Nobles during the middle ages often had specific burial locations that were far away from their place of death due to the mobile nature of the middle ages. They often wanted their hearts to be buried at their homes, thus their bodies had to travel far distances. King Charlemagne outlawed cremation, deeming destruction of the bones as destruction of the soul. Anyone who cremated a person's bones was subject to the death penalty. Thus, the practice of Mos Teutonicus came about as a way to preserve the bones over long distances without destroying them. Mos Teutonicus can even be seen being practiced in the 10th and 11th centuries during the rule of the Holy Roman Empire. Examples of this include rulers from the Ottone and Salian dynasties in which the rulers were transported to burial locations far from their place of death.