Above: Sarcophagi of Empress Elisabeth, Emperor Franz Josef and Crown Prince Rudolf in the imperial crypt below the Capuchin Church, Vienna, 1980. Photo credit Alfred Cermak.

Source: Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library)

15. Rudolf's Burial (continued)

After the funeral the coffin was carried down a narrow stairway to a sarcophagus in the Imperial crypt below the church.

On the same day as the funeral a requiem mass for Rudolf was held in Rome at the German church of Santa Maria dell'Anima. The church burial may have turned out to be a non-issue, but the requiem mass was highly controversial.

Although Pope Leo was agreeable, the College of Cardinals was adamantly opposed to the ceremony. The College pointed to a policy that harked back to 1835, when a cardinal named Johannes Turriani committed suicide in Rome.

Three doctors testified that Turriani was suffering from a mental illness at the time and after much debate he was accorded a church burial "which, however, had to take place at night, without ceremony, pomp, or publicity" (Judtmann 251).

Pope Leo ultimately approved the requiem mass for Rudolf but did not compel attendance by the cardinals. Not a single cardinal attended.

During his life Rudolf was highly critical of the Catholic Church and his anticlericalism made a lot of enemies. Conservative prelates in parts of Austria-Hungary took their revenge in various ways, such as refusing to perform requiem masses or to ring church bells in Rudolf's honour.