Tari Edit: Pest megye középkori templomai (Studia Comitatensia 27. Szentendre, 2000.)

cinity of the estate, north of it, the orientation of the excavated churches (Tápiógyörgye, Nagykáta) is exactly E-W, that makes us suggest a different way of possession. On the basis of the small number of churches investigated here it would be too early to jump to final conclusions, but the arising questions can mark the new direction of the church study. In Transdanubia there have been already attempts to find the connection between the shape of the church and the type of possessions. The result was significant: the favourite forms of ground plan were met at estates of the same legal status.

435 BURIAL Burial was a liturgical, communal event kept under the authority of the church. With the progress of the Christianity the church considered it to be important to push back and later to exterminate the pagan burial customs (like placing grave articles - food for the journey into the other world, tools, arms etc.- by the dead), burials in the sacred groves and sometimes to Christianise these traditions (donating a horse to the church). The Council of Szabolcs of 1092 ordered to bury the dead of the community into the consecrated territory around the church. The cemetery usually was surrounded by a ditch or a fence, sometimes by a stone wall, which is evidenced by archaeological excavations. Criminals and unbaptised persons could be buried only out of the cemetery. This rule makes us suggest a large number of churches and church construction works in process. In 60-70 years the order was fulfilled. We know from the Pray Codex (1192— 1195) that in the 12

th century people went to the house of the dead in a procession singing psalms, the priest sprinkled holy water and fumed the dead with incense. After that - by the sounds of the bell and the songs - they escorted the dead to the cemetery by the church, where the priest made his speech in Hungarian. Burials around the church became a common practice by the 12

th century. In the course of placing the dead into earth - similarly to the orientation of the churches - the directing of the look of the dead to east also played a significant role. The dead was placed into the grave with his head to west, and his feet to the east. So, the grave-pit was dug in W-E direction or corresponding to the orientation of the church. The latter case could be observed if the orientation of the church deviated significantly from the E-W direction, like in the case of the churches around Cegléd. It had also happened that the hill of the earlier cemetery was marked for church building and the church was built onto the graves. On the basis of the St. Gerald Legend

436

, in the time of the early church constructions the right of choice of the place of the churches belonged to the bishop. In the legend the believers brought presents for the bishop and asked him to "consecrate places in their land, where they will build churches". Then "the bishop visited his diocese to consecrate the graveyards of those who wanted to build a church".

421 May this sentence mean the custom of building a church in a cemetery? It does not clear whether the place was chosen by the bishop or he 4

" Czeglédi-Koppány 1964.150-153., Marosi 1969. Guzsik 1975.1979. The first version of the St. Gerald Legend must have been formed in the 11

th century. Its author is considered to be master Valter, the faithful friend of the bishop. The „larger" legend must have been written on the basis of this one in the 13th century. Bíró 1997. 87. 437 Bíró 1997. 98. 246