Caring for Body and Soul : Burial and the Afterlife in the Merovingian World

A very thorough and up-to-date study of death and burial in early medieval society." —Guy Halsall, Birkbeck College, University of London The relationship between the living and the dead was especially significant in defining community identity and spiritual belief in the early medieval world. Peter Brown has called it the "joining of Heaven and Earth." For clerics and laypersons alike, funerals and burial sites were important means for establishing or extending power over rival families and monasteries and commemorating ancestors. In Caring for Body and Soul, Bonnie Effros reveals the social significance of burial rites in early medieval Europe during the time of the Merovingian, or so-called "Long-Haired" Kings from 500 to 800 C.E. Funerals provided an opportunity for the display of wealth through elaborate ceremonies involving the placement of goods such as weapons, jewelry, and ceramic vessels in graves and the use of aboveground monuments. In the late seventh century, however, these practices gave way to Masses and prayers for the dead performed by clerics at churches removed from cemeteries. Effros explains that this shift occurred not because inhabitants were becoming better Christians, as some have argued, since such activities were never banned or even criticized by the clergy. Rather, clerics successfully promoted these new rites as powerful means for families to express their status and identity. Effros uses a wide range of historical and archaeological evidence that few other scholars have mastered. The result is a revealing analysis of life and death that simultaneously underlines the remarkable adaptability and appeal of western Christianity in the early Middle Ages. 01......Page 1 02......Page 2 03......Page 3 04......Page 4 05......Page 5 06......Page 6 07......Page 7 08......Page 8 09......Page 9 10......Page 10 11......Page 11 12......Page 12 13......Page 13 14......Page 14 15......Page 15 16......Page 16 17......Page 17 18......Page 18 19......Page 19 20......Page 20 21......Page 21 22......Page 22 23......Page 23 24......Page 24 25......Page 25 26......Page 26 27......Page 27 28......Page 28 29......Page 29 30......Page 30 31......Page 31 32......Page 32 33......Page 33 19......Page 34 20......Page 35 21......Page 36 22......Page 37 23......Page 38 24......Page 39 25......Page 40 26......Page 41 27......Page 42 28......Page 43 29......Page 44 30......Page 45 31......Page 46 32......Page 47 33......Page 48 34......Page 49 35......Page 50 36......Page 51 37......Page 52 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The relationship between the living and the dead was especially significant in defining community identity and spiritual belief in the early medieval world. Peter Brown has called it the "joining of Heaven and Earth." For clerics and laypersons alike, funerals and burial sites were important means for establishing or extending power over rival families and monasteries and commemorating ancestors. In Caring for Body and Soul, Bonnie Effros reveals the social significance of burial rites in early medieval Europe during the time of the Merovingian (or so-called long-haired) kings from 500 to 800 C.E.

Funerals provided an opportunity for the display of wealth through elaborate ceremonies involving the placement of goods such as weapons, jewelry, and ceramic vessels in graves and the use of aboveground monuments. In the late seventh century, however, these practices gave way to Masses and prayers for the dead performed by clerics at churches removed from cemeteries. Effros explains that this shift occurred not because inhabitants were becoming better Christians, as some have argued, since such activities were never banned or even criticized by the clergy. Rather, clerics successfully promoted these new rites as powerful means for families to express their status and identity.

Effros uses a wide range of historical and archaeological evidence that few other scholars have mastered. The result is a revealing analysis of life and death that simultaneously underlines the remarkable adaptability and appeal of western Christianity in the early Middle Ages.

"The relationship between the living and the dead was especially significant in defining community identity and spiritual belief in the early medieval world. Peter Brown has called it the "joining of Heaven and Earth." For clerics and laypersons alike, funerals and burial sites were important means for establishing or extending power over rival families and monasteries and commemorating ancestors. In Caring for Body and Soul, Bonnie Effros reveals the social significance of burial rites in early medieval Europe during the time of the Merovingian, or so-called "Long-Haired" Kings from 500 to 800 C.E."--BOOK JACKET.