The death and burial of a guest

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15th-century gilt bronze cross
© V & A Museum
<click to enlarge>

From the outset the General Chapter accepted that if any guests were dying they should receive Communion and, following their death, burial within the precinct. According to the twelfth-century customary of the Order, when a guest was nearing death the guestmaster, who was in charge of the hospice, should notify the prior who would then send a priest to administer Communion. Wearing white, the priest washed his hands in preparation. He was accompanied by three monks, one of whom carried water and a light, a second who bore a cross and a third who carried wine. The party prostrated itself before the guest, the priest then asked about the dying man’s faith and gave him some wine to drink from the chalice, which he then rinsed and offered a second time. Before the priest departed the two men spoke of necessary matters and if it seemed that the man was about to die the priest left behind the Holy Water and Cross.

The burial took place as soon as a tomb had been prepared. A signal was given for the community to gather but only priests and members of religious communities were taken to the choir where the obsequies were chanted. This privilege might, however, be conceded to reverent persons, such as bishops, if the abbot considered it fitting. Whereas the community said the Seven Penitential Psalms after the burial of Cistercian monks, novices and lay-brothers, and bowed after the Clementissim, they did not do so for any outsiders.