MORTE

DEATH. — It is the end of natural or physical life, which occurs through the separation of the two constitutive principles of man: the soul and the body. Due to indispositions, whether natural or violent, affecting the essential parts of the human organism, the body becomes unfit to be vivified by the soul, and thus separation takes place. In this way, man ceases to exist; he dies. The body then further dissolves into its many constituent elements.

OUTLINE:

I. Dogmatic Theology

II. Canon Law and the juridical effects of death

III. The medico-legal and medico-moral perspective on death

IV. Iconography

V. Biology.

I. DOGMATIC THEOLOGY

Holy Scripture describes death as a dissolution (Phil. 1:25; 2 Tim. 4:6), as laying aside one’s earthly tabernacle (2 Pt. 1:14), or as departing from the body; the body returns to the earth from which it came (Gen. 3:19; Ps. 145:4; Eccl. 12:7). Before the Redemption, the soul, upon death, joined those who had previously departed this life in the 8e'6l, as stated in the Old Testament (Gen. 15:15; 25:8; 49:29; cf. LIMBO. II. DESCENT OF CHRIST INTO HELL). After the Redemption, the soul, if worthy, enters Paradise (cf. Rev. 14:13). Scripture also calls death a “dormition” (entering into sleep), though this must be understood as the body falling asleep, not the soul (cf. Deut. 31:16; Jn. 11:11–12; 1 Cor. 7:39; 11:30; 15:18; 1 Thess. 4:12 ff.; 2 Pt. 3:4).

According to Catholic doctrine, death originally came upon mankind through the sin of the first parents. This is a traditional and explicit teaching of the Church, directly drawn from Revelation. Death was threatened to the first parents as a penalty for transgressing a divine precept, and since the transgression occurred, the threat took effect (Gen. 2:17; 3:3). Thus, death entered the world on account of sin (Wis. 2:23–24; Jn. 8:44; Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:21–22; Heb. 9:27). It is not that death is unnatural to man, a complex creature whose bodily organism is naturally subject to corruption; rather, he would have been preserved from it by a preternatural gift of God. Divine Providence would have preserved man from this fatal outcome toward which the human organism naturally tends by communicating to the soul an indefinite, miraculous energy capable of infusing the body with perpetual vigor and preserving it from violent death. Thus, man “could not die,” as St. Augustine expresses II.
Such a benefit was fitting to God’s generosity, for having created a being composed of spirit and matter, such as man, and having elevated him further to share in His friendship through grace, God was bound in some way to confer upon the spirit dominion over matter, so that it might be preserved from sickness, old age, and the sorrows and sadness of dissolution that weigh upon the spirit. Yet this benefit was conditioned upon man’s will submitting to God’s will, and it would have been a precious element of man’s total harmony, rooted in the proper subjection of the creature to God. Through the culpable loss of this benefit, death, while remaining a natural phenomenon with respect to the body, came to assume the character of a penalty; it became, at once, a natural fact and a punishment. The punishment of original guilt consisted precisely in depriving man—who had withdrawn from God’s will—of the gratuitous preternatural gifts that rendered the soul master over the body and all other natural forces. By this punishment, man’s life on earth became precarious and dominated by the fear of death, ever threatened by II. For this historical connection between guilt and death, guilt itself is called the “death of the soul,” and the analogy of death vividly recalls the effects of sin.

Christ, who came into the world to destroy sin (and continues to destroy it in souls through the Sacraments), would also destroy death by calling men to the Resurrection.

With the instant of death, man’s state of probation comes to an end, and he reaches his definitive end; the time of merit and demerit ceases: the just can no longer sin, nor can the wicked be converted. This is a doctrine constantly taught by the Church, which has condemned in the past Origen and his followers—who, inspired by pagan myths, taught the restoration (ἀποκατάστασις) of all things, and thus also of man’s earthly period, as if there were no definitive state for souls even after death—and condemns no less energetically modern theosophists who teach the transmigration of souls according to the fanciful law of “Karma.” This error strips terrestrial life of all its value, deluding man into thinking he can perform in other existences the good he ought to do in this life, contrary to the express teaching of the Gospel, which commits man in this life to the definitive conquest of eternity (Lk. 16:19–20; Mt. 25:31–32; 2 Cor. 5:10).

II. CANON LAW AND THE JURIDICAL EFFECTS OF DEATH

The end of canonical personality, conferred by baptism, occurs with death, when all juridical relationships are extinguished. Yet it is not always possible to obtain full proof of a person’s death, and in such cases the Church, though it does not recognize the institution of legal presumption of death nor possess a regulation governing simple presumption or praesumptio hominis, provides certain norms, especially to permit the surviving spouse to contract a new marriage.

Already in some passages of Gratian’s Decree and the Decretals of Gregory IX, it is expressly affirmed that no absence, however prolonged, can suffice to introduce a juridical presumption of the death of the missing spouse, nor thus authorize the dissolution of the marriage: the surviving spouse may not be permitted to enter into a new marriage until he receives certain news of the husband’s death or is firmly certain that his spouse has departed this life (c. 1, C. XXXIV, q. 1; c. 19, X, V. 1; c. 2, X, V. 21). This principle was later vigorously confirmed by the Council of Trent (Session XXIV, De sacramento Matrimonii, canon V).

Among canonists, much debate arose over whether public fama alone sufficed to declare the death of an absent person, or whether a more reliable means of proof, such as the testimony of one or more witnesses, was required. What remained beyond dispute, however, was the necessity of moral certainty regarding the death of the missing person. Thus, although simple probability—grounds for believing in the spouse’s death—was not deemed sufficient to authorize the dissolution of the marriage and the surviving spouse’s remarriage, neither was absolute physical certainty required: a degree of probability regarding the missing person’s death, attained through testimonial and circumstantial evidence, was considered sufficient to produce moral certainty of his actual decease.

Among the papal instructions, the *Matrimonii vinculo*, issued on 13 May 1868, holds particular significance as it constitutes the principal canonical source on the matter. While reaffirming that the mere absence of a spouse and absolute silence do not suffice as evidence to prove death, it establishes that in cases of a spouse’s absence, the bond may be dissolved and the surviving spouse permitted to enter a new marriage if at least morally certain proof of the missing spouse’s death is obtained. In other words, circumstantial evidence may suffice to establish moral certainty.

In the *Codex Iuris Canonici* (can. 1053), reference is made to the possibility of a *permissio transitus ad alias nuptias ob praesumptam coniugis mortem* [permission for passage to another marriage due to the presumed death of a spouse]. However, the interpretation of this norm must also consider another provision contained in can. 1069 § 2, which prohibits a spouse from contracting a new marriage until the nullity or dissolution of the prior marriage has been lawfully and certainly established. Otherwise, one would have to suppose that the legislator fell into clear contradiction. By relating the prescription of can. 1053 to that of can. 1069 § 2, one arrives at the logical conclusion that the expression adopted in can. 1053 is equivalent to the traditional *omnimodo indubitata certitudo moralis* [moral certainty beyond all doubt] of death. Therefore, in the absence of an authentic document, ecclesiastical authority may declare death based on a simple presumption—that is, a conviction derived from reasoning. It is obvious that such a presumption would fall before any contrary evidence, even if only a theoretical possibility remains.

Naturally, any second marriage would prove non-existent if the presumed deceased were found to be alive. If, however, the actual death of the missing spouse is established as having occurred after the second marriage, the latter may be validated (v.), provided that the consent of the parties is renewed or at least persists. In any case, by virtue of the principle of *favor matrimonii*, a marriage contracted by the spouse of the missing person—despite uncertainty regarding the absent party’s fate—is not considered ipso facto null by canon law. Can. 1014 of the *CIC* stipulates that in doubt, the validity of the marriage must be presumed, and therefore the proof of invalidity must be complete, full, and indisputable before a declaration of nullity of the second marriage may be issued.

Moreover, even after the promulgation of the *CIC*, the instruction *Matrimonii vinculo* of 1868 retained its normative value, as evidenced by the practice of the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments. On 1 July 1929, following the Concordat between the Holy See and the Italian Government, an instruction was published in which, at no. 48, it was stipulated that «in cases of presumed death of one of the spouses, if the case involves soldiers missing in the Great War and there exists a civil court judgment declaring presumed death, the Ordinary shall adhere to the instruction of the Holy Office of 1868, and once the new marriage is permitted, it shall proceed in the ordinary manner and be duly reported to the civil registry. Outside of this case, the matter for civil effects must be referred to the Secretariat of State.» Now, if the marriage has been dissolved or is presumed dissolved, having been declared by an Italian court—following a probative examination—a judgment of presumed death, the new marriage may be transcribed without further ado. However, if no such judgment has been issued, it would be logically impossible to proceed with the transcription of that marriage. Indeed, according to concordatory legislation, religious marriages cannot be transcribed by the state if, for one or both parties, there exists a prior civil marriage or if interdiction for mental infirmity has been pronounced. Moreover, there is no provision in state law granting ecclesiastical authorities the power to issue rescripts of presumed death that possess the efficacy of a civil court judgment.

### III. THE MEDICO-LEGAL AND MEDICAL-MORAL PERSPECTIVE ON DEATH

The fact of the cessation of life and the immediate circumstances preceding and accompanying it first raises the problem of apparent death.

Starting from a negative definition of death, one may say that it is the absence of all those signs that constitute the state of life for the individual in question. Focusing here solely on human death, it may be said to have occurred when there are no longer any signs of the essential functions for bodily existence.

In relation to the necessity that every living being has for plastic and energetic substances, metabolism becomes the characteristic and means of life, and its absence one of the distinguishing signs of death. It should be noted that in a corpse, an intense metabolism also takes place—sustaining the life of myriad other organisms—but this ferment of exchanges, oxidations, reductions, hydrolyses, scissions, and reconstructions assumes an entirely different orientation and purpose: no longer for the benefit of the organism that hosts them, but to its detriment and for the advantage of other lives. Therefore, taking as essential functions of metabolism respiration, circulation, and the activity of the nervous system, the definitive cessation of these may be regarded as a sure sign of death. These three vital signs are so interlinked in the balance of life that the prolonged absence of one inevitably leads to the ruin of the others. However, there exists among them a hierarchy of resistance in direct proportion to their biological and functional dignity, such that they display differing resistance to the assault of death: first to fail are the functions and life of the nervous system, then respiration, and lastly—being the most resistant—circulation. Thus, death proceeds in stages within the organism; it is never a univocal phenomenon (except in cases of sudden destruction through traumatic annihilation), but rather, corresponding to the differing resistance of the vital processes that characterize life, it advances with a succession of phenomena, with a more or less rapid progression. Hence the difficulty in ascertaining death in its early stages, and in determining the exact moment when the organism has absolutely ceased to live.

From the medico-legal and medico-pastoral perspective regarding the administration of certain Sacraments (Baptism, Extreme Unction), the most important and serious problem connected with the study of death is that of its unequivocal ascertainment, between the doubt of its reality and that of its appearance. It is well known how periodically public opinion is stirred by the re-emergence of the problem of apparent death and the possibility of being buried alive; and there exists an entire distressing literature on this subject. A tendency, supported even by modern authors, including FERRERES and GENIESSE, admits that: 1) no one dies at the moment considered the last of life, but after a more or less prolonged period; 2) during this time, which elapses between presumed death and real death (apparent or intermediate or relative death of d'Halluin), there persists a vitality and potential functionality of organic elements, such as to allow, if adequately stimulated, a moment of definitive return of the entire organism to full life even after several days, either spontaneously or, more easily, through particular means of resuscitation; 3) during such apparent death, the functions of respiration and circulation may be completely suspended, while external and internal consciousness regarding the environment may remain intact; 4) at the current state of our science, there is no sign or combination of signs capable of providing certainty of real death, except for the incipient cadaveric putrefaction, detectable by the appearance of greenish patches on the skin of the abdomen. Such admissions evidently give rise to the gravest concerns in everyone, concluding that a high percentage of individuals (ranging from 1% in some estimates to the alarming 33% in others, with GENIESSE contenting himself with a ratio of 5 per thousand!) face the terrifying fate of being buried alive.

Without doubt, however, the points previously outlined appear dictated more by exaggerated fancies than by solid and reliable biological knowledge. Indeed: it is true that the complete death of the organism, in every part, does not correspond with the moment when the individual appears to exhale the last breath; but it is not our concern if groups of cells or even tissues of secondary functional dignity (hairs, nails, epidermis, elements of the white blood series) persist in a supreme attempt at life, if a significant complex of symptoms assures us that the basal functions of life—respiration, circulation, vitality of the nervous system—are now collectively and definitively compromised. It is repugnant to biology to admit that elements of the nervous system, so avid for oxygen and in need of perfect circulation even in a state of functional rest, could remain alive, not for hours but indeed for days, in the complete cessation of respiration and immersed in a pool of stagnant, dead blood. Without doubt, under such conditions, the death of nervous elements occurs rapidly and irreparably, and it is absurd to think that the extreme survival of less noble and thus more resistant tissues could restore life to the former, now in full degeneration. It may also be admitted that the soul has not yet abandoned that body upon which death now rapidly leaves its mark (and even on this point, as is well known, the opinions of philosophers are not unanimous, for one could admit, with MERCIER, the existence of inferior vital principles animating partial compounds and lower organizations that form in the cadaver); but this "extreme presence" of the soul cannot suffice to revive elements now rendered incapable of life.

This holds true for that section of the nervous system entrusted with vegetative functions, now incapable of any coordination of the respiratory and circulatory apparatus—conditions sine qua non for life. Even more absurd appears the notion that the higher nervous system, a far more delicate instrument of our mental activity, could preserve itself in such conditions as to allow this individual, insensible to stimuli, immobile in his muscles, respiratory movements, heartbeat, and stagnation of circulating fluids, to maintain conscious relations with the surrounding environment, thus silently, nailed to his bed by muscular inertia, following the horrifying preparations for his own interment.

As regards, finally, the question of ascertaining death, it is true that there is no single and unequivocal sign of its occurrence, except for the putrefaction of the body; but it is also true that a combination of signs detectable in various organs and functions can, taken together, provide certainty of real death. It is clear that ascertaining death is always a matter of grave importance and represents a delicate act of medical competence, not to be entrusted to just anyone; the law wisely and sufficiently prescribes that burial shall not take place before 24 hours from the presumed moment of death (48 hours in cases of sudden death or if there are doubts of apparent death), and in any case not before death has been confirmed by a physician "necroscopo" (medical examiner). If all this is not observed, cases of people buried alive or even entire groups of the buried alive may well occur, as when (in wars, catastrophes, epidemics, etc.) a large number of people are struck simultaneously, and ignorance, carelessness, or practical impossibility of examining each individual leads to the erroneous presumption that the truly dead are grouped with those thought to be dead. Such "erroneous presumption of death" seems to be the main cause of the incredible statistics of people buried alive.

Moreover, it cannot be denied that there exist individuals who present a condition so closely simulating death as to appear truly lifeless even upon examination by a reasonably careful expert. There are indeed some diseases, far fewer than commonly believed, that can lead to a state closely simulating real death, from which the individual can sometimes be revived through lengthy and complex maneuvers. Such conditions include syncope, asphyxia, cessation of breathing and cardiac activity due to lightning or electric shock, freezing, anesthesia accidents, the algid state of cholera, states of extreme congenital weakness or atrophy or atresia in newborns or infants, etc. In every case, however, these are extremely serious incidents, true preludes to death, from which few individuals are saved, and even then only through prompt, skilled, and prolonged medical intervention; spontaneous resolution is excluded, and subsequent awakening in the tomb is unthinkable. The persistence of respiratory and cardiac arrest and the futility of prolonged resuscitation efforts definitively mark the occurrence of absolute death. In particular, the attention and imagination of laypeople are drawn to cases of apparent death linked to certain neuro-psychotic states (catalepsy, lethargy, etc.). It must be said that precisely in this field, such cases are truly very rare; furthermore, here the error of apparent death is easily dispelled by appropriate examination.

It can therefore be affirmed that a determination of death which provides full certainty is always possible, provided it is made by a skilled person and by utilizing a set of signs discernible from the different functions of the organism. Here is a simple exposition of the various signs most easily ascertainable:

a) From respiration: total and lasting arrest (non-observability or inaudibility of respiratory movements, absence of in-expiratory current verified by the old candle or mirror test or by the small tuft of cotton placed before the nostrils).

b) From circulation: the silence of the heartbeat upon prolonged auscultation or direct palpation through the abdominal wall, particularly in infants; the non-formation of a wheal in response to burns applied to the skin; the lack of green coloration of the sclera after injection of fluorescein; the lack of swelling of the veins after ligation of a limb; cadaveric hypostases, livid-like spots that appear in the most dependent parts after 3-6 hours from death; the lack of redness, swelling, or tearing of the eye after instillation of irritating substances (ether, 5% dionine).

c) From the activity of the nervous system: absence of the various reflexes carefully tested (sneezing, patellar, abdominal, cremasteric, plantar); in particular, the corneal reflex, which is very sensitive and easily provoked by lightly stimulating the anterior part of the eyeball (the response consists in the contraction of the eyelids or blinking).

d) The eye, in particular, provides numerous signs indicative of death having occurred: dilation of the pupil and its immobility under the action of a light ray; deformability of the pupil, which in life is constantly circular, when pressure is applied to the scleral margin (this is a sign of high value, because it is early and certain); clouding and drying of the cornea, which becomes wrinkled and presents black spots.

e) Various signs: cooling of the body (about one degree per hour); cadaveric rigidity, which begins to manifest no earlier than 3-6 hours after death (it is therefore useless to rush to arrange the corpse); lack of response to mechanical, thermal, or electrical muscular stimulation; finally, greenish cutaneous spots (combination of hydrogen sulfide of putrefactive origin and hemoglobin of the blood), which appear between the 48th and 62nd hour, first in the region of the lower right quadrant of the abdomen; the putrefactive development of hydrogen sulfide can also be evidenced by anemia and fever.

Anemia and fever are causes of extreme humiliation of the soul to the body during that period in which, after the last breath and the cessation of the heartbeat, the complete "cadaverization" of the individual is taking place. It is permissible, under certain conditions, to administer absolution and Extreme Unction up to half an hour after the appearance of death, if it is a case of death following a wasting illness, and up to about two hours if it is a case of sudden death (v. VERMEERSCH, ARTHUR, *Theologiae moralis*, etc., III, p. 536; V. Heylen, *De poenitentia*, Malines 1946, p. 319).

From a moral standpoint, it is not permissible for a physician or anyone else to inflict upon an individual thought to be dead injuries of such a nature as to be capable of causing death (severe mutilations, stab wounds to the heart, etc.), even if the person performing such acts is convinced that death has actually occurred; nor would it be permissible, out of condescension and to provide reassurance to those who request it, to simulate the performance of such acts, except for the most grave reasons and with the removal of any danger of scandal. The puncture of the heart with intraradical injection of stimulating substances (particularly adrenaline) is morally licit, provided the purpose of possible resuscitation is explicitly indicated, as it is not injurious and may revive the individual in cases of apparent death.

IV. Iconography

Many of the iconographic themes in Christian art relating to death have distant precedents in classical examples, not always forgotten by medieval artists. According to Herodotus, during banquets in wealthy houses, especially in Egypt, as an invitation to enjoy life, wooden or metal statuettes representing a mummy or a skeleton were presented to the guests. The von Bissing collection in Berlin preserves an interesting example of this, accompanied by a recitation in the form of a hood. Roman art produced new cult objects and bronze statuettes depicting skeletons; some of these, in the Antiquarium of Dresden and the Museum of Naples, are rendered with meticulous anatomical detail. Death is identified with the skeleton in a Hellenistic cup from the Schliemann collection in Berlin. The cups of Bosco Reale, of Pella, and of the Louvre present a veritable dance of the dead. The contacts between literary culture and the figurative arts regarding these macabre representations are evidenced by the reliefs of a funerary cippus in the British Museum (ca. 3rd century A.D.) illustrating a scene from the *Dialogues of the Dead* by Lucian. But most often, macabre representations assumed a satirical character. Skeletons are also depicted in interesting fragments of a mosaic floor, now in the Museum of the Baths in Rome.

In funerary monuments, however, death was replaced by allegories, such as the inverted torch, the theatrical mask, the head of Medusa, or, in the reliefs of sarcophagi, by cockfights, sphinxes, scenes of grape harvesting, and hunting. This symbolism passed precisely into early Christian art, which, for example, left one of the most solemn monuments directed in this sense in the ancient museum of the mausoleum of Costanza in Rome (4th century). Representations of death are very rare in Byzantine art. In the miniatures of the *Christian Topography* by Cosmas Indicopleustes in the Vatican Library, it is symbolized by a demon of dark complexion. In an ivory plaque from the British Museum, probably from the beginning of the 4th century, the personifications of sleep and death appear, receiving the soul of the deceased. Both are tall, but sleep is depicted as a youthful figure, while death is shown as an old, bearded woman of most repulsive appearance.

The properly macabre characteristics intensify in the West with the advance of the Middle Ages. In a Danish ivory cross from 1075 (Copenhagen Museum), the Contrast of Life and Death is depicted: Death, in feminine form, hurls a sleeping figure into a coffin marked with the word "sleep," at the feet of Life, depicted in regal forms and attire. But generally, Death is identified with the devil or the witch (depending on the gender of the term used in different languages) or with the corpse. Demon-like forms, in the act of devouring human beings, must have been its characteristics in a series of miniatures from 1122, part of the Funeral Office of St. Vitalis in the French National Archives. As a witch, it is presented in the

fresco with the Triumph of Death in the Camposanto of Pisa. The skeleton may first appear in the miniatures of the *Hortus deliciarum* by Herrade of Landsberg; on the western façade of the cathedral of Strasbourg, by a sculptor of the late 13th century who knew Byzantine anatomical drawings; in a relief of the baptismal font of Tryde, in Germany, illustrating the legend of St. Stanislas, and in various Last Judgments, the most interesting example of which, relating to Death, is found in the cathedral of Fribourg. This form of representation spread widely throughout Europe: a pupil of Giotto introduced it in the allegory of Chastity in the vaults of the Lower Church of Assisi; skeletons are depicted on tomb slabs. Three examples are known from the 14th century: one from a tomb of 1362 at La Sarraz in Switzerland, another from 1388 at Davcenescourt, and a third at Laon (France) in 1393. About a dozen examples are known from the 15th century; in these, Death, personified as a decomposing corpse, acquires realistic and revolting features, as in the relief of the tomb of Cardinal Lagrange, who died at Avignon in 1402, now in the local museum. These traits are accentuated in the innumerable representations of the 16th century. Sculptors took care to present all the most repugnant stages of the decomposition of the corpse, with slit and worm-eaten bellies (tomb of Jeanne de Bourbon, countess of Auvergne, now in the Louvre; tomb of René de Châlons at Bar-le-Duc, work of L. Richier, etc.). Painters also developed this theme: Memling in five panels of the Strasbourg polyptych, Jacopo Bellini in a drawing. It is also found in countless miniatures, illustrations, engravings, and woodcuts. The skull is a reduced depiction of Death, appearing at the foot of the Cross in the famous pulpits of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, as already in crucifixes and panels of the 1200s. In the Renaissance it became widespread in German and Flemish art, also in engravings and prints, finally becoming, with Dürer, a heraldic motif. In Italy, notable in the 17th century are the decorative sculptures for funerary monuments, some by Bernini.

But the macabre and fantastic spirit of the late Middle Ages manifested itself more clearly in true pictorial legends inspired by Death and sometimes composed of several themes. The principal among these cycles are the "Dance of Death" or "macabre," the "Meeting of the Three Living and the Three Dead," and the "Triumph of Death" or "Triumphant Death."

The "Dance of Death" (v.) is typically French and is linked to literary precedents dating back to the 12th century, but it persisted until the 18th century, leaving famous monuments. In Germany it took on pronounced satirical features from which individual themes derived: "Death and the Soldier," "Death and the Maiden," "Death and the Lover," etc., also collected in kind of breviaries and reproduced in prints and engravings, and due to great masters: Dürer, N. M. Deutsch, Holbein, Baldung, Grünewald, and Beham. In Italy the "Dance of Death" has few representations: the first, datable to about 1475, at S. Lazzaro outside Como, is influenced by French models, while at Clusone, Carisolo, and Pinzolo (the latter dating to 1539) it imitates German models; the only example of a manuscript miniature seems to be the "Dance of Death" in the Riccardiana Library in Florence.

Far more widespread in Italy is the theme of the "Meeting of the Three Living and the Three Dead," the origin of which is much debated. The earliest depiction of the meeting is found in S. Margherita near Melfi: three young men returning from the hunt seem to converse with three skeletons. In Abruzzo, in the cathedral of Atri, besides the skeletons and the hunters, a page and a hermit appear, a figure that will be typical of Italian iconography and that was sometimes identified with the holy monk Macherio (c. 1260). In the church of S. Paolo in the Old Camposanto at Poggio Mirteto (Sabina), from the second half of the 13th century, the knights are replaced by a king, who brings his hand to his mouth and appears dismayed before the corpse. Similar is the oldest fresco in the cloister of S. Maria di Vezzolano, near Castelnuovo d'Asti, in Piedmont. A hermit, from the top of a rock, unfurls a scroll toward three knights, terrified by the skeletons, in a fine fresco of S. Flaviano di Montefiascone (early 14th century). This iconography is also found at Subiaco, in a panel at the University of Göttingen by Jacopo del Casentino, in a diptych of the Accademia in Florence attributed to Bernardo Daddi, in the Breviary of Bianca of Savoy, in the second cloister of S. Maria di Vezzolano, etc. (14th century), and in the 15th century in a fresco attributed to Martino di Alberto da Ponte a Pietra in S. Fermo in Verona, in a panel of the Crawford collection in London, in a fresco in the sacristy of S. Luca in Cremona, etc., up to the drawings by Jacopo Bellini, one in the Louvre and one in the British Museum.

Sometimes the "Dance of Death" and the "Meeting of the Living and the Dead" are combined: perhaps this gave rise to the canvases by Poussin (Louvre and the collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth) and Guercino (at the Corsini Gallery in Rome) representing in an Arcadian setting the meditation on Death: *"Et in Arcadia ego."*

But more noteworthy than all, at least for Italian art, is the representation of the "Triumph of Death," which combines and summarizes the most important elements of the previous themes. The earliest illustration of the theme is a small panel in the Pinacoteca of Siena, formerly belonging to the monastery of Montagnana, and attributed non-unanimously to Pietro Lorenzetti. It also shows notable affinities with the famous fresco of the Camposanto of Pisa. Slightly later must be the Triumph of Death frescoed in the Scala Santa of the Sacro Speco in Subiaco. The greatest representations of this Triumph are the fragmentary one in S. Croce in Florence, that in the Camposanto of Pisa, and that in the Palazzo Sclafani in Palermo. The Triumph of Death in the Camposanto of Pisa is iconographically linked to that of Florence but presents greater complexity. To it is connected the representation of the happy eremitical life in the Thebaid, derived from the *Lives of the Holy Fathers* by Domenico Cavalca. In the mid-15th century another representation of the Triumph of Death spread from Florence, inspired by the allegories of Petrarch. In 1441 Pietro de' Medici commissioned Matteo de' Pasti to illustrate the *"Trionfi"*: surviving examples include cassoni, panels in the Horne Museum, in the Pinacoteca of Siena, in the Gardner collection in Boston, in that of Landau in Florence, in the Rossetti Library in Trieste, in the Albert Museum, etc. As in the ancient *"trionfi"*, Death, generally as a skeleton with a scythe, dominates from the top of a chariot, over a procession intended to present various images, allegories, and literary symbols. Sometimes the chariot is drawn by skeletons or by apocalyptic horsemen, with elements symmetrical to those of the other *"trionfi"* to which this scene was most often joined. The theme, especially in Italy, spread rapidly into dozens of illuminated manuscripts, and sometimes became the subject of large frescoes, such as that by Lorenzo Costa in the Bentivoglio chapel in S. Giacomo Maggiore in Bologna (1490), which also includes a theophany.

V. Biology

I. Death of the individual and perpetuity of the species

The definition of death presents the same difficulties as the definition of life, since, in saying that it is “the cessation of the vital process,” one introduces the question of what life is (v.). In any case, death is the inevitable conclusion of every vital process, and the so-called cases of immortality in certain unicellular organisms (protozoa, protophyta) do not invalidate this aspect, even though they reproduce by dividing successively into two, thus appearing to constitute the prototypes of corporeal beings that give rise to those of the offspring. Although it is true that they reproduce for countless generations without leaving cadavers between one generation and the next, it is equally true that after a certain number of generations, in a relatively short time, practically nothing remains of the original protoplasm, which has instead been gradually renewed (Naupas, Woodruff, Lumière, Varigny). This does not even take into account the hecatombs that these animals undergo when environmental conditions (humidity, nutrition, temperature, etc.) become unfavorable; in such cases, only a few individuals in cyst form, in a latent state of life, manage to survive so as to become the progenitors of a new series of generations with the return of favorable conditions.

Even the concept of the perpetuity and continuity of the germ plasm of higher, multicellular forms, according to the views of Weismann (idioplasm), is subject to the same criticism; namely, that little or nothing materially remains of the plasma of the first germ cells after the countless series of generations that have led to the present generation of living beings. The mechanism of the continuous cellular reproduction of the germ line, while on the one hand allowing the transmission of part of the old material, on the other leads to the continuous production of new material with the same characteristics as that directly transmitted to the descendant cells; the old protoplasm is thus progressively replaced by new material specifically similar. Thus, by a paradoxical mechanism, life perpetuates and renews itself through a slow and progressive death.

In metazoa and metaphyta, i.e., in multicellular organisms, the germ line is accompanied by the soma, which represents the most substantial part of the body. In the soma, cells, following different lines, differentiate into various tissues with specific functions so as to carry out, through the division of labor, a specific activity. But with specialization, cells lose the ability to reproduce: histological differentiation condemns them to death, and in those tissues where there is great functional wear and the elements are rapidly destroyed, it is necessary that reserves of undifferentiated cells remain for the continuous renewal of the tissue through their reproduction.

Based on many observations in experimental embryology (isolation of blastomeres), experimental morphology (regenerative phenomena), and cytogenetics (value of cell nuclei), every cell of an individual can be considered potentially capable of reproducing an entire organism as if it were an egg cell, because every cell contains the entire hereditary patrimony (excluding, of course, cases in which there has been degradation of nuclear chromatin or of the entire nucleus). The conditions of monovular twins (polyembryony) and the numerous cases of somatic or vegetative reproduction in many plants and animals (coelenterates, worms, tunicates, etc.) support this concept. The difference between the somatic line and the germ line would therefore not be essential but would consist solely in the loss by somatic cells of the current ability to reproduce with total effect due to the limitations imposed by differentiation. The soma can thus be considered as part of a single line of cells that sacrifices itself through differentiation to allow the subsistence, through the differentiation of an individual, of the relatively few cells of the gonads that preserve, with germinal properties, topogenesis, thus allowing the perpetuation of the species through successive generations. If the perpetuation of life is considered the paramount problem of living beings, since this perpetuation occurs, as has been said, in unicellulars as well as in the germ line of multicellulars through a mechanism of renewal without an actual material death of appreciable weight, the phenomenon, linked to multicellulars, of the death of the soma, or cadaver, would paradoxically be secondary. From this same perspective, the mortal soma of animals and plants would have no other function than to be the support and guardian of the elements of the germ line, such as sperm and eggs, the only elements necessary for the preservation of the species; the death of the soma would bear witness to its uselessness for the immortality of the species, once its mission has been fulfilled. Thus, always in a paradoxical manner, one could say with Butler that “a hen is but the means by which an egg makes another egg”!

It is evident that such a way of seeing things is far from acceptable; for although it is true that the supreme end of living beings is the preservation of the species, the vital phenomenon would have little value if it were exhausted in the vicious circle of living to live. It is precisely the mortal, intermittent somatic line that manifests vital properties which find their greatest expression in man through the phenomena of integration and the psyche. Human spiritual progress and evolution are certainly not represented by the germ line but are the fruit of the unremitting toil of the mortal soma, which is transmitted as a legacy to children through education and perhaps (it will be the task of genetics to demonstrate it) through a hereditary process by the influence of the soma on germ cells.

Leaving aside this last problem, which, although of extreme importance, does not yet have sufficient experimental basis, one sees in the death of the soma a biological phenomenon of great importance in the mechanism of conservation and evolution of life on earth.

2. Death of germinal elements

It is observed that nature, in order to guard against the possibility of the extinction of species, is lavish in the production of germ cells: spermatozoa and eggs. For every animal and plant species, their number is far greater than the individuals that normally reach maturity, far greater than the number that cannot be exceeded without bringing about an unfavorable imbalance in the life of individual biocenoses and in the biosphere. It is also observed that the greater the dangers that threaten the young of a species due to particular ecological conditions, the greater the number of germ cells produced.

Thus, taking the case of vertebrates, far more eggs are produced in species that scatter them in the waters than in those that collect them in a nest and care for them; and the number is even smaller in those vertebrates in which the eggs develop within the maternal body.

Considering the human species, which is certainly not among the most prolific in nature, it is estimated that about 450 eggs may mature, with a production, according to Henle, of about 72,000 oocytes in the ovaries. The male, in turn, can produce many billions of spermatozoa in his lifetime. Of all these gametes, which are potentially capable of producing an individual, only a few reach their goal.

3. Death of the individual

Every plant or animal dies once its life cycle, which has a characteristic duration for each species, is completed. Research aimed at clarifying the factors that determine the duration of life, and that directed toward identifying means to prolong it, has shown that, as a general phenomenon—with some exceptions—the more rapid the maturation of germ cells in animals, the shorter the duration of life in different species. The death of the soma is preceded by the phenomenon of senescence, which manifests itself from birth. The gradual loss of water, the accumulation of catabolites, the production of irreversible colloidal structures, and the general colloidal hysteresis of the protoplasm are among the most evident intrinsic causes within the protoplasm itself that determine aging. To these causes must be added, in multicellular organisms, the aging of organic systems and the gradual mineralization of the body.

But the purpose of death is not fulfilled solely by the demise of individuals, which aims at the maintenance and evolution of life through its continuous renewal; even the cadavers themselves become the substrate for the life of an innumerable host of necrophilous organisms (bacteria, protozoa, worms, insects, etc.). It must also be borne in mind that, except for green plants, which can synthesize with the aid of chlorophyll and using solar energy the organic substances necessary for existence, and organisms that feed on the detritus of these, the vast majority of living beings feed on parts of animals and plants (without the need to kill them) or on entire organisms that are killed and devoured; thus, the premature death of the victim allows the life of predatory species.

4. Death of cells in the development and life of the individual

Even if the death of the organism at the end of its life cycle is inevitable, no less important is the cellular death that occurs continuously throughout its existence. Cellular death is not manifested only in the adult or elderly individual but even in the embryo; indeed, such a process represents a morphogenetic mechanism of capital importance.

It can be affirmed that the embryo develops not only through a continuous process of cellular multiplication but also through one of cellular destruction that accompanies the former. Processes of cytolysis allow the formation of openings, cavities, and channels in developing organs. Thus, it is seen that not everything fabricated in the embryo is preserved: many organs are formed through successive stages of complication, useful and sufficient for individual developmental stages, but which are gradually demolished, in whole or in part, and replaced. For example, three kidneys succeed one another in the organogenesis of the excretory system of higher vertebrates. In many animals, there is a succession of larval stages, and in metamorphosis, between one stage and the next, many tissues and organs are sacrificed with the construction of new organs and systems suited to the condition of the subsequent larval stage or the adult condition; particularly well-known are the conditions of insects, in which the larva, through pupation, is transformed into a perfect insect, and those of amphibians. In fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals, organs that serve embryonic life are formed in the embryo but are abandoned and destroyed at birth (embryonic annexes: chorion, yolk sac, amnion, allantois, etc.).

Even in the adult, the processes of cellular death continue in many tissues. It was the merit of Bizzozero and his school to establish the renewal properties of various tissues in mammals and humans. This renewal, which occurs through processes of cellular division of elements with a juvenile character that are preserved in various tissues (germinal tissues), serves to replace those elements that gradually die from functional wear and tear and which, precisely in relation to this process of wear, are endowed with a short life cycle. There are tissues in which this turnover of cellular elements is continuous throughout life (tissues with labile elements), such as, for example, the epidermis, which continuously cornifies on the surface and desquamates, and is continuously renewed by the deep germinal layer, and the blood, whose red blood cells, constructed without a nucleus for functional perfection as oxygen carriers, are condemned to a few weeks of life. In other tissues, multiplication occurs only during the period of individual growth, but the potential reproductive capacity is preserved throughout life, as in the liver and other glands. Only in tissues with permanent elements, of which nervous tissue is a typical example, do the cells live as long as the organism. However, even in this tissue, in animals with metamorphosis (such as anuran amphibians), differentiated nerve cells that have completed a functional cycle are destroyed; in other species, there is a potential reproductive capacity of nerve cells (in the regeneration of the tail and spinal cord of urodelan amphibians).

For a deeper examination of senescence, reference is made to the monographs by Levi, Minot, and Lepeschkin, respectively on cytomorphosis and cellular necrobiosis (v. BIBLICA).

According to calculations by C. Franke, the human body contains about 4,000 billion fixed cells and 22,000 billion mobile cells, for a total of 26,500 billion. According to Moleschott and Buchner, within seven years the complete chemical renewal of this multitude of cells has occurred, either through their replacement or through the renewal of their protoplasm. According to Ona (1924), 500 billion red blood cells alone die every day (that is, the number that can be contained in 100 cm³ of blood), and an equal number are rebuilt daily.

The importance of cellular death during development is not only seen in the continuous renewal of living matter and in the processes of morphogenesis but also appears in the direct utilization in vital phenomena of the products of cellular destruction (pigments, etc.). Consider, for example, as demonstrated by Baglioni, that for the heartbeat (experiments on cartilaginous fishes) the presence in the blood of small percentages of urea is necessary, a substance that is a direct derivative of the disintegration of protein substances. Thus, the bile pigments, produced by the destruction of red blood cells, have fundamental importance in the saponification of fats and in the regulation of the intestinal flora. Even the dead cells themselves, which in animals have undergone fatty or keratinous degeneration and which in plants become lignified or suberized, perform extremely important functions for the life of the whole.

But cytolytic phenomena also have another important directive role in biological processes: substances that stimulate the reproduction of other living cells are indeed released during the agony of cells (necrobiosis) and thus with their destruction. Haberlandt was able to demonstrate how, in plants, the multiplication of tissues in wounds was stimulated by damaged and dying cells, and he spoke of wound hormones or necrohormones. Banner, Haagen, and Smith were able to isolate a protein substance endowed with such activity (traumatic acid). Similar phenomena have also been observed in animals in the case of cells in agony. According to J. Brachet, the nucleic acid released by cytolysis plays a major role in embryonic evocative phenomena (organizer). The inductions obtained in embryos by transplanting pieces of dead or cytolyzing tissue, or otherwise damaged and in the agonal phase, can be interpreted as due to the nucleic acid released and to other substances. Thus, for example, if a fragment of tissue irradiated with X-rays is transplanted into the limb field of amphibians (Perri), numerous inductions of supernumerary limbs are obtained, stimulated by the slowly dying cells of the transplanted fragment.

Important in this regard are the experiments of Filatov on subcutaneous transplants of damaged tissue fragments (by low temperature, by darkness) that produce a general stimulating biological effect in the treated organism. In the same category of phenomena, the effect of Cerletti and Bini’s electroconvulsive therapy is probably to be interpreted; with this treatment, the organism is brought to the extreme limit of resistance, and the cells release what Cerletti calls acroagonines, with a general beneficial stimulating effect.

In conclusion to these briefly outlined facts, death should not be considered an accident in antagonism to life. Its purpose, already in the mortality of gametes, its importance in the mechanism of embryonic development, and its necessity for the unfolding of physiological phenomena, argue for considering it, paradoxically, an essential factor in an individual’s life. With the death of the individual, life’s continuity is maintained, but with a material substrate that is continuously renewed; thus, death emerges as the fundamental process of every mechanism of biological improvement and evolution, however considered, including that of intellectual evolution and the spirit of the human species. — See pl. XCVII.

DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST: for the historical account, V. JESUS CHRIST; for its soteriological value, V. MERIT OF JESUS CHRIST; REDEMPTION; SATISFACTION.