Observations on the Dead Emperor Collected from Annals and Laws

and could clearly see it, etc. Also, he speaks of the exposition of Emperor Matthias in Vol. IV, p. 334. The primary and most celebrated predecessor of this University, RINCK, my patron and most respected assistant in my studies, describes the funeral bed of the Emperor Leopold more fully in the second part of the life of this Emperor, p. 1693. Even from this, the Emperor could be recognized by the fact that the symbols of the empire were placed on the right. To recount every detail does not pertain to the present undertaking; and it is sufficiently certain that the same method of exposure under a canopy or baldachin was maintained for the two August sons of the Emperor Leopold. Nor were the insignia of the empire and kingdom missing from the funeral couch of the Empress, as appears from the example of Empress Anna, the wife of Matthias. KHEVENH. Vol. IV, p. 203.

§. VI.

Care of the funeral;

Let us now go to the funeral rites. In addition to GUTHER, KIRCHMANN on funerals, BULENGER on the Emperors, Book III, ch. 6, and JOHANN ERNEST FRANZEN in his commentary on the funerals of the ancient Christians teach the older funeral rites. First, we ask: who undertakes the care of the funeral? Indeed, the Romans had public funerals, which were performed by public authority or at public expense, sometimes due to the poverty of the deceased, GUTHER, Book II, ch. 1 and 34; but among the Germans, the relatives of the Emperor take care of the funeral, although it could sometimes be called public under a different concept. Thus, Maximilian I, with the advice of his administrators, organized the funeral of his father. FUGGER, p. 1075. Upon the death of Leopold, those who were of the privy council were convened for the purpose of the funeral, and the supreme prefect of the court, the Count of Harrach, presided over them, RINCK loc. cit. p. 1688, which has also been done similarly of late. In former times, there was no funeral procession of the Emperor more magnificent, a specimen of which we find in the exsequies of Otto III in TANCMAR, in the life of Bernward, ch. 33.