Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1896 — BURIAL OF POPE PIUS IX. [ARTICLE]

BURIAL OF POPE PIUS IX.

Walled Up in a Temporary Tomb Until Put In the Crypt. Few saw the scene which followed, when the good Pope's body had lain four days in state, and wiis then placed in its coffin at night, to be hoisted high and swung noiselessly into the temporary tomb above the small door on the east side —that Is, to the left of the Chapel of the Choir. It was for a long-time the custom that each pope should lie there until his successor died, when his body was removed to the monument prepared for it in the meantime, and the pope just dead was laid in the same place. The church was almost dark, and only in the Chapel of the Choir and thaf of the Holy Sacrament, which are opposite each other, a number of big wax candles Shed a yellow light. In the niche over the door a mason was still at work, with a tallow dip, clearly visible from below. The triple coffins stood before the altar in the Chapel of the Choir. Opposite, where the body still lay, the Noble Guards and the Swiss Guards, in their breastplates, kept watch with drawn swords and halberds. The Noble Guards carried the bier on their shoulders in solemn procession, with chanting choir, robed bishops, and tramping soldiers, round by the Confession and across the church, and lifted the body into the Coffin. The Pope had been very much beloved by all who were near him, and more than one' gray-haired prelate shed tears of genuine grief that night. In the coffin, in accordance with an ancient custom, a bag was placed containing ninety-three medals, one of gold, one of silver, and one of bronze for each of the thirty-one years during which Pope Pius had reigned; and a history of the pontificate, written on parchment was also deposited at the feet of the body. When the leaden coffin was soldered, six seals were placed upon It, five by cardinals and one by the archivist of the Chapter of St. Peter's. During the whole ceremony the prothonotary apostolic, the chancellor of the Apostolic chamber, and the notary of the Chapter of St. Peter’s were busy, pen in hand, writing down the detailed protocol of the proceedings. The last absolution was pronounced, and the coffin In its outer case of elin was slowly moved out, and raised in slings, and gently swung into the niche. The masons bricked up the opening in the presence of cardinals and guards, and long before midnight the marble slab, carved to represent the side of a sarcophagus, was in its place with its simple Inscription, “Plus IX., P. M.”— Century.