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Bible Dictionaries
Cemetery
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary
or A place set apart for the burial of the dead. Anciently, none were buried in churches or churchyards: it was even unlawful to inter in cities, and the cemeteries were without the walls. Among the primitive Christians these were held in great veneration. It even appears from Eusebius and Tertullian, that in the early ages they assembled for divine worship in the cemeteries. Valerian seems to have confiscated the cemeteries and other places of divine worship; but they were restored again by Gallienus. As the martyrs were buried in these places, the Christians chose them for building churches on, when Constantine established their religion; and hence some derive the rule which still obtains in the church of Rome, never to consecrate an altar without putting under it the relics of some saint.
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Buck, Charles. Entry for 'Cemetery'. Charles Buck Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/cbd/c/cemetery.html. 1802.
