Mos Teutonicus

Lore & Background

During the Middle Ages, nobles sometimes died far away from where they wished to be buried. They often wanted their hearts to be buried in their homeland, thus their bodies had to travel far distances. Emperor Charlemagne outlawed cremation, deeming destruction of the bones as destruction of the soul. Anyone who cremated a person's bones was subject to the death penalty. Thus, the practice of Mos Teutonicus came about as a way to preserve the bones over long distances without destroying them. Mos Teutonicus has been observed as early as the 10th century. Notable examples were multiple rulers from the Ottonian and Salian dynasties in which the rulers were transported to burial locations far from their place of death.

During the Second Crusade for the Holy Land it was not thought fit for aristocrats to be buried away from their homeland in Muslim territory. The transportation of the whole body over long distances was impractical and unhygienic due to decomposition. Mos Teutonicus was especially prevalent in warmer climates, such as around the Mediterranean Sea, since the body was subject to faster decay. German aristocrats were particularly concerned that burial should not take place in the Holy Land, but rather on home soil. The Florentine chronicler Boncompagno was the first to connect the procedure specifically with German aristocrats, and coins the phrase Mos Teutonicus, meaning 'the Germanic custom'.

English and French aristocrats generally preferred embalming to Mos Teutonicus, involving the burial of the entrails and heart in a separate location from the corpse. One of the advantages of Mos Teutonicus was that it was relatively economical in comparison with embalming, and more hygienic. Corpse preservation was very popular in medieval society. The decaying body was seen as representative of something sinful and evil. Embalming and Mos Teutonicus, along with tomb effigies, were methods of giving the corpse an illusion of stasis and removed the uneasy image of putrefaction and decay. In 1270, the body of King Louis IX, who died in Tunis, which was Muslim territory, was subject to the process of Mos Teutonicus for its transportation back to France.

Reader's Guide

Mos Teutonicus represents a significant medieval solution to the logistical and theological problem of transporting high-status corpses over long distances for burial in ancestral soil. Its practice reflects the era's deep concern with bodily integrity, as cremation was outlawed by Charlemagne, and the belief that the decaying body symbolized sin. The custom was especially associated with German aristocrats, who insisted on burial at home rather than in the Holy Land during the Crusades. The process—dismemberment, boiling in water, wine, milk, or vinegar, and scraping bones clean—was economical and hygienic compared to embalming, which English and French nobles preferred. The Church initially held the practice in high regard, but Pope Boniface VIII forbade it in his 1299 bull De Sepulturis due to his ideal of bodily integrity. This bull was often misinterpreted as a ban on human dissection, potentially hindering anatomical research, though it only prohibited Mos Teutonicus. The custom ceased in the 15th century, but its legacy endures as an example of how medieval society reconciled practical needs with religious and cultural values regarding death and the body.

Did You Know?

• Emperor Charlemagne outlawed cremation, deeming destruction of the bones as destruction of the soul, with the death penalty for violators.
• The Florentine chronicler Boncompagno coined the phrase Mos Teutonicus, meaning 'the Germanic custom'.
• In 1270, the body of King Louis IX, who died in Tunis, was subjected to Mos Teutonicus for transport back to France.
• Pope Boniface VIII's 1299 bull De Sepulturis forbade Mos Teutonicus, but was often misinterpreted as a prohibition against human dissection.