Sin Eaters

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11 November 2011

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Purifying the Dead by Eating Sin

For a fee, some people agreed to assume the transgressions of the dead in the belief

this would ease their passage into Heaven

Richard Munslow, the last known sin-eater in England, died in 1906. In September 2010 he was the subject of a special church service in the village of Ratlinghope, Shropshire to mark the restoration of his grave.

BBC News reports (September 2010) that, “It took a few months to raise the £1,000 needed to pay for the work.”

Sin Eaters Active throughout Europe

Found throughout the British Isles as well as continental Europe, the practice of sin eating probably passed down from pagan times and survived until about 100 years ago.

Dennis Turner

How many residents used a sin-eater?

The premise of the ritual was that the moral lapses of the deceased could be taken into the soul of another person. Thus purified, the dearly departed would be assured of a quick passage to Heaven rather than the other place.

Ceremony Opposed by Christian Church

The notion of sin-eating was frowned upon by the established church, which deemed itself the sole giver of absolution; religious authorities were not interested in having competition for their services.

However, the practice continued under the watchful eye of many country vicars, until it died out in the early 20th century, along with many other ancient superstitions that fell prey to reason and scientific enquiry.

The Reverend Norman Morris of Ratlinghope is quoted by the BBC as saying, “It was a very odd practice and would not have been approved of by the church but I suspect the vicar often turned a blind eye to the practice.”

Sin-Eating Ceremony Described

In 1852, Matthew Moggridge described the process at a meeting of the Cambrian Archaeological Society: “When a person died, the friends sent for the sin-eater of the district, who on his arrival places a piece of salt on the breast of the defunct, and upon the salt a piece of bread. He then muttered an incantation over the bread, which he finally ate.”

The sin-eater’s prayer was: “I give easement and rest now to thee, dear man. Come not down the lanes or in our meadows. And for thy peace I pawn my own soul. Amen.”

A small fee accompanied the ritual and he was often given beer or wine.

Sin-Eaters Shunned by Society

Except for when their services were required, sin eaters usually lived alone and apart from the community, for few would risk being friendly with someone so loaded up with the crimes of scores of people.

As a result, the work fell to the least fortunate people, beggars and the like, who had few other options for making a living.

As Moggridge described it, the sin eater “was utterly detested in the neighbourhood - regarded as a mere Pariah - as one irremediably lost.”

For someone filled with other people’s sins it was obviously a good idea to be an atheist and so avoid the occupational hazard of ending up in Hell.

Practice Survived into Modern Times

In Funeral Customs, Bertram S. Puckle (1926) equates sin-eating to the tribal tradition of slaughtering animals on the grave of deceased people.

“In the same manner,” he writes “it was the province of the human scapegoat to take upon himself the moral trespasses of his client - and whatever the consequences might be in the after life - in return for a miserable fee and a scanty meal.”

He expressed astonishment that the ritual still existed within the living memory of people at the time he wrote his book.

Sources

“Last ‘Sin-eater’ Celebrated with Service.” BBC News, September 18, 2010.

“Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.” James Hastings, 1926.

“Funeral Customs.” Bertram S. Puckle, 1926.

“In Upper Bavaria (Germany) sin-eating still survives: a corpse cake is placed on the breast of the dead and then eaten by the nearest relative, while in the Balkan Peninsula a small bread image of the deceased is made and eaten by the survivors of the family.”

1911 Edition of Encyclopedia Britannica