But the practice of cremating never entirely superseded what Cicero tells us (De Leg., II, xxii) was the older rite among the Roman people. Indeed the Cornelian gens, one of the most cultured in Rome, had, with the single exception of Sulla, never permitted the burning of their dead. By the fifth century of the Christian Era, owing in great part to the rapid progress of
Christianity, the practice of cremation had entirely ceased. The
Christians never burned their dead, but followed from earliest days the practice of the Semitic race and the personal example of their Divine Founder. It is recorded that in times of persecution many risked their lives to recover the bodies of martyrs for the holy rites of
Christian burial. The pagans, to destroy faith in the
resurrection of the body, often cast the corpses of martyred
Christians into the flames, fondly believing thus to render impossible the
resurrection of the body. What
Christian faith has ever held in this regard is clearly put by the third-century writer Minucius Felix, in his dialogue "Octavius", refuting the assertion that cremation made this
resurrection an impossibility: "Nor do we fear, as you suppose, any harm from the [mode of] sepulture, but we adhere to the old, and better, custom" ("Nec, ut creditis, ullum damnum sepulturae timemus sed veterem et meliorem consuetudinem humandi frequentamus" -- P.L., III, 362).
II. CHURCH LEGISLATION
(1) In the Middle Ages
In all the legislation of the Church the placing of the body in the earth or tomb was a part of
Christian burial. In the acts of the Council of Braga (Hardouin, III, 352), in the year 563, while we read that bodies of the dead are by no means to be buried within the basilicas where rest the remains of Apostles and martyrs, we are told that they may be buried without the wall; and that if cities have long forbidden the interment of the dead within their walls, with much greater right should the reverence due the holy martyrs claim this privilege
In conclusion, it must be remembered that there is nothing directly opposed to any dogma of the Church in the practice of cremation, and that, if ever the leaders of this sinister movement so far control the governments of the world as to make this custom universal, it would not be a lapse in the faith confided to her were she obliged to conform.
