Mos Teutonicus

{{lang|la-x-medieval|Mos Teutonicus}} ({{langx|en|Germanic custom}}) or less commonly {{lang|la-x-medieval|Mos Gallicus}} ({{langx|en|Gallic custom}}){{Cite journal|last=Wippel|first=John|date=2007|title=Godfrey of Fontaines on the Medieval Custom of Dividing the Bodies of Certain Prominent Persons for Burial in Separate Places|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/584547|journal=The Jurist: Studies in Church Law and Ministry|language=en|volume=67|issue=2|pages=311–340|doi=10.1353/jur.2007.0007|s2cid=192646065|issn=2326-6236}} was a postmortem funerary custom used in Europe in the Middle Ages as a means of transporting, and solemnly disposing of, the bodies of high-status individuals. Nobles would often undergo Mos Teutonicus if their burial plots were located far away from their place of death.{{Cite journal |last=Weiss-Krejci |first=Estella |date=December 2001 |title=Restless corpses: 'secondary burial' in the Babenberg and Habsburg dynasties |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003598X00089274/type/journal_article |journal=Antiquity |language=en |volume=75 |issue=290 |pages=769–780 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00089274 |issn=0003-598X |s2cid=161843486}} The process involved the removal of the flesh from the body, so that the bones of the deceased could be transported hygienically from distant lands back home.{{Cite book |last=Frost |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Frost (minister) |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/872115351 |title=Incarnate: the body of Christ in an age of disengagement |date=10 February 2014 |isbn=978-0-8308-8405-6 |location=Downers Grove, IL |oclc=872115351}}

Background

During the Middle Ages, nobles sometimes died far away from where they wished to be buried.{{Cite journal |last1=Scorrano |first1=Gabriele |last2=Mazzuca |first2=Claudia |last3=Valentini |first3=Federica |last4=Scano |first4=Giuseppina |last5=Buccolieri |first5=Alessandro |last6=Giancane |first6=Gabriele |last7=Manno |first7=Daniela |last8=Valli |first8=Ludovico |last9=Mallegni |first9=Francesco |last10=Serra |first10=Antonio |name-list-style=amp |date=2017-09-01 |title=The tale of Henry VII: a multidisciplinary approach to determining the post-mortem practice |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-016-0321-4 |journal=Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences |language=en |volume=9 |issue=6 |pages=1215–1222 |bibcode=2017ArAnS...9.1215S |doi=10.1007/s12520-016-0321-4 |issn=1866-9565 |s2cid=163989438}} They often wanted their hearts to be buried in their homeland, thus their bodies had to travel far distances.{{Cite journal|last=Lewis|first=Mary E.|date=2008-03-01|title=A traitor's death? The identity of a drawn, hanged and quartered man from Hulton Abbey, Staffordshire|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003598X00096484/type/journal_article|journal=Antiquity|volume=82|issue=315|pages=113–124|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00096484|s2cid=161221683|issn=0003-598X}} Emperor Charlemagne outlawed cremation, deeming destruction of the bones as destruction of the soul. Anyone who cremated a person's bones was subject to the death penalty. Thus, the practice of Mos Teutonicus came about as a way to preserve the bones over long distances without destroying them. Mos Teutonicus has been observed as early as the 10th century. Notable examples were multiple rulers from the Ottonian and Salian dynasties in which the rulers were transported to burial locations far from their place of death.

During the Second Crusade for the Holy Land it was not thought fit for aristocrats to be buried away from their homeland in Muslim territory.{{cite book |last=Keen |first=Maurice |author-link=Maurice Keen |title=Chivalry |date=10 September 1986 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0300033605}} The transportation of the whole body over long distances was impractical and unhygienic due to decomposition. Mos Teutonicus was especially prevalent in warmer climates, such as around the Mediterranean Sea, since the body was subject to faster decay.

German aristocrats were particularly concerned that burial should not take place in the Holy Land, but rather on home soil.{{cite journal |last=Schäfer |first=Dietrich |year=1920 |title=Mittelalter Brauch bei Der Überführung von Leichen |journal=Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaftler |publisher=Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften |volume=XXVI |pages=478–489}} The Florentine chronicler Boncompagno was the first to connect the procedure specifically with German aristocrats, and coins the phrase {{lang|la-x-medieval|Mos Teutonicus}}, meaning 'the Germanic custom'.{{NoteTag|Boncompagno refers to the practice in a derogatory manner, placing {{lang|la-x-medieval|mos Teutonicus}} in a passage with Jewish and Roman burial customs designed to preserve the dignity and honour of the body. He claims the Germans ({{lang|la-x-medieval|teutonici}}) dismember the bodies of their most eminent people.}}

English and French aristocrats generally preferred embalming to {{lang|la-x-medieval|Mos Teutonicus}}, involving the burial of the entrails and heart in a separate location from the corpse.{{cite book|last=Westerhof |title=Death and the Noble Body in Medieval England |publisher=Boydell Press |date=October 16, 2008 |isbn=978-1843834168}} One of the advantages of {{lang|la-x-medieval|Mos Teutonicus}} was that it was relatively economical in comparison with embalming, and more hygienic.

Corpse preservation was very popular in medieval society.{{cite journal |last=Brown |first=Elizabeth A. R. |year=1981 |title=Death and the Human Body in the Late Middle Ages: The Legislation of Boniface VIII on the division of the Corpse |journal=Viator |publisher=UCLA: Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies |volume=XII |pages=223 to 270}} The decaying body was seen as representative of something sinful and evil. Embalming and {{lang|la-x-medieval|Mos Teutonicus}}, along with tomb effigies, were methods of giving the corpse an illusion of stasis and removed the uneasy image of putrefaction and decay.

File:Crâne présenté comme étant celui de Louis IX.jpg, France|alt=A human skull with a crown in a niche. Outside of the niche, two angel putti hold a marble plate inscribed 'Ex Ossibus / Sanctus Ludovicus Rex Francorum / Louis XI - Roi de France / Mort à Carthage le 25 août 1270 / Huitième Croisade / Ora Pro Nobis'.]]

In 1270, the body of King Louis IX, who died in Tunis, which was Muslim territory, was subject to the process of {{lang|la-x-medieval|Mos Teutonicus}} for its transportation back to France.

Process

The process of Mos Teutonicus began with the cadaver being dismembered to facilitate the next stage in the process, in which the body parts were boiled in water, wine, milk, or vinegar{{Cite journal |last=Kjellström |first=Anna |date=2017 |title=TANGIBLE TRACES OF DEVOTION The Post-mortem Life of Relics |url=http://www.arkeologiskasamfundet.se/csa/Dokument/Volumes/csa_vol_25_2017/csa_vol_25_2017_s151-175_kjellstrom.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Arkeologiskasamfundet.se |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180421082507/http://www.arkeologiskasamfundet.se/csa/Dokument/Volumes/csa_vol_25_2017/csa_vol_25_2017_s151-175_kjellstrom.pdf |archive-date=2018-04-21 |access-date=2020-11-26}} for several hours. The boiling had the effect of separating the flesh from the bone. The heart and intestines needed to be removed in order to allow for proper transfer of the bones. Any residual was scraped from the bones, leaving a completely clean skeleton. Both the flesh and internal organs could be buried immediately, or preserved with salt in the same manner as animal meat. The bones could then be sprinkled with perfumes or fragrances. The bones and any preserved flesh, would then be transported back to the deceased's homeland for ceremonial interment.

Medieval society generally regarded entrails as ignoble and there was no great solemnity attached to their disposal, especially among German aristocrats.

Prohibition

Although the Church had a high regard for the practice, Pope Boniface VIII was known to have an especial repugnance of Mos Teutonicus because of his ideal of bodily integrity. In his bull of 1299, De Sepulturis, Boniface forbade the practice. The papal bull issued which banned this practice was often misinterpreted as prohibition against human dissection.{{Cite journal |last=Park |first=Katharine |date=1995 |title=The Life of the Corpse: Division and Dissection in Late Medieval Europe |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24623559 |journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=111–132 |doi=10.1093/jhmas/50.1.111 |issn=0022-5045 |jstor=24623559 |pmid=7876528}} This may have hindered anatomical research, if anatomists feared repercussions and punishment as a result of medical autopsies, but De Sepulturis only prohibited the act of Mos Teutonicus, not dissection in general (medieval physicians were known to have widely practiced dissection and autopsy, though most had an assistant perform the actual incisions and manipulations of cadavers{{Cite journal |last=Walsh |first=J. J. |date=January 1904 |title=The Popes and the History of Anatomy |journal=Medical Library and Historical Journal |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=10–28 |issn=0898-1868 |pmc=1692152 |pmid=18340817}}). The practice of Mos Teutonicus eventually stopped in the 15th century.

Mos Teutonicus

Background

Process

Prohibition

See also

Notes

References

Further reading