I came across this interesting tale when going through the Parish records of Cambrai for my Huguenot research. Took place a little after the era of persecutions in the 1800's.
A wealthy local merchant at Quievy had married a Protestant girl and has caused quite a stir as these 'mixed' marriages though now legal were extremelly unusual. His wife died 2 years before him, and though he himself was a practising Catholic he requested he be buried with her, in the Protestant 'cemetery', in effect an area at the far end of the churchyard, unconsecrated, and cut off from the main church burial yard by a large hedge.
This presented a problem for the local preist, they were banned from even setting foot in the resting place for the 'heretics' by order from the Bishop. He wrote off a worried letter pointing out to the Bishop this family were the source of much of their local funding and were threatening to cut this off if he didn't conduct the ceremony. The Bishop sent back a letter ordering him to accompany the cortege on its journey through 'the holy ground' and then at the critical moment as they entered the heretics ground, he must seperate from the party, climb up on to the hedge and conduct the ceremony from up there! He apparantly did just this...and everyone was happy. Bizarre, but true!
A wealthy local merchant at Quievy had married a Protestant girl and has caused quite a stir as these 'mixed' marriages though now legal were extremelly unusual. His wife died 2 years before him, and though he himself was a practising Catholic he requested he be buried with her, in the Protestant 'cemetery', in effect an area at the far end of the churchyard, unconsecrated, and cut off from the main church burial yard by a large hedge.
This presented a problem for the local preist, they were banned from even setting foot in the resting place for the 'heretics' by order from the Bishop. He wrote off a worried letter pointing out to the Bishop this family were the source of much of their local funding and were threatening to cut this off if he didn't conduct the ceremony. The Bishop sent back a letter ordering him to accompany the cortege on its journey through 'the holy ground' and then at the critical moment as they entered the heretics ground, he must seperate from the party, climb up on to the hedge and conduct the ceremony from up there! He apparantly did just this...and everyone was happy. Bizarre, but true!
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