If you want to encourage nobles to do more of something, ban it. That’s what Pope Boniface VIII would have learned had he lived to see sustained popularity of dismembering and boiling corpses. His efforts to stop it only ensured it continued with greater vigor, creating a medieval Streisand Effect.
From the 9th to the 13th century, kings, emperors, prelates, and nobility living north of the Alps wanted their bodies divided upon death. These included but were not limited to bones, hearts, and entrails. The practice then spread to France, England, and even Scotland. ((Agostino Paravincini Bagliani, “The Corpse in the Middle Ages: The Problem of the Division of the Body,” in The Medieval World, eds. Peter Linehan and Janet L. Nelson, (New York: Routledge, 2001), 328, 330.))
The purposes varied, but it started with ease of transport and morphed into a desire to bury one’s remains in numerous spots. In some instances, dead kings wanted their remains to go to war, typically in the Holy Land.
When it came to transporting bodies, nobles found it much more sanitary and less putrid to boil a corpse with water and wine. Eventually, you could separate the bones from the flesh and carry the former back to one’s preferred burial spot. The earliest example was Emperor Charles the Bald (d. 877) whose bones were carried back to Saint-Denis, his desired resting place. ((Bagliani, “The Corpse in the Middle Ages,” 328.))
Then there arose a desire to associate one’s remains with various places. Emperor Otto I (d. 973) had his entrails buried in Memleben and the rest of his body in Magdeburg. ((Elizabeth A. R. Brown, “Death and the Human Body in the Later Middle Ages: The Legislation of Boniface VIII on the Division of the Corpse,” Viator 12 (1981): 226.)) Richard I (d. 1199) probably had the most complex burial with his heart, brain, blood, entrails, and body all going to various spots. When Frederick Barbarossa died en route to crusade in the Holy Land (1190), his bones were sent to Tyre with the goal of completing his pilgrimage. ((Brown, “Death and the Human Body,” 228, 227.)) Alfonso X of Castile (d. 1284), Edward I (d. 1307) and Robert the Bruce (d. 1329) purportedly wanted their hearts sent to the Holy Land. ((Alfonso and Edward in Brown, “Death and the Human Body,” 230, 234. More on Edward and Robert in future posts.))
As pious as these royal wishes may appear, local friars likely encouraged separate burials so as to secure money for their various establishments. The heart of an emperor at one abbey and the entrails at another meant that two abbeys could split funding. ((Brown, “Death and the Human Body,” 249.))
Pope Boniface VIII’s bull against dismembering bodies
All of this disgusted Pope Boniface VIII who banned the practice in a bull on September 27, 1299 and then again on February 28, 1300. ((Complete English translation available in Bagliani, “The Corpse in the Middle Ages,” 333-334.)) In it, he describes the practice of dividing a corpse for any reason—transport or multiple burials—as atrocious, savage, sacrilege, monstrous, horrible, perverse, inhumane, and an abominable act of cruelty.
As for anyone who ignores the command to stop, they can expect
Excommunication which we issue from now onwards, and from which they shall obtain no absolution, except from the Apostolic See alone, or on their deathbed.
As for the deceased that had their corpse divided in any way,
Likewise, the person whose body has been so treated in a manner so inhuman, let him be deprived of ecclesiastical burial.
Remarkably, the practice never stopped and continued well into the 18th century. In late 16th-century France, families assumed they would get to keep the heart when a member died. Instead, Boniface managed to make the practice more exclusive, more privileged. Immediately after the pope’s death, nobles bombarded Boniface’s successors with requests for special dispensation, which many of them secured. ((Brown, “Death and the Human Body,” 264-265.))
It was essentially a medieval version of the Streisand Effect.
In future posts, we’ll look at the unique cases of Edward I and Robert the Bruce who had special instructions for their bodies.