Coffin (3)
Coffin
The following additional particulars are from Walcott, Sac. Archaeol. s.v.: "The early Christians adopted the custom of the heathens in using coffins. Stone coffirs were ordered for the interment of monks, by abbot Warin, of St. Alban's, 1183-95; they had hitherto been buried under the green turf. In the 10th and following two centuries a low coped coffin of stone, with a hollow for the body, and a circular cavity for the head, was in use; one palm deep in St. Anselm's time. The boat shape is the most ancient, the ridge being next in point of age. St. Richard of Chichester, in the 13th century, was buried in a wooden coffin. Those of the Templars, in the Temple Church, London, are of lead, decorated with ornaments of elaborate design in low relief. An old legend represents St. Cuthbert, in his stone coffin, floating down the Tweed."
