Protestant Reformation: Burial Practice And Commemoration

Archaeological evidence of death comes primarily in two forms: recovered burials including human remains; and commemorative monuments and associated material culture. [ScARF 4.3, 2019] There were significant changes in both burial practice and monumental commemoration in Scotland which illuminate major changes in society from the Medieval to Modern periods. A change in the design, location and size of both graves and commemorative monuments, such as shrines, indicate a change in society, and help to highlight the change in religious views and ideals in post-reformation Scotland. There was a change in response to death which is reflected in the way communities commemorated their dead. This change in attitudes can be seen in the graveyards and burial grounds of churches, particularly in the way that after the Reformation, there was an increase in outside burials rather than vaults inside the church. I am going to start by analysis and examining the changes in graves, and the movement to earth burials. I am then going to examine the removal of shrines and dedications to the saints. Finally I am going to discuss the changes in decoration and design for both burial monuments and commemorations.

Before the Protestant Reformation in Scotland in 1560, the rich and powerful were frequently buried in vaults within the church [Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2006]. Burials used to take place within the church, however this practise became banned in 1581 and earth burial in the graveyard became the norm. Yet for the wealthy, the desire to be buried close to the church remained strong. Mural monuments and burial aisles, grand edifices built against the walls of the church itself, gave the rich a sense of feeling nearer to Heaven than their fellow man. Mausoleums became increasingly popular in the seventeenth-century, and many churchyards contain these great architectural monuments to wealthy families [Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2006]. In Post Reformation Scotland, earth burials became particularly popular so much so that the number of cemeteries increased and with the plague years between the 14th and 18th centuries burial practise changed considerably from the medieval to modern era. There was often very little time for individual memorials to be erected in the plague years, as whole communities lost large numbers of people. One such example is the mass grave recorded by a plaque of 1647 in the wall of Brechin Cathedral. The inscription commemorates 400 plague victims buried nearby in the cathedral yard. Fear of catching diseases sometimes led to burials taking place outside churchyards, for example the typhoid pit built on the island of Easdale in Argyll which is covered by a cairn of boulders intended to contain the disease and prevent its return [Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2006]. The significant changes in the burial practices, from vaults to earth burials and then to mass graves and dedications in the plague years, illuminate the major changes in society, and how a change in religion or the appearance of disease can change the way a community dealt with their dead.

During the Post Reformation years, the removal of dedications to saints within churches became a large part of the reform movement. The removal of shrines can be seen clearly in Glasgow Cathedral, where the pillars show markings of where candle holders have been removed along with various other fixations that were dedicated to the saints. Professor Stephen Driscoll [2002] states that this is because the Reformation brought a change from the mysterious ceremony, conducted in Latin, and religion became a much more intellectual process between the individual and God. The need for Saints ceased and so the dedications to saints were removed. The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework suggests that the Scottish Reformation has been associated with iconoclasm and religious violence, but that this has tended to overshadow the more gradual process of alteration and adaptation, concealment and removal of religious imagery and other associations with Catholicism [ScARF 2.2, 2019]. Although the religious changes of the Reformation were gradual, in some cases taking more than a century, they did succeed in altering the religious landscape of the nation [ScARF 2.2, 2019]. The removal of shrines and dedications to the saints show how Scottish society was changed post Reformation and how a change in beliefs impacted heavily on traditional views.

One of the most notable changes to burial practise was the changes in decoration and design of both burial stones and commemorative plaques. Upright gravestones first appeared in Scotland around 1640 and were smaller than the traditional flat graveslabs which were used in the Middle Ages. From the 1640s onward, a far greater number of ordinary people began to erect a memorial to themselves and their families to replace the family vaults and tombs from pre Reformation Scotland. Over the next two hundred years numerous different styles of gravestones have been placed in graveyards, from obelisks to free standing crosses. Gravestones and other carved stones illustrate vividly both continuity and change amongst the communities using a graveyard. This can be strikingly seen, for example, when enigmatic Pictish carvings sit among myriad gravestone forms of the Victorian classical revival [Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2006]. Symbols were carved on gravestones since the middle ages, each symbol representing a different belief about life or the soul or reminders of how short this mortal life really was (the hourglass, etc.). These traditional symbols continued in use, and ordinary people would often add symbols to show what they did for a living [Gareth Wells, Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2006]. The change in gravestone design from the medieval to the modern period indicate a change in beliefs about the soul and God. This is perhaps a reflection of the change that the Protestant Reformation brought to Scotland. The changes in burial practise therefore illuminate major changes in society from the medieval to the modern period through the decoration and designs of the gravestones and commemorative plaques.

In conclusion, changes in burial practice and monumental commemoration in Scotland illuminate major changes in society from the Medieval to Modern periods. The significant changes in the burial practices, from burials taking place within the church through to earth burials and graveyards after the 1581 act and then to mass graves and dedications in the plague years, illuminate the major changes in society, and how a change in religion, such as the Protestant Reformation of 1560 or the appearance of disease can change the way a community dealt with their dead. The removal of shrines and dedications to the saints further show how society was changed in post Reformation Scotland and how a change in religious ideals impacted heavily on traditional views, such as belief in the saints. Furthermore, the change in gravestone design from the medieval to the modern period indicate a change in beliefs about the soul and God. This is perhaps a reflection of the change that the Protestant Reformation brought to Scotland. The changes in burial practise, such as a change from graveslabs to upright gravestones, therefore illuminate major changes in society from the medieval to the modern period through the decoration and designs of the gravestones and commemorative plaques, the change from vaults to earth burials, and the removal of shrines.