Observations on the Dead Emperor Collected from Annals and Laws

Indiction.

The funeral was indicated to almost all the Kings of the Christian world and to the orders of the empire so that they might accompany it, as FUGGER explains more fully, loc. cit. Sometimes the nobles would also assemble of their own accord. Let us hear LAMBERT OF HERSFELD at the year 1056 regarding the honor of the funeral of Henry III:

There were present, as if summoned by effort for the duty of such a great funeral, the Roman Pontiff, the Patriarch of Aquileia, the uncle of the Emperor, the Bishop of Regensburg, and also other innumerable dignitaries of both the lay and ecclesiastical order; and it was noted that in the memory of our ancestors, no funeral had ever seen so many illustrious persons flow together at once without a public indiction. See also CHRON. S. AEGIDII, Vol. III of Leibniz’s collection on Brunswick history, p. 584.

The honorary funeral of Charles V is narrated.

How splendid the funeral procession for Charles V was, conducted for the sake of honor in Brussels, is clearly described by ADAM HENRICPETRI, Doctor of Laws, in a book published in Basel, the title of which is: General history of the most famous and principal events, etc., from the year 1555 to the year 1561. On p. 265 and following, all who followed the funeral are indicated; those who carried the banners, those who led the horses of the provinces, those who carried the helmets and shields are represented and named, with heralds intervening here and there. Most notable, however, is that beaked ship a funerary monument shaped like a galley which was moved in the procession by hidden art. It displayed images of the Emperor's virtues and his glorious deeds, with the Pillars of Hercules affixed. This ship is kept in the church with the banners and shields and is carried around in the city of Brussels every year around the feast of Pentecost with great celebration. Nor should it be passed over in silence that Charles V ordered his own funeral to be conducted while he was alive according to the customary rite, as indicated by LÜNIG, Theatrum Ceremoniale Theater of Ceremonies, Part II, ch. 18, no. 2.

Are the Emperor's funeral rites to be counted among the solemnities of the Empire?

I have no doubt, however, that the Emperor's funeral rites should be counted among the solemnities of the Empire. The matter was once called into question, namely at the funeral of Ferdinand I, by Dr. Zasius, when the hereditary Marshal of the Empire, the Count of Pappenheim...