the skin from St. Bartholomew. When Bernini portrayed the mystic union of St. Theresa of Avila with God, he juxtaposed the images of the death agony and the orgasmic trance. The baroque theater staged its love scenes in tombs, such as that of the Capulets. 2 The macabre literature of the eighteenth century united the young monk to the dead beauty over whom he was keeping watch. 3

Like t�exual act, de�_w-�cefor,th...m:,

�asingly thought of3,s a tra��g�on,,,vVh_ic� ��s man from his daily life, from rational. societ;x, from

�•-»�•···· ., .. . .. ... ��-.. �-.. -- ,., - • - -�-·-"'""""',;.l,r,-"''�" .... . - . -- ,..,.. %,.,,!"J.t\S,':.�UJ;,.�1':,

his monotonous work, in order to make him under-_.,.__k'I("' ..... ....,,, ........ -=--" ........ ,. ,-,.. .... .,�'f"''.U•-.,.w,.,. -'-�--.,....,..._.,..,,, •'ft't��""'°"'""•--:-�!.,...., ·-"'�=-• ,,:,.

j,.?,..!.,..,F ... � � sm, . ,W l!Ufil_Ug,.,..h@_.,,.in.tQ,.EAJ!J.�Lo 11�1,

YLsI.t�t·��£�_,J?,��slfaL�..2rJd�,\Like the sexual act death for the Marquis de' Sade is a break, a rup-ture. T�J.dea of ,r2w.,ur�� somethin1t.cQm letely

2J. Rousset, La litterature de l'age baroque en France (Paris, 1954). 3 An oft-quoted anecdote told by Doctor Louis, "Lettre sur !'incertitude des signes de la mort," 1752, found in Foedere's article, "Signes de la mort," Dictionnaire des Sciences medicales (Paris, 1818), Vol. LI.

57


� Until this point the stress had been on the familiarity with death and with the dead. This familiarity had not been affected, even for the rich and the mighty, by the upsurge of individualism beginning in the twelfth century. �l:!_h;;t<L.beco 1!1$..�<!..ID-QJ.:t._i,,m,�QXt�E.!-Y�11,t;.,,JUQX.�.J,h,£,1;1gQ.t,JiJ1.d

�to .. he iv� to it. ut it had become neither frightening nor obsessive. It had remained familiar and

tamed. -�

�ut from now on it would j?e tho.u.g�

q,; y 4 ...... re�a ---- -----

This notion of a break was born and developed

in the world of erotic phantasms. It then passed

into the world of real and acted-out events. Of course, at that point it lost its erotic char

acteristics, or at least they were sublimated and

reduced to Beauty. :g�,b_,.w,a. lil>G•�lefl'ge-r-desirable; as in the macabre novels but it was admirable in.its .-�"'��.,......._..� �.......,.""-J.�· -- -:-· _ .. -r:·:- - - ... ·~·,�t=-• +••� --

-..fa5r,a,utx ;. This is what �oµld_9..�.��th.�.r.sem�n�c death,-'Tound in L,i,m_artine in France, the B;onte

... ��---.tJcill�........,,,..,..........__--..,..,---..-,.., ... ~�"'-· ,......,

family,.iP .. �g!�m.d,, .. and,Mark_'J:.w;e,fal)JJ,,4.m�f¼SA· We have many literary examples of this.

Lamartine's "Meditations poetiques" are meditations on death. We also have a great number of memoirs and letters. During the 1840s a French family, the de La Ferronays, was decimated by

4G. Bataille, L'erotisme (Paris, 1957),

58

THY DEATH

tuberculosis. One survivor, Pauline Craven, published the intimate diaries and correspondence of her brothers, sisters, and parents, most of which were narratives of illnesses, death agonies, deaths, and thoughts about death. 5

Of course, in many ways these memoirs recall the old customs. The ceremony of death in bed, presided over by the dying person surrounded by a crowd of relatives and friends, persists and still provides the framework for the setting. »� at

Sl.!1�-��-�;;�t. ��rhiug,,.h��.£panged. In the past death in bed was a solemn event, but

also an event as banal as seasonal holidays. People

expected it, and when it occurred they followed the rituals laid down by custom. �e-t��!h _c;:_�!.).j:.QO[,c0_cJ._tlE�»'-P..aS.§.iQIJ�S.!.YT�A .. thg,§��PI�� t. 9 �_.}. ,c:,.-..S

:�otion _sh�o� the_��-:��Z��I.PD'!:Y.��',,.g��,.�i£u-�_\;l,-b._,...J ·t-1 ��fa t.{?.:.J,..,,.,�,Y . ..sfL Jt9tt.�,fo§½,,tQ, g9,.,thi:p,µgb,.,th�, .. a,&ttvit;�1u:lict�t.�.dJ1:y;, c;11..�tQ llli,O. tUJ:i.� s9ptrary. But while performing them they stripped them of their banal ------ ---""'�"'-·',..,...._ ..... e;..�_;,, .. .,,.,,,t,,,.,:�,-"',,...�

and customary character. Henceforth these activi-....---�.,,.��.,,..;,....,.�.� ..... � .. ,*t,1

. ),

ties -�;;-�_2e�-�!l!?�i��)f th �r,Jt�d .!?��!1.!l!Y.�nt�g,J2 r f cc!.:.., o t·

_t_��J,g-,su_tm e, -� p_g _g!a,,cll.Y9.H,§,+1:,,)n� pjf f �"QJ;,,<l;,,EtS,f,Jgn�!:,cr!�!E£��-• ':Yhts!L)�. HPLq1:1,,,f -�A\2E,K.��fiiL?f· Cer-tainly the ex ression of · sorrow by survivors is

- ----��-��-f>o·en-s,·:; ·•��

�;YJEg_,_t.2�,.,i!,"'Jl�Ml.--fil tolexanJ;�_,,_QL,.��J?,at\\{iQg. But

5P. Craven, Recit d'une soeur (2 vols.; Paris, 1867).

59


people were troubled not only at the bedsides of the dying or by the memory of the deceased. The v�ry idea of de;u�.,.tfilJJ1.

One of the La Ferronays' granddaughters, a

"teenager " of the Romantic era, wrote thoughts of this sort: "Dying is a reward, since it is Heaven .... The favorite idea of my entire life [ as a child] is death, which has always made me smile .... Nothing has ever been able to make the word death lugubrious for me."

An engaged couple in this same family, not yet twenty, were walking in the marvelous gardens of the Villa Pamphili in Rome. "We talked," noted the boy in his secret diary, "for an hour on religion, immortality, and· death, which would be sweet, we said, i� these beautiful gardens." He added, "I will die young, I have always wanted to." He would be proven riglit. A few months after his marriage the plague of the S�.\'ltury, tuberculosis, carried him off. His wife, a Protestant German, described his last breath: "His eyes, already staring, had turned toward m/��:·;�d -1,.hi; wift,·T felt �h;t I wo�l�i'��ver 'have {maginef If e.ltthat death

UJ,CL_S, bcippi-ne�r;, �One. hesitate�' to read �l��d �{ich a

text ·in A�;;ica today. How morbid the La

Feronnays family must seem! 0� werLlhlri_gs much different in the Am-.

�f the 1830s? A contemporary of the little La

60

THY DEATH

Ferronays girl, the fourteen year old Emmeline Grangerford whom Mark Twain described in Huckleberry Finn, also lived with the same obsession. Shs, .. PJling_d__:.:m,.<;>..v,.r.niQg_ ictu,E.:_s," ladies weeping over tombs or reading a letter bearing the sad news. She also kept a secret diary, in which she copied down the deaths and fatal accidents about which she read in the Presbyterian Observer, and to this she added the poems which all these misfortunes inspired in her. She was inexhaustible: "She warn't particular; she could write about anything you choose to give her to write about just so it was sadful," observed Mark Twain, laughing behind his moustache. 6

One is tempted to explain this overflowing of macabre affectivity by religion, the emotional religion of romantic Catholicism and of pietism, of Methodist Protestantism. �gion is certainly a_ §g_or, but the morbid fascination for death is a sublimation, a religions one it is true, of the eroticomacabre phantasms of the preceding period ...

Thus��-�?!��?�: t�¼'"ar� the idea of d.ea&bjs" * t_!;e.,fo:,&.g£� .. a,;L£ha� which.!_ ears at the��nd of

/- \ ,_C.1-.��?�igbJ.;$.1: .. �� !1t;!;T..!!1-� '-V�i�� h�s become one .>,--cE::�. of the,.£hera&t�ri��R3niai:it10sm:--··,..,�,"_.,..""- �-::"� � ,,.\ 'f..··--= ---'·-·· � -·. �..__,., (C \. '\:: o_;:..

c\ ()"_)t 6S. L. Clemens, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (New York: Reinhart Editions, 1948), chap. XVII, p. 103.

61

"Memorial to Washington" (nineteenth-century embroidery and watercolor on silk), from the Eleanor and Mabel Van Alstyne Folk Art Collection, Smithsonian Institution. Photo from the Smithsonian Institution.

THY DEATH

The.., seconcl,..great _ S_ha1:�S9ncep1;?, �._h.,e re�n��}R betwe n-ili.e dyjug,_p�� .

Until the eighteenth century death was a concern for the person threatened by it, and for him alone. Thus it was up to each person to express his ideas, his feelings, his wishes. For that he had avail� able a tool: his last will and testament, which was more than simply a legal document for the disposal of property. From the thirteenth to the e�hteenth century the will was the means by which each person could express;--often in a very personal manner-his deep thoughts; his religious faith; his attachment to his possessions, to the beings he loved, and to God;__and, th,.1r,_d�,c,;i_sioIJ.U1�d rn-0J!� to -��-�1.n:�.the. s_�l;v.;a.ti9_JJ,,,.Q£ .. Jus,so u,La-n,d.,,.tli& rrpos�. 0Jh,ts_,b"94y.

But the purpose of the pious clauses, which sometimes constituted the �atest,n.w:_g( t�e �ill,

-��o}v: �1:�l th�J:,.�sµt,2r_,.Jh�.ltJJ:¥.1C��l

��.$S�.?:.�-.-�f .• Jh.L.<:h4£.Sn.., Ck!�,-.Ja.br:ique),,.,.amL-the

�<;.tt.�.,��.S=E-�E�h,..2.r,.-!1��-�<?.�½,�.,,2,L.tli,t .T:S?.rr�st�t¼1-,l,-.U£.J.£>,..,,<;>,,gljg�.Jll�,ll,lQ,£,cl�fy.,,9.11.,tJ,h�.,XY,!�h-�s., ofthe_.de��!l��d.

Indeed, the will, in this form, eveale ,�..d.iswJ,st.2.L2r __ cl !.Jfii§!A!,l.,.,!n,f1j£ftre� tQ..,t.h.�Ji1;;i,r,Ji,*F..h�ulo eel tive t.h,�.Joemil'¼.1,.,i.!-JW.zJbt,,.,£hld.&<;b.:,,,:8Y an act

deposited with the notary, most often signed by· witnesses, the individual making the will imposed

63


his will upon those around him, which means that

he was afraid of not otherwise being listened to or obeyed. It was to the same end that he had a stone or metal plaque placed in the church, bearing an excerpt from his will concerning the religious services and the legacy which endowed them. These permanent inscriptions on the walls and pillars of the church were a protection against being forgotten or neglected by both the parish and the family. They had more significance than the grave marker with its "Here lies .... "

But in the�-=��-?-�?_hal(9f tJ;ie_�ight�,�mb.Ss!Dtl!t:Y,z }!.,,,,:o �si�era_b 1L,f h�U2$� ... J),.<;_c;_µ!:r.�ci )p �-�ills '--��.J;a,µassume that this change was common throughout

all of the Christian West, both Protestant and Catholic. The ious clauses, the choice of a tomb, the funding of mas�;;-��ctrelig1ous·�servic·es�--ahd ··'""'!""':',.'l'�p-.��,;--�;1·�.;o:. ,._ ��----��......,;- .A'l"'l:�w·""',,c·w, .w·:. ·•1, .J the g1vmg of a ms a disappeared; the will was re-d� t�.-thedocumeuT;�gday, �l_acs dist,ributing fort�nes. This is a very important event in the history of mentalities, and one to which a French historian, Michel Vovelle, has given the attention it merits. 7

Thus th� will was completely secularized in the eighteenth century. How can we explain this 7M. Vovelle, Piete baroque et dechristianisation (Paris, 1973). Seealso, by the same author, "Vision de la mort et au dela en Provence," Cahiers des Annales, No. 29 (1970).

64

THY DEATH

phenomenon? It has been thought ( and this is Vovelle's thesis) that this secularization was one of the signs of the de-Christianization of society.

I would like to propose another explanation: a distinction was made by the person drawing up the will between his wishes concerning the distribution of his fortune and those wishes inspired by his feelings, his piety, and his affection. The. for.me. were still included in the last will and testament . �:J�iii:��r"��i;;:,;�;;r,�)C2;��;��;;r1;· s0

those close to h�rp._, J2_,th� family,. s.po.u.s.�_,...,.QI-ShiiJ, ... �- � - . .

.-"c!rEL We must not forget the great changes which occurred in the family and which in the eighteenth ) century ended in new relationships based on / feelings and affection. From that time on the sick /!

'

person on his deathbed would express a confidence in those close to him which had generally been refused them previously. It was no longer necessary

��.-.--H',r,_.,..�,._•�

t��L�iS�_:fE.,£,x.J-. le_g?-1 act.We are thus at a very important moment in the

history of attitudes toward death. In trl!stj,ngJ�j§ _neJet5?�e_ <lying, er��.2:�kg�gd_ 1:.£.�th£.w .... �par,t_9fJhf powers,whichv11t!l tlwn .... he. had. jealC?_uslr,. ��r:c�z_e<i, Certainly he still retained the initiative in the ceremonies surrounding his death. He remained, in romantic narratives, the principal and most apparent personage in the activity over which he was presiding, and he would continue to be so .

65


until the first three decades of the twentieth century. Even more, as we have just said, __ i;p,m_;p;:1,tjc c?mplai�a��e .•. �icie..�!_�$:�P��i� .. to _the. .. ,w.Qi:,ds.,�and "gestures of g1e. gy�r,tgJ?.��2-�:., J?H�.,t,ke _ attitu:lJJLQ ff!!_"i,�� ·_pry;_s.r;rzt. _is tbe most chg.7:ge.�. Though the dying person kept the leading role, the bystanders were n� �ger ,,;b.e _fassiv_e_, _Erazerful walk-()ns .. �f th� .. P��-'-· -��<li..-�Ll.�<ill,. .. fmw_,ili�_tb.��t;FJ;,�h. .. !� the eigh�eenth century, they no longer expressed the great,grie( qf, t_h,!'! *'"<gy,,�9£ ... C:JJ.<!.rie��gJ!��lP.g Ar.�9.�, Indeed, since approximately the twelfth century, the excessive . m._ournins _ of :12:... .... ��[h �iddle -�ge,Lh�.i.-�£.g!Ue�x.itJJ.a.lj:z;e-2. It Qnly beg?cI:. after death had occurred and it was manifested in � ::c::zsz;&J mr

the garments and manners and had a specific dura-tion, precisely fixed by custom.

Thus from the end of the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century ij:Ourning _had a, double eurg,os� .... �P:. on.;. .. �_<:,1;�

< it constrained the family of

the deceased to demonstrate, at least for a certain period, a sorrow it did not always feel. A hurried remarriage might reduce mourning to a bare minimum, but its observance was never completely eliminated.\gn the, g,ther hand,,roqurninggrved to protect the sincerely grieving survivor from the excesses of his grief. It_!m ��-1!£0_1}�Ei-!E .. �-�her a

certain type of social life-visits froin tdg,tives, neigli£itf'.=��§..�:.fr£ffi4j:;-JJiis,h,��iiiiZ'i;:iro.,.agd,jn

66

THY DEATH

tP<:?. . .£0,fil� ��c]: ,!.��-�<?£�-R"'�.,,mJgh,tJie;_di�§ipated without Q\'[,f;)'�J,.:,.,&llpwi� ... J..s�

""��e��Q.J)-. to ex

C::l::.t�.-kx,�.Lii�e,cil?y°"'-§£,C::i�Lssinx.rnil�.ns. Now' and this is a very important point, ��.....ll��I?;;,£1 century this level was no lo�ge.r respected; �l.Ilg....3�1JJJ.fu.cle.d_with�-a.tL_1l!n£!.l..§J.2.W-..&,..Y, d�gi:..£.£...£i'�W.- It even claimed to have no obligations to social conventions and to be the most spontaneous and insurmountable expression of a very grave wound: people cried, fainted, languished, and fasted, as the companions of Roland or Launcelot had once donellt was a sort of return

::: . . . . . . . . - - �

✓·to _th;,,.;.��_(?�illWJ?��!!l2�1Il£.,,n�tr�J�sor a,e£�e-�Jy__s,_&91l.t#];�UJ,..4¼.tn2!lgtr_at�on_�-of tJ�e

�Jgh.Mi1.�� -t};g,�s,_ ��en c� ob,ob,m.ty. The ninet�enth __ c'en.tury.=is-th,e.,era of mourning-- .

which the psychologist of today calls hysteric,al -..,-......-�,-""".--,-�-=.:.��;..:.��L .- -

§��And it is true that at times they almost reached the point of madness, as in the story by Mark Twain, "The Californian's Tale," dated 1893, in which a man who after nineteen years had never accepted his wife's death celebrated the anniversary date of her death by awaiting her impossible return in the company of sympathetic friends who helped him maintain his illusion.

Thi exaggeration of mourning in the nineteenth .

- .��-��

century is indeed significant. _It means that sur-•"'•c - Ms=· ·•·" · 1fi»t ••��

vivors accepted the death of another person with

67

V


�,,SaJJ;:X ,di(fa�ult _th_g!l i1,1Jh�u1.�,.,Henceforth, and this is a very important change, the.death w.hichjs. .fui.�d .is no_l_ql}gf!..§9}!)}=1-_c:Ji the ,dea,th �Qf the self e;.s l�,,.<;_q�th .. 2L�� ,S�;�_i.�J.�Z 4.;}1!_,h.

* * *

This.,£�,tli,ng,��t...th1.d,U;ig�,c;QLth,e m9_der-:n,.et:1lt

,2JJ.9.�..,..,an,d J�et,�ie_ � It is a question of a phenomenon of a religious nature, unique to the contemporary era. Its importance might pass unnoticed by Americans of today, as by the inhabitants of industrial-and Protestant-northwestern Europe, because they would consider it foreign to

their culture . An Englishman or an American would not fail to show his repugnance for the baroque excess of the funerary architecture in France or Italy. Yet the phenomenon, though less prevalent, does exist in their cultures. We shall return to this point because it is interesting to see what they have accepted or rejected in a religion of the dead which has been given free rein in Catholic, orthodox Europe.

.Eir.s..t t .._1:l§_,,S.a..F.�t.ha,.LJJe.=.JJ-1!1-�tetn.th-c ,and l.YtntieJ_h_-;.e,tJU_ur.r-c.ult,_9[ J.91!!Q.S_,.Q,�� p.<_:>thipg Jo c:lpw.:ith...thLQ��Lc::_'.:.h,_.e,�_-:_Christian cults of the_ de?-�4, nor with an ersistence of these observances in �- ��,,,,.��----..,.... folklore. Let us recall what we have already said -

68

THY DEATH

about the Middle Ages, about the burial ad sanctos

in churches or against the walls of churches. a;:b.,,�e

w��,-�.$�!!1-.P.';.L��-�ti.�.t�_at�.E.s.§_tlh,ntiquity concerning the dead and those of the Middle ,.., .. ,·,;..,.. .. �_."""•"''-"'"';;.•i..-,• .. ,,,, .:-1/J.tl, •. •r.. :.,, . '"\•�••""""'·"''r."'-,s:- '="· ·.:.�.w-,v,·, ,,::-• = ·· :,-, · ·" ··;r .. ·;o,.,.,. , -__ r· ·,,·--r-;1.",,,,,."'·•�

-�}_g�}n. the ¥j4dle✓Ages the dead were entrusted to or rather abandoned to the care of the Church,

=- - - -- ---- --

and the exact To�ation of their lace of burial was ��8':i��!�niil�is.£�.U - bei�-�

.,

i��7,;dneither .• bL M� -�2!.!::�� noLl�ep. � kx.� ��.e,l�jn�£.�� .. IJ- Certainly by the fourteenth century and especially since the'2�,v_en_te,�_m,h.};,�1;.! __ �D': .. 9.Jlt �an .1��,�rA. l, .,.t_n_Q,rn_,Et,0!!,<?U�:,:5L�.<?.nsern�.fa:ir:,,,mar\igg the site of the tomb, a goocl indication of a new .....,,,._,._.,,.,.,.......,.... ... ·�-�.-. ,"'·""'·;._. ,, ,,,, .. , ._, , .. ��-.tl.'..:,.;,...�- __ , '"'H'. ;,,,;i.::,,..r,.e..".,-w.1',-..�� .... ••a,;isu;111.,tt,tt • .-""""�� f�,�¥ng which was l!1cre_��ii:ig!y.,, !?ti.RK . .SX..££.��sed, witiout · b�i�g abl� to impos� itself completely. The pious or melancholy visit to the tomb of a dear one was an unknown act.

In the, ,$.COJ1Q.-halt ,o,£..J;�ig};i.J£�-tl-�th •• ��l', things changed, and I have been able to study this evolution in France. 8 The accumulation of the

dead within the churches or in the small churchyards suddenly beql_!ne _intolerable �-�t le§t-2,Ll_�Jhe

"enhgh.t�PtJi:,,ffii��.!��JZi£.s· What had been going on for almost a millennium without arousing any scruples became the object of vehement criti-8P, Aries, "Contribution a l'etude du culte des morts a J'epoquecontemporaine," Revue des travaux de l'Academie des Sciences

morales et politiques, Vo!, CIX (1966), pp. 25-34.

69

C\ "''()

q)l<,1..Ct, dl-!/.J

--t--,<·,e


cism. An entire body of literature bears witness to '-�is . Op Jhe on�Jrnpd,_p�J?J�� .•. fil.iJ.lt.��as.J.hr�at

�d by the pestilential emanations, the unhealthy odors rising from the common graves. O..Q..thL.,..C?..J;.h-ei: hand, the flooring of the churches and the ground

·�a-t�·;;;;;t;;i'es ,--;htc'f;-��e;t·s;�u�:;�4 ·:.��i�h

l\_JI

cadavers, ;nd the exhibition ofbon�� i;t·h: �harnel.... ,..��.:..�-.:.,:...---.. ,.. .. _.i,_,.._,.,�� ,,.,,�,; . .-..�.-�� ... -..,;..· ........ -"\V'...,: houses all constituted a permanent violation of the

"""'' ._,., .. ' .. :.·��,c. ,· _..o:;,s- -� · ;._,:.· ,,: .;,,:,.,�·-•,q.,...,�. ,.._..:;[:..f'-"

'J/::"'·,:" -�· �--.

·,..{ ,.<.-i.,."'--":• �l'!it:�..u.::•..,.S. d�g�-.2.f_lhe df£'9 The Church was reproachedfor having done everything for the soul and nothing for the body, of taking money for masses andshowing no concern for the tombs. The example ofthe Ancients, their piety toward the dead as shownby the remnants of their tombs as at Pompeii andby the eloquence of their funeral inscriptions, was

called to mind.\]'he dead should no longer poisontli��-'., an� t�e18"i"iE2;J{{;;;� ,a _;�rl�.i�k�k� cult to show their veneration of the dead. Their

_________ .:, .. �-""""��"'"'......-.;;.-,...,..,.,._, •• ......,,�;.., .. i .JI-.� t�_mbs t�erefore -�egan to serve as a sign of th�r_g�nc,;.ce:ft£r.:�.ei th.,: }1- �-:f:.S.:?��Es�."".Ii�s�tnecessarily derive from the concept of immortality

--��-;;;,.r¥,.....,.4-�•,.._.;;i..µ,,� .. ,,.. ... ��"'

.o?-�� -"'l;."�•1,,''°'•.:,,r,:, .. .., :-· C"c"<•�•-�';:r•/<>'"� central to religions of salvation· such is Christi-� ::1-:1 ··1,;,1 • .. $�4,;.d:it_� .. ,,.�'wti>•��%1>•-.' d� ..,;,� ,J'��:·,.,"<,¼::-.-,,,1. ��.,.�--�

,,J?�JlY.:: .. 't t �r

-iv�_d igsJ_��

. ��';_;

.;:E.�X

...

_ ()

.r ·s

.. ' unw

. _g1

. -

��gness _to .a�:,j;:_J:�lt;::�e_pf �4-�ir::.lo.Jl�9' .. R� People erd on to the remains . They even went so far as to keep them visible in great bottles of alcohol, as in the case of Necker and his wife, the

parents of Madame de Stael. Naturally such oh-

70

"Interior of a Church," by Emanuel de Witte, in the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Photo A. Frequin, Photographie d'Objets d' Art, The Hague.


servances, though they were advocated by certain authors of plans for sepulchers, were not adopted in a general fashion. ,,But the common desire ygi,s -c;1�·�� ·- -----·*- � i;it.h.e.L�Q keep the dead at home by burying the>m on the f�n1ily pro_p��ty,_ o;�:��l�_§:}�I�li.��i� tf\ernl It they were hgrieq_ in r....VJJ.b]iccemete_i:;\'.) And in order to be able to visit them, the dead had to be "at home," which was not the case in the traditional funeral procedure, in which they were in the church. In the past one was buried before the image of the Virgin or in the chapel of the Holy Sacrament. �ow people wanted to go to the very spot where the body had been placed, and they wanted this place to belong totally to the deceased and to �is familij It was at this time that the burial concession became a certain form of

__,.;,,· • ·.•· .. • . • •~~••, -• , . ' •·

-�;,._.., .,_.. ---:...;; :,',, • .,..,.,f_h, ._.., 0%� property, prg_tect��_from C01!.;,�ers,e, _?';t_a�SU�� 1:perpe�ui�-� This was a very significant innovation. People went to visit the tomb of a dear one as one would go to a relative's home, or into one's own home, full of memories. �!J:l£EK:.£2.::f:.::_ed u� the dea� .a .�();:t�9Jipuµorta_lity whic_h ��s initiallx foreign t�Christia_nity.,From the end of the"'�ight--�enth century 7n�r;;;n at the height of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in anticlerical andagnostic France, unbelievers would be the most assiduous visitors to the tombs of their relatives. The_yisit to the cemetery in France and Italy becams._,,

72

THY DEATH

.:::_nd still is, the great continuing religious ac�. Those who no longer go to church still go to the ceme0

tery, where they have become accustomed to place flowers on the tombs. They meditate there, that is to say they evoke the dead person and cultivate his memory. \� f'C \_,} I ''•" Thus it is a ..£r�vat_e.,c1J.J1J�.S!2:�fr.�ULit�J��.rY (�e ,..,e.t·/��,2.S!Bf,,kJl ,puplk (),1}.e: .• ='I�.�.1-* _Qfc!l!�IllQ�--b.�-mediately spread from the in�iyid;1a!.,ts,> -��t;:y� o;;w,•/s.'t:�Jf.il•:.U,,C •-,T. ->.i.�O.,.i:11;,-:i.\£,•.� ..a.:.,:.:!fil:1/lr.'. ��.;,;.td.t",��•A •'""~� • .

'+wl��.L9L,2E&,.,.au£1J1.;.i,i;, ��ll}e -�'Y��( .��v.�il.?.1Jit.¥,, The eig!iteenth-century authors_gLc..e.�ter...y_pJans yvan;;d cemeteries to ser�!;,�ot�,��-�q_for family visits and as museums for mu_striou��:: ��-likes�·.·. p"�:i��"c';;�7i"�L��here

-....,,..,:..Zi:·�..;..,.�,�:J,r--..,d:;.-�· 'it 1" iLJ1,a,1°!LC��==ii.�1�zt:1;;:;=�

the tombs of heroes and great me!l would be vener-ated by the State. This was a different conception from that of the dynastic chapels or crypts such as Saint-Denis, Westminster, the Escorial, or the Capuchins of Vienna.

A new concept of society w':.�.-�?_r�_�t-the.,_e.n�_?.f ,!_he _ ·�i_��:.::�e�.!�rx;°"";t developed during the nineteenth century and found its expression in Auguste Comte's positivism, an intellectualized form of nationalism. It was thought, and even felt,

9Plans submitted to the procureur general of the Parlement of Parisin accordance with the royal decree of 177 6 closing the old cemeteries and ordering their transfer outside the city, papers of Joly de Fleury, Bibliotheque nationale, ms. fr. 1209, folios 62-87.

73


that ,societ,y;js., com12osed of both .the de'¼d a,nd r.h,,e u,UYing.,, The city of the dead is the obverse of the society of the living, or rather than the obverse, it is its image, its intemporal image. For the dead have gone through the moment of change, and their monuments are the visible sign of the permanence of their city.

Jhus.Jh�pet�EY 01;<;e �i�-g��J?lace�,in

!h.e city_--::.,a_Ql,<!£f,.P.O�h ... pJJ. .sicaL and,.rnQt; -. hich.it4Mi,,l�t�X...M.1�Je .. �g�"�;�ut,,,,w1-uc.h,it;,,h�s:l<?�;Jf..P.i<:<! . .,,!Ji�g[k(2.gS:"'-�£.ti.: u_it ;J What would weknow about ancient civilization without the objects, the inscriptions, and the iconography found by archeologists while excavating tombs? Our tombs are empty, but much <;��-,le lt�IJ�d { oJJJ..,QW'---�e,m,.ety�s, the size of which speaks eloquently about our mentality. Indeed, the piety and the new respect shown for tombs resulted in an

extension of the surface area of cemeteries, because it had become intolerable and forbidden to pile up corpses as in the charnel houses of the Middle Ages. ,J� lace_ ��.Yi\

i,fa.r th� ... �t;l;4)e

� · w:r.e�a;;i.:D.gly....,.in.tr,usi�- w.hi&h S£Q..IL,,�o��d cq9,cern._;imong the authorities.J�ut public opinion .�� ... �HK��.-'-�

resisted attempts to end the propagation of ceme-teries.

During Napoleon III's reign, the administration

wanted to deconsecrate the Parisian cemeteries,

74

THY DEATH

which had in the early nineteenth c·entury been planned outside the city but which had been enveloped by urban expansion . They could evoke a

precedent for this : at the end of Louis XVI's reign the old Cemetery of the Innocents, which had been in use for more than five centuries, had been razed, plowed, dug up, and built over, to the great indifference of the population . But in the second half of the nineteenth century the mentality had changed. J?.u bJic ,,2PJ.Hi<J,B

,.J:£��:ai�tQ�-- _ ovJ::.rn -

Il1£.PJ:s-=s.9,sqikgi9JJ.S{i.\;I:Hi,Q1ecJs ,�..?.:,=una,.niJ:n:2Jl..S .. u,blic ':Pl::.��}n�.�.hish..J. ht�jJ,b-,gli&�. �J;�i?.£,3:.�h . ..t�lr P.<?Jif!XW,,,.,.��. Henceforth the $.ill.�.t�D:'...,,ill?.pe�eces�a .. ¼,..};2 .. oLili,�t�¼:..Jgda:z_th,s.cul.,t <;_f the _de�q. is srQ.nf;,..oLthe .forms. or .e:iqzressio2£:o.f £�tri�t_is_rr:· Thus in France the anniversary of the victorious conclusion of World War I is considered the feast-day of dead soldiers. It is celebrated at the Monument to the Dead, to be found in every French village, no matter how small. Without a monument to the dead the victory could not be celebrated. In the new cities created by recent industrial development, the absence of a monument to the dead thus created a quandry. The problem was solved by virtually annexing the mom�ment of a nearby, deserted little village. 10 For this monu-10This is what occurred at Lacq, near Pau, where the exploiting of natural gas resulted in the creation of a new industrial city,

75


ment is indeed a tomb, an empty one of course, but it perpetuates memory, a monumentum.

* * *

We now reach a point in this long evolution at which we should pause and introduce a new factor. We have followed variations in time, a long but still changing time. We have scarcely, except for a few details, considered variations in locations. We might say that the phenomena which we are studying here were approximately the same through all of Western civilization. But, in the course of the

-· . ---·� .. . .. - "-

�1:etee!l_!h ._c�e�t�ry _tpi� si�il�i£-,½ i�-�i;g�nt!lli!��schanged and 1m portant,, di(fe�en.,sg. appeareg. We1., ��--.., .. J:.1..,,,!t:.<.'�t'.'o..'>,)\s.)_.,AA!d....-.-'.'"-•. ·- :z .... , ' ...,.,

see �,rth �ica, Englan_sl, and a P¥.,L o(n<2Eth-western Europe_ �ri::�.1,. e:�-'lY-frg_m .•. F.rnn.�e,_ Q.EY-, -· ' �--" - -· _, _., __ .,_

m'.1-!]:J,,

8::1),q I��]X:.)Nhat does this differentiation in-volve, and what is its meaning?

In the nineteenth century and until World War I (a great revolution in mores) the difference was scarcely apparens.e�ther in the protocol of funerals oy"1h··n1._�urning'iu�foms. But this difference can be observeB in cerifetJries and in the art on tomb-

...._ ;., '\

stones. Our Eri.glish friends do not fail to point out - ..

to us continentals how extravagantly baroque our cemeteries are-take the Campo Santo of Genoa or the old (nineteenth-century) cemeteries of our

76

THY DEATH

major French cities with their tombs surmounted by statues writhing, embracing one another, and lamenting. There is no doubt that at that time a great transformation occurred.

At the end of the eighteenth century, cemeteries were similar throughout the Western world; in England, North America, and parts of northwestern Europe the same model persists today. The EnJish cemeter o to.cl.� closel resembles what .the .

-A-,. __ .,·,:.;...,_� ..... -....-...:.-�-

1:.:.�££h.�EE.l��tz..:t<l:8:...ESf.,l! .. ,J1!1.tU . .,.th.� .... �I1sl . .,.<?cLthe eighteen_th century,. when buri,al ,ilL.sJlll;f,Che?...,i}nd

- '�" ----a -�"'lw�� ..... ...,:;.;._.�',ll,,..;.�);.:�-,..;;,_-,

e� �i�hiE. !h� .illY. .lim,its .»@_S orhifld�n. _Y/f::. find it Jn tact in America, for exam ple_ _ _i,_11 .. !.\.li?.f_ap..9:.ri<b. _ Virginia: a bit of countryside and nature, a pretty English garden in a setting of grass, moss, and trees, sometimes but not necessarily still adjacent to the church.

The tombs of this period were a combination of the two elements which until then had generally been used separately: the horizontal flat tombstone, and the "Here-lies" type of stone establishing a bequest, a stone which was vertical because it was to be affixed to a wall. In France, in the few late-eighteenth-century cemeteries that are still extant, the two elements are juxtaposed. In colonial America the vertical element was generally .wc"'Jll.l!r�::J;,("�,t,Jl'.'.�d'i:.>�

the only one kept. A stone stele was erected at the head of the grave, which was itself merely covered

77


with grass, while the foot was occasionally indicated by a small marker.).n __ both cEe�ili,�i_12,�rip��-�--2,� __ !E!_:'�!.!�il1h¾�,9:.§.t9.E.� .. - ,,The inscription, both biographic and elegiac, was the only luxury of these sepulchers, which made a show of simplicity. 1J1,is .�iffiRlicit ,..w,a��:ni_ly=�PL�g'!cl;,�jp c�ai:,:=_?L!�T=��,E�l2E11-11�-�,t�,,_c:k��i9.Y,,.,.1li¼,£,:,pro�,1.:.t. e!1,""��mple .. for ,.the ,,nati0,naL.n:�0-fcoapc!'1,liA,. or

dr�m��ic_.Hf.J.�£�aordi�y 2.�J:lli-..... This cemetery was the end product of a search for simplicity which can be followed in its different forms throughout all of Western civilization, in the second half of the eighteenth and throughout the nineteenth century, even in papal Rome, where baroque customs persist.

T�1w�-!R.H&E!.!,.)L£!d.,..!!9L irupJZJ-,..,.�J§lqy�lty .to the loye�L9l!�- · to J.hLS.2lill.fil-Y · J.t. fulcl_,,J11'"'y�rY-, .. w,.,ell

'-':it�...;�.:::��n�1:..'?l .. Pt,E�� ]Q.�_antic .Q,1Jt. oJ.tµe�e-��L. This cult found its first poet in England: Thomas Gray, author of "Elegy in a Country Churchyard." The Elegy! It was translated into French, one particular version being by Andre Chenier, and it served as a model for others.

It is in ��IE.�0-Ea:�Jn.,W..eshin-gtQ D.C., even more than in the Pantheon of Paris, that we find the first

.�.,,i�,.�,;;..,�,(l,llf,""-'1......U.o"O-.a...,·'-'•-l ·•-'>.·•,;.,

major �'!,1;:ifaz(itiQ,US; .... oL,th.e,. . .fu,neia.Lc.Yl!...,,QLJl.!t h�. In a city filled with commemorative monu-

78

THY DEATH

ments, such as those to Washington, Jefferson, and_ Lincoln-which are "tombs" without sepulchers-a

twentieth-century European encounters an even stranger phenomenon: Arlington Cemetery. Here, despite its public and national character, the garden of the Lee-Custis House has preserved its appearance of a private estate.

Although astonishing to a European of today, the civic and funerary landscape at Arlington and along the Mall sprang from the same sentiment that caused a multiplicity of monuments to the war

dead in the France of the 1920s, monuments which are doubtlessly today quite incomprehensible to the descendents of those who created Arlington and the center of Washington.

Th us, .,r�g,�4l�a.£�1igi£?J1i.ili.far��£�E1J:fL11 li,,:. i�Y �,Q�, .. tl}s1,.,£5? .. IJ.W·Htic .h�r;.OwCcUlts. fotm�,d:.rhe. c,Qm�. ,,rno�. d.i;_pQmir-at2I_ t,�roug�9t1t ,¼',��t�E1J,__cj.Y._\M3�ti�n jp tb.LhJ:e ..• �iglJJe,en�h a,n� _ eal'l;:i;B n.,im�t.eenth c:en-� And it is here that we find the p�int o"fdeparture. The United States and northwestern Europe were to remain more or less faithful to this old model, while continental Europe strayed away and constructed for its dead monuments which became increasingly complicated and figurative.

A careful study of an American custom would perhaps help us find an explanation for this:

79


"mourning pictures." These lithographs or embroidered panels, now found in museums, were intended to decorate the home. They played the role

· of the tomb, of the memorial, a sort of portabletomb adapted to American mobility-if this mobility is not at that time an anachronistic myth. Likewise, in the museum of York, England, we findVictorian funeral announcements which are reproductions of neo-gothic funeral chapels, those verychapels which served as models for the Frenchtomb builders of the same period. It is as if theEnglish and the Americans of the day were committing to paper or silk-ephemeral substanceswhat the continental Europeans were portrayingon tombstones.

Q:r:�. i� 9J:n;:i.9l!�ly tef!I:2��d_,to attribu�e this difference to the. contrast . between Protestantism and��th.olicism. This - e,x.gJ�n�ti9rL�ppt!a;�-��p��t.J�the fost-;;��i,;;i,,_ �EJe""i�.,,.�X ,,firs( gla.x1ce.,.Jndeed, theseparation of the churches by the Council of Trentoccurred much earlier than this divorce in funeralattitudes. Throughout the seventeenth centurypeople were buried in ex actly the same fashion(with variations in the liturgy, of course) in Pepys'England, in the Holland of those genre painterswho specialized in church interiors, and in Frenchand Italian churches. The mental attitudes were the

�.,...,......... ••- -�•,�-.. .. M,.,,.��-same. _.__,,

80

THY DEATH

Yet there appears to be some truth in the religious explanation when we realize that during the nineteenth century . Catholicism developed senti-;en;�l_,-,

,. ei;�-ti;;_�J - ·;�ans ;L:��pres'ii�11 . whi�Jb �t �ided. in �.ill:,_�t,��-f�nt_u��,.,¾1�£..Jhe great baroque rhetoric: a sort of romantic neo-baroquism. '£ha_t ,!YEA 9L,Cj1.Jh,olicjsm��§.�f.�ally,Jn France, �ecame a �St.�JffrL�.thi:ti£fr£fll., . .tJLat,-.£f ��?��,,IBE£.Sf}1Ul.£�!:!k\ries.

Nevertheless, we must not forget what we were saying a short time ago: tpat tl:�. exalt5� an:�. em�ti,v,e natur.e .of the_ cnlt .. 0£.JhE: dead_ djd_.var __ hiPm_ a Ch.;i�tian ,?r�giQ '.2,J1.Jiad,,.a,. P o,S�!�V��-t O

rig�I_l, j�ai!� <;:_i!;!holi�t.te1F��t9 _i!, c!,!)-9,,.a§.�.iJP.ilate,d it SQ,pt,r:f.efJ;ly thar th,ey JJ:i.qµgµt .itjg,digf.1l2-11:ld9;Jh�ir x�Jigi,G>n ·

Should we not instead implicate the nature of the ,agcio::ecoI!Qmic revnluJj.gp of the nineteenth century? Mt:�E�3AI�M$�� .. th¥trat� gJ .ir\dµ,sti;i.alk. pt_ion -�S .. JJr_b ?c11j,�;;i,ti9,D., in. tTJX,�.;,,,,�.7Q.::9 ar:>_9 �e,funeral attittul.�.s dy\Lelo._g�d �n cuJtl!res in which,

�;ve-� ��towns and large cities, ��o;;o�Z'gr"owth w��l�s� -�;e-i�.:��ui�fi�';;�S::i}�er-�T�t��'CTh��·;t th� q��stion before you. I think it should bean interesting one for the historians of Americanmentalities.

In any case, a fault line became evident, and thecrack would widen toward the middle of thetwentieth century. The great twentieth-century re-

81


fusal to accept death is incomprehensible if we do

not take this fault line into account, for this refusal

was born and developed on only one side of that

frontier.

82

western attitudes toward death: from the middle ages to

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