A Timeline for Taphophiles

The Middle Ages and the Renaissance

1000	Aleut Indians embalm bodies by removal of fatty tissues and immersion in running water. The Church bans cremation.
1009	The destruction of Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre by an overenthusiastic Muslim caliph leads to the Crusades.
1030	King Olaf of Norway dies in the battle of Stiklestad. Springs of water, reputed to have healing properties, attract pilgrims from all over Scandinavia.
1048	St. Odilo of Cluny institutes the first All Souls Day.
1050	The body of St. Ethelbert (though not the head which has been detached) is destroyed when the Danes burn Heresford, England.
1054	Pope Leo IX prepares for his death by placing his bed and his coffin side by side.
1066	The bones of St. Cuthbert are used to motivate the troops of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings.
1080	Christian doctors trained at Salerno, Italy, learn anatomy from dissecting pigs.
1087	The relics of St. Nicholas are removed to Bari, Italy, following the Muslim capture of Myra, Lycia.
1096	Japanese Emperor Shirakawa is so upset by the death of his daughter Teishi that he shaves his head and becomes a Buddhist monk. He retains control, however, of temporal affairs.
1098	King Henry I of England orders St. Edward the Confessor's coffin opened to satisfy his curiosity. Witnesses claim the century and a half old corpse to be still fresh and supple. Rochester's Bishop Gundulf steals a hair from Edward's beard, an act for which he is soundly scolded by Westminster's abbot.
1099	The First Crusade comes to an end as Crusaders massacre the inhabitants of Jerusalem, causing the streets to run with blood.
1100	St. Ivo of Chartres states that the dead can neither be tried nor denied burial.
1122	A German monk named Lambert negotiates for the translation of the body of St. Bregowine from Canterbury to a monastery in Bregowine's native Saxony. Lambert's subsequent death is taken as a sign that the relics are to remain in England.
1124	Death of Hasan E-Sabah, founder of the Nizari sect of Islam and reputed leader of the Assassins.
1128	The Bishop of Saint-Brieuc forbids burial at the foot of crosses at the crossroads.
1135	Henry I is embalmed using "Egyptian" methods despite Church discouragement of the practice.
1142	Peter Abelard dies enroute to Rome. His beloved Heloise is entrusted with the body.
1144	Nigel, Bishop of Ely, strips the tomb of St. Etheldreda so he can pay a fine of 300 Marks.
1150	Vikings robbing the great chamber tomb of Maes Howe in Orkney leave a Runic inventory of the goods they have plundered.
1155	The discovery of a large heap of bones at Cologne, Germany is hailed as the unearthing of the relics of St. Ursula and her thousand or more companions. Scholars now think that the charnel pit was merely an old burial ground.
1163	The Council of Tours declares that clerical physicians should abstain from autopsies to avoid shedding blood. St. Edward the Confessor's remains are moved to a new shrine within Westminster Abbey by order of Henry II.
1164	Heloise dies and is entombed with her beloved Abelard.
1170	A feudal Japanese warrior establishes an unusual precedent for declaring one's loyalty by committing seppuku.
1175	Japanese Buddhist priest Honen promulgates the doctrine of the Buddha of the Pure Land, which states that all those who sincerely invoke the name of the Amida Buddha on their deathbeds will be assured salvation. Thomas á Beckett is murdered by Henry II's henchmen. His martyrdom later inspires Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Peter Glenville's film Becket.
1177	A disgruntled canon steals the relics of St. Petroc from Bodmin, Cornwall, and carries them to St. Meer, Brittany. King Henry II orders the return of all Petroc's body parts but a rib to Bodmin.
1178	Monks from St. Albans dig in the Hills of the Banners near Redbourn to recover what they believe to be the bones of St. Amphibalus.
1179	Death of St. Hildegard von Bingen. A few years before, she and her convent were placed under interdict for allowing the burial of an excommunicate in their cemetery.
1186	Phillp the Fair rebuilds the wall around Paris's Cimitiere des SS. Innocents to discourage prostitution.
1187	The supposed relics of St. Martha (Cf. Luke 10:38-42) are "discovered" and enshrined at Tarascon, Provençal.
1191	England's Glastonbury Abbey burns, revealing an old burial ground. Within this the monks find a hollow log marked with a lead cross and the name of King Arthur. The skeleton of a blonde woman found in the same grave is identified by the monks as that of Guenivere. Donations for the rebuilding of the monastery consequently increase.
1193	St. Bartholomew of Farnes dies. He is buried in the stone sarcophagus that he, himself, has carved.
1199	Richard the Lion Heart dies. His lion-heart is removed and buried separately from his body. A barrow at Ludlow, England is opened and three human skeletons found therein are hailed as those of three Irish saints.
1204	Crusaders remove the body of St. Andrew from Constantinople to Amalfi.
1207	King John objects to Pope Innocent III's choice for Archbishop of Canterbury. The Vatican places an interdict on England, during which no sacraments or masses can be said. Corpses pile up all over creating major health problems for the next six years.
1213	Pope Innocent III lifts the interdict after King John allows Stephen Langton to return to England as Archbishop of Canterbury.
1216	The shrine of St. Wulfstan at Worcester, England, is stripped to pay a 300 mark levy. It is restored two years later, more grandly than before.
1218	Hermit Robert of Knaresborough thwarts an attempt by Cistercian monks to turn him into relics by arranging to be buried in a cave next to his hermitage.
1230	The remains of St. Francis of Assisi are reinterred in a new basilica dedicated to him.
1231	The Council of Rouen threatens those who dance in churches or cemeteries with excommunication.
1235	Human dissections are allowed at the University of Salerno.
1241	King Valdemar II of Denmark declares that "any silver or gold" found in a barrow belongs to the King.
1247	Chinese manual on autopsy, The Washing Away of Unjust Wrongs, describes how to determine cause of death by violence, burning, or drowning.
1255	Italian poet and monk Thomas of Celaeno dies, leaving behind the lyrics to the hymn Dies Irae. The body of a nine year old boy is discovered in a well near Lincoln, England. His killers are never identified. The corpse is transferred to the local cathedral where a cult springs up around his tomb. The spurious story that "Little St. Hugh" was ritually murdered by Jews enters the canon of medieval anti-semitic literature shortly thereafter.
1263	The tongue and two bones of St. Antony of Padua are removed from his tomb to serve as relics.
1267	England's Bishop Quevil orders that cemeteries in his diocese be enclosed so that animals should not graze there.
1269	Henry III funds the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey. The bones of St. Edward the Confessor get moved to a new, jewel-encrusted shrine.
1273	Death of Jabal Al-Din Al-Runi, Sufi poet who is a popular companion of the Anatolian upper classes and of Christian monks. He is enshrined in the Green Dome, a mausoleum built especially for him by admirers at Konya.
1278	Edward I orders the remains of Arthur and Guenivere placed in a black marble tomb at Glastonbury Abbey. Their skulls are put on display and their bones wrapped in silk.
1294	Pope Boniface VIII prohibits the separate burial of the heart, but this is later withdrawn by Pope Benedict XI.
1296	Scots raiders scatter the bones of the saints kept in the priory at Hexham.
1300 to 1532	The Incas practice child sacrifice, burying the young victims atop lufty Andean peaks.
1313	The body of Gherado of Florence (d. 1250) is tried for heresy.
1314	Robert the Bruce brings the arm of St. Fillan to the battle of Bannockburn. He attributes his victory to the saint's intercession.
1315	Mondino de Luzzi performs the first public dissection of a human body for his students. His Anatomia becomes a key text.
1317	Emperor Rudolph I releases the body of Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg, fourteen after the spiritual master's death. Meir was imprisoned in 1286, but refused to accept his followers' offers of a ransom lest he set a precedent by which other rabbis might be kidnapped.
1318	Construction of the Ossurap at Kutná Hora (now Czech Republic) following the deathof thousands of citizens from the Plague.
1328	Death of Ibn Tamiya, who has been imprisoned for voicing his opposition to the worship of saints by Muslims. His tomb in the Sufi cemetery at Cairo becomes a shrine for many who come to venerate him.
1340	Pilgrims begin visiting a seventh century B.C. chamber tomb at Salamis, Cyprus, in the belief that it is the tomb or prison of Saint Catherine.
1348	The Black Death forces Venetians to abandon their usual custom of displaying the corpse. Instead, they bury the bodies almost immediately. Strasbourg's Christians hang 2000 Jews in retribution for their alledged spreading of the Black Death. The scaffolds are erected on a Jewish burial ground. Executions proceed despite two papal bulls exonerating the Jews.
1361	King Pedro of Portugal has the body of his Spanish lover, Inez de Castro exhumed and enthroned as his Queen. Castro was executed in 1355 by Pedro's father.
1367	The Council of York forbids "rousing the ghost" and other practical jokes on grieving relatives.
1380	St. Catherine of Sienna is decapitated after her death from a stroke so that her head may remain in Siena and her body may be interred at Santa Monica sopa Minerva in Rome.
1389	First reports of the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius (who may be apocryphal) at Naples.
1397	Construction of a mausoleum for Sufi saint Ahmed Yesevi begins. It is completed the following year.
1405	The Council of Nantes forbids dancing, juggling, the playing of games, and many other entertainments in cemeteries.
1410	Physicians perform an autopsy on Pope Alexander V to determine if he was poisoned. (They find no evidence.)
1425	John Wycliff (d. 1384) is tried for heresy.
1431	The ashes of Joan of Arc are thrown into the Seine.
1440	Florentine painter Andrea del Castagno paints a fresco on the façade of the Palazzo del Podesta showing men hanged as traitors. Andrea is thereafter known as Andreino degl’impiccati or "Andrew of the Hanged Men"
1457	The Scottish parliament mandates the use of churchyards for weekly archery practice.
1460	Roger van der Weyden paints The Seven Sacraments altarpiece. The last sacrament is, of course, extreme unction or the last rites.
1461	Thomas Paleologus bestows the head of St. Andrew on Pope Pius II. It remains in Rome until it is returned to the Patriarch of Constantinople by Pope Paul VI.
1477	The duc de Lorraine builds a chapel on the site of the mass grave where Charles the Bold and his army are interred, outside Nancy.
1479	John of Sahugan prophesies his own death, which takes place on June 11 of this year. His tomb attracts pilgrims, who report miracles.
1485	Workmen quarrying along the Appian Way find the perfectly preserved body of a beautiful Roman girl. Pope Innocent VIII orders "Julia, daughter of Claudius" to be buried in a secret place to prevent a neo-pagan cult from developing around her body.
1505	The Council of Edinburgh agrees to turn over one executed criminal each year for dissection.
1508	The remains of St. Dunstan are exhumed so that part of his crown can be serve as a holy relic.
1520	Denmark's King Christian II has the body of Swedish patriot Sten Sture dug up and burned along with that of Sture's small child.
1522	Portuguese merchants, arriving in India, find the purported tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle at Mylapore.
1527	Some of Pizarro's men first observe the process of head-shrinking in Peru.
1529	Göttigen is stricken with a plague so devastating that corpses must be buried eight to a grave. The same "sweating sickness" also strikes London, Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck, Marburg, Augsburg, Vienna and Switzerland. The French are spared. The English Parliament sets a sliding scale of mortuary charges to be paid to the lord of the manor. Deceased persons owning less than 10 marks worth of property are exempted from all death tolls.
1530	The Ottoman sultan gives the body of St. John the Almsgiver to King Matthias of Hungary.
1533	First autopsy performed in the New World at Santo Domingo, Hispanola. Determines that Siamese twins have two separate souls. Father protests and pays for only one funeral.
1534	Michaeangelo finishes work on the Medici family tomb and moves to Rome.
1539	Soldiers of Henry VII pillage several famous churches and abbeys, destroying the tomb of King Arthur at Glastonbury and the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. Lutheran Phillip of Hesse removes the relics of Elizabeth of Hungary from her Marsburg Church and disposes of them.
1540	The bones of Thomas á Becket (d.1170) are exhumed and burned as punishment for high treason against the English king, Henry II.
1541	Protestant zealots destroy the relics of Saints Etheldreda, Sexburga, Wineburga, and Ermengild at Ely.
1542	Swiss traveller Joseph de Meggen witnesses the pillaging of the Salamis necropolis and buys several mementoes from the tomb robbers.
1543	Belgian anatomist Andreas Vesalius publishes his De Corporis Humani Fabrica in defiance of the Church's ban against dissection.
1555	The Pieta, depicting the Virgin Mary holding the body of the dead Christ, is finished by Michaelangelo. The town of Chatelet, France, rejects the idea of building a cemetery on the island of Macquerelle because citizens fear that those taking bodies to the cemetery will throw them in the River Seine.
1556	Holy Roman Emperor Charles V abdicates and spends the last three weeks of his life undergoing daily enactments of his own funeral at a Yuste monastery.
1558	Protestants burn St. Winnoc's Monastery, Bergues, Flanders, destroying many reputed saints' relics.
1559	Inca mummies publically preside over their last major feast. Afterwards, they hide under the skirts of saints. Vicq d'Azyr claims that people living next to cemeteries are the first to be infected and the longest to suffer in times of contagion.
1562	Pieter Brueghel paints The Triumph of Death. Calivinists destroy the crypt tomb of St. Irenaeus of Lyons.
1563	The Scottish Parliament provides that all parishes shall have a bier which shall be used to transport the bodies of the poor.
1564	Andreas Vesalius, noted anatomist and physician to the Holy Roman Emperor, misdiagnoses a Spanish nobleman as dead, killing the patient during the autopsy.
1565	London's Royal College of Physicians receives permission to perform dissections.
1566	The Assembly of Scotland prohibits church burials and denies violators religious priveleges.
1572	Pope Gregory XIII celebrate the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre by orderng the lighting of bonfires. 50,000 Huguenots die at the instigation of Catherne de'Medici. Among the dead are Admiral de Coligny and the mathematician and logician Pierre de la Ramée.
1578	The Roman catacombs are rediscovered.
1579	Calvinists scatter the relics of St. Gudula at Brussels, Belgium.
1580	The Port of Rye, England requires corpses to purchase a license if they are to be buried in coffins.
1581	The Council of Rouen allows church burial for monks, the clergy, the rich, and "those who by their nobility, their actions, and their merits have distinguished themselves in the service of God and of the common good."
1587	Religious turmoil in Flanders promots the return of the relics of St. Leocadia to Toledo, Spain.
1588	Remains found at Messina, Sicily, are identified as relics of St. Placid and thirty companions who were killed by Saracen pirates from Spain: a remarkable occurence given that Placid lived in the 6th century and the Moors had not yet invaded Spain.
1589	Protestant officials discover, to their dismay, a competitive market for lambs and cattle offered at the tomb of St. Beuno, in Wales. Their owners buy them back, believing that the cattle "prospered marvellous well".
1592	Pilgrims visiting the tomb of lay brother Paschal Baylon, who dies this year, claim to hear knocking sounds from within. The reports will continue for 200 years. Baylon is canonized in 1690.
1593	A mausoleum is a key feature of Spain's recently completed Escorial Palace. The Scottish Parliament mandates that begger's prisons and stocks be placed in churchyards.
1594	The Turks burn the relics of St. Sava of Serbia, housed at Milesevo.
1595	Matthew Wall of Braughing, England, finally dies, several years after nearly being buried alive.
1598	The Scottish Parliament decrees that a black mort-cloth shall be "laid on the corpse of the poor." In his Les Cimetiéres sacrez, Bishop Henri de Sponde argues against mixing Catholic and Protestant burials, lest they provoke "sedition and quarrels."
1599	The tomb of St. Cecilia in Rome is opened. Her 1200 year old body shows little signs of decay. Exposure to the air, however, leads to its rapid disintegration.

Photos come from the Detroit Publishing Archive of the Library of Congress American Memory Collection. 1 - Necropolis San Cristobal, Havana Cuba; 2 - Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina; 3 - Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan