The idea that cremation might interfere with God's ability to resurrect the body was refuted by the 2nd-century "Octavius" of Minucius Felix, in which he said: "Every body, whether it is dried up into dust, or is dissolved into moisture, or is compressed into ashes, or is attenuated into smoke, is withdrawn from us, but it is reserved for God in the custody of the elements. Nor, as you believe, do we fear any loss from sepulture, but we adopt the ancient and better custom of burying in the earth." And while there was a clear and prevailing preference for burial, there was no general Church law forbidding cremation until 1866. In Medieval Europe, cremation was practiced mainly in situations where there were multitudes of corpses simultaneously present, such as after a battle, after a pestilence or famine, and where there was an imminent fear of diseases spreading from the corpses, since individual burials with digging graves would take too long and body decomposition would begin before all the corpses had been interred.