Thomas Browne - The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3

Christians abhorred this way of obsequies, and though they stickt not to give their bodies to be burnt in their lives, detested that mode after death; affecting rather a depositure than absumption, and properly submitting unto the sentence of God, to return not unto ashes but unto dust again, conformable unto the practice of the Patriarches, the interrment of our Saviour, of Peter , Paul , and the ancient Martyrs. And so far at last declining promiscuous enterrment with Pagans, that some 11have suffered Ecclesiastical censures, for making no scruple thereof.

The Musselman beleevers will never admit this fiery resolution. For they hold a present trial from their black and white Angels in the grave; which they must have made so hollow, that they may rise upon their knees.

The Jewish Nation, though they entertained the old way of inhumation, yet sometimes admitted this practice. For the men of Jabesh burnt the body of Saul . And by no prohibited practice to avoid contagion or pollution, in time of pestilence, burnt the bodies of their friends. 12And when they burnt not their dead bodies, yet sometimes used great burnings near and about them, deducible from the expressions concerning Jehoram , Sedechias , and the sumptuous pyre of Asa; And were so little averse from Pagan 13burning, that the Jews lamenting the death of Cæsar their friend, and revenger on Pompey , frequented the place where his body was burnt for many nights together. And as they raised noble Monuments and Mausolæums for their own Nation, 14so they were not scrupulous in erecting some for others, according to the practice of Daniel , who left that lasting sepulchral pyle in Echbatana , for the Median and Persian Kings. 15

But even in times of subjection and hottest use, they conformed not unto the Romane practice of burning; whereby the Prophecy was secured concerning the body of Christ, that it should not see corruption, or a bone should not be broken; which we beleeve was also providentially prevented, from the Souldiers spear and nailes that past by the little bones both in his hands and feet: Nor of ordinary contrivance, that it should not corrupt on the crosse, according to the Law of Romane Crucifixion, or an hair of his head perish, though observable in Jewish customes, to cut the haires of Malefactors.

Nor in their long co-habitation with the Ægyptians, crept into a custome of their exact embalming, wherein deeply slashing the muscles, and taking out the braines and entrailes, they had broken the subject of so entire a Resurrection, nor fully answered the tipes of Enoch , Eliah , or Jonah , which yet to prevent or restore, was of equall facility unto that rising power, able to break the fasciations and bands of death, to get clear out of the Cere-cloth, and an hundred pounds of oyntment, and out of the Sepulchre before the stone was rolled from it.

But though they embraced not this practice of burning, yet entertained they many ceremonies agreeable unto Greek and Romane obsequies, And he that observeth their funeral Feasts, their Lamentations at the grave, their musick, and weeping mourners; how they closed the eyes of their friends, how they washed, anointed, and kissed the dead; may easily conclude these were not meer Pagan Civilities. But whether that mournful burthen, and treble calling out after Absalom , had any reference unto the last conclamation, and triple valediction, used by other nations, we hold but a wavering conjecture.

Civilians make sepulture but of the Law of nations, others do naturally found it and discover it also in animals. They that are so thick skinned as still to credit the story of the Phœnix , may say something for animal burning: More serious conjectures finde some examples of sepulture in Elephants, Cranes, the Sepulchral Cells of Pismires and practice of Bees; which civil society carrieth out their dead, and hath exequies, if not interrments.

The Solemnities, Ceremonies, Rites of their Cremation or enterrment, so solemnly delivered by Authours, we shall not disparage our Reader to repeat. Only the last and lasting part in their Urns, collected bones and Ashes, we cannot wholly omit, or decline that Subject, which occasion lately presented, in some discovered among us.

In a Field of old Walsingham , not many months past, were digged up between fourty and fifty Urnes, deposited in a dry and sandy soile, not a yard deep, nor far from one another: Not all strictly of one figure, but most answering these described; Some containing two pounds of bones, distinguishable in skulls, ribs, jawes, thigh-bones, and teeth, with fresh impressions of their combustion. Besides the extraneous substances, like peeces of small boxes, or combs handsomely wrought, handles of small brasse instruments, brazen nippers, and in one some kinde of Opale 16.

Near the same plot of ground, for about six yards compasse were digged up coals and incinerated substances, which begat conjecture that this was the Ustrina or place of burning their bodies, or some sacrificing place unto the Manes , which was properly below the surface of the ground, as the Aræ and Altars unto the gods and Heroes above it.

That these were the Urnes of Romanes from the common custome and place where they were found, is no obscure conjecture, not far from a Romane Garrison, and but five mile from Brancaster , set down by ancient Record under the name of Brannodunum . And where the adjoyning Town, containing seven Parishes, in no very different sound, but Saxon termination, still retaines the Name of Burnham , which being an early station, it is not improbable the neighbour parts were filled with habitations, either of Romanes themselves, or Brittains Romanised , which observed the Romane customes.

Nor is it improbable that the Romanes early possessed this Countrey; for though we meet not with such strict particulars of these parts, before the new Institution of Constantine , and military charge of the Count of the Saxon shore, and that about the Saxon Invasions, the Dalmatian Horsemen were in the Garrison of Brancaster : Yet in the time of Claudius Vespasian , and Severus , we finde no lesse then three Legions dispersed through the Province of Brittain . And as high as the Reign of Claudius a great overthrow was given unto the Iceni , by the Romane Lieutenant Ostorius . Not long after the Countrey was so molested, that in hope of a better state Prasatagus bequeathed his Kingdom unto Nero and his Daughters; and Boadicea his Queen fought the last decisive Battle with Paulinus . After which time and Conquest of Agricola the Lieutenant of Vespasian , probable it is they wholly possessed this Countrey, ordering it into Garrisons or Habitations, best suitable with their securities. And so some Romane habitations, not improbable in these parts, as high as the time of Vespasian , where the Saxons after seated, in whose thin-fill’d Mappes we yet finde the Name of Walsingham . Now if the Iceni were but Gammadims , Anconians , or men that lived in an Angle wedge or Elbow of Brittain , according to the Original Etymologie, this countrey will challenge the Emphatical appellation, as most properly making the Elbow or Iken of Icenia .

That Britain was notably populous is undeniable, from that expression of Cæsar 17. That the Romanes themselves were early in no small numbers, Seventy Thousand with their associats slain by Boadicea , affords a sure account. And though many Roman habitations are now unknown, yet some by old works, Rampiers, Coynes, and Urnes do testifie their Possessions. Some Urnes have been found at Castor, some also about Southcreake and not many years past, no lesse then ten in a field at Buxton , 18not near any recorded Garrison. Nor is it strange to finde Romane Coynes of Copper and Silver among us; of Vespasian , Trajan , Adrian , Commodus , Antoninus , Severus , etc. But the greater number of Dioclesian , Constantine , Constans , Valens , with many of Victorinus Posthumius , Tetricus , and the thirty Tyrants in the Reigne of Gallienus ; and some as high as Adrianus have been found about Thetford , or Sitomagus , mentioned in the itinerary of Antoninus , as the way from Venta or Castor unto London . 19But the most frequent discovery is made at the two Casters by Norwich and Yarmouth 20at Burghcastle and Brancaster . 21