Break a Rule But Save a Soul: Unbaptized Children and Medieval Burial Regulation

The social order in medieval Europe was permeated by Christian ontology and metaphysics. Not only did the teachings of the Church determine daily life and practices, but the ecclesiastic elites also claimed the sole authority over conceptions of the afterlife, its ontological and spatial structure, and the conditions to be met in order to qualify for redemption after death (Gureviè 1994). By the twelfth century – following a cross-generational, theological debate over what constituted the afterlife – Christian scholars had developed a complex and hierarchical picture of the world, divided into several spheres including heaven, hell, purgatory and earth (Le Goff 1990).