3. Possibly thy inquiry is satisfied by this my brief reply. But what other considerations move me, to which I think meet to answer, do thou for a short space attend. In the books of the Maccabees we read of sacrifice offered for the dead.6    2 Mac. xii. 43 Howbeit even if it were no where at all read in the Old Scriptures, not small is the authority, which in this usage is clear, of the whole Church, namely, that in the prayers of the priest which are offered to the Lord God at His altar, the Commendation of the dead hath also its place. But then, whether there be some profit accruing unto the soul of the dead from the place of its body, requires a more careful inquiry. And first, whether it make any difference in causing or increasing of misery after this life to the spirits of men if their bodies be not buried, this must be looked into, not in the light of opinion however commonly received, but rather of the holy writ of our religion. For we are not to credit that, as is read in Maro, the unburied are prohibited from navigating and crossing the infernal stream: because forsooth

“To none is giv’n to pass the hideous banks

And waters hoarse, ere in their meet abode

The bones have sunk to rest.”7    Æneidvi. 327, 328.

Who can incline a Christian heart to these poetical and fabulous figments, when the Lord Jesus, to the intent that under the hands of their enemies, who should have their bodies in their power, Christians might lie down without a fear, asserts that not a hair of their head shall perish, exhorting that they should not fear them which when they have killed the body have nothing more that they can do?8    Matt. x. 28 Of which in the first book “On the City of God,” I have methinks enough spoken, to break the teeth in their mouths who, in imputing to Christian times the barbarous devastation, especially that which Rome has lately suffered, do cast up to us this also, that Christ did not there come to the succor of His own. To whom when it is answered that the souls of the faithful were, according to the merits of their faith, by Him taken into protection, they insult over us with talking of their corpses left unburied. All this matter, then, concerning burial I have in such words as these expounded.

3. Poterat inquisitioni tuae sufficere mea brevis ista responsio; sed quae alia moveant, quibus respondendum existimo, parumper attende. In Machabaeorum libris legimus oblatum pro mortuis sacrificium (II Machab. XII, 43). Sed et si nusquam in Scripturis veteribus omnino legeretur, non parva est universae Ecclesiae, quae in hac consuetudine claret auctoritas , ubi in precibus sacerdotis quae Domino Deo ad ejus altare funduntur, locum suum habet etiam commendatio mortuorum.

CAPUT II.

Quid conferat honos sepulturae. Sepultura corporum Christianis si fuerit negata, nihil adimit. Sed utrum aliquid prosit animae mortui locus corporis sui, operosius inquirendum est. Ac primum utrum intersit aliquid ad inferendam vel augendam miseriam post hanc vitam spiritibus hominum, si eorum corpora sepulta non fuerint, non secundum opinionem utcumque vulgatam, sed potius secundum religionis nostrae sacras Litteras est videndum. Neque enim credendum est, sicut apud Maronem legitur, insepultos a navigando atque transeundo inferno amne prohiberi: quia scilicet Nec ripas datur horrendas, nec rauca fluenta Transportare prius, quam sedibus ossa quierunt. (Aeneid. lib. 6, vv. 327, 328.)Quis cor christianum inclinet his poeticis fabulosisque figmentis, cum Dominus Jesus, ut inter inimicorum 0594 manus, qui eorum corpora in potestate haberent, securi occumberent Christiani, nec capillum capitis eorum asserat periturum, exhortans ne timeant eos qui cum corpus occiderint, amplius non habent quid faciant? Unde in primo libro de Civitate Dei satis, quantum existimo, sum locutus, ut eorum dentem retunderem, qui barbaricam vastitatem, praecipue quam nuper Roma perpessa est, christianis temporibus imputando, etiam id objiciunt, quod suis illic non subvenerit Christus. Quibus cum responsum fuerit animas fidelium pro fidei suae meritis ab illo fuisse susceptas, insultant de cadaveribus insepultis. Totum itaque istum de sepultura locum verbis talibus explicavi.