In the twelfth century, Robert, Dean of Sherburn, granted to William FitzAdam and his heirs to build a chapel in the parish of St. Andrew, Sherborne, for the use of himself, his wife, and his household. The said Robert to provide the chaplain, who shall eat at William’s table, and receive a stipend for his services from Robert; saving the rights of the mother church; and William FitzAdam and his wife to attend worship, and receive communion at the parish church on Christmas, Easter, Purification, Whitsunday, and St. Andrew’s Day.
In the twelfth century, Robert, Dean of Sherburn, granted to William FitzAdam and his heirs to build a chapel in the parish of St. Andrew, Sherborne, for the use of himself, his wife, and his household. The said Robert to provide the chaplain, who shall eat at William’s table, and receive a stipend for his services from Robert; saving the rights of the mother church; and William FitzAdam and his wife to attend worship, and receive communion at the parish church on Christmas, Easter, Purification, Whitsunday, and St. Andrew’s Day.
The present chapel at the Vyne is a late perpendicular building, in a perfect state of repair; with its ancient screens and stalls. It has an anti-chapel over which was my lord’s oratory; the twochambers for the chaplain on the south side have been converted into mortuary chapels of the time of Charles II.[470]
From the time that the Bishop’s Registers began,i.e.from the close of the thirteenth century, down to the time of the Reformation, they abound in entries of the granting of licences for oratories in private houses. They run in a customary form,[471]setting forth that the licence is given to a particular person by name, his wife and children, servants, and guests, to have Divine offices said in the oratory of his house of so-and-so; there is usually a clause that on Sundays and other festivals, they shall go to their parish church, there to hear the Divine service; and a further clause requiring that all fees and offerings shall be paid to the priest. A licence was not given once for all; very much to the contrary. Sometimes it was given during the pleasure of the bishop; sometimes for one year; for two years; for three years; renewable from time to time; sometimes for the period of the grantee’s life. In the Episcopal Registers of Exeter, a number of licences are registered to the family of Bottreaux, which, when put together, give a glimpse of family history, and illustrate the principles on which the licences were granted. Licence to hold service in the chapel of St.Mary Magdalen, at Boswithguy (the oratories are frequently named under the invocation of some saint), appears in the second year of Bishop Stafford’s Register, 1396, to Elizabeth Bottreaux; and is renewed in 1398. In 1399, a general licence is given to William, son of Sir William Bottreaux, Knight, and to Sir Ralph Bottreaux, Knight, and to John and Anna, children of the said Sir William. Again, in 1410, a general licence is given to William, “lord of Bottreaux,” his wife, and their sons and daughters. We conjecture that this William died in the following year, and was succeeded by his son John, for again, in 1411, a licence is given to John Bottreaux, and Elizabeth his wife, for all their manors and mansions in the diocese.[472]
Sometimes, perhaps it was when the manor house was at very inconvenient distance from the parish church, the licence was given “omissa clausula Volumus, etc.,”i.e.without the restricting clause about Sundays and other festivals.
The Registry of Archbishop Walter Gray records grants in 1229 to Alberic de Percy, to have a chaplain to celebrate Divine offices in the chapel of Sutton so long as he lives; to Alexander de Vilers and his heirs to have Divine offices in his chapel of Newbottle for his family and guests for ever;[473]to Robert le Vavasour and his heirs, at his chapel ofHindishal; in 1254, to S. de Heddon and his heirs in the chapel of his court of Headdon.[474]
In 1343, Thomas de Peckam obtained a bull from Pope Alexander, licensing him, since in winter he cannot get to his parish church because of the floods, that he may have Divine service in his chapel at Wyke.[475]
Temporary licences were sometimes granted in special cases of temporary sickness or chronic infirmity; Bishop Stapledon, in 1312, permits Dame Isabella de Fishacre to have Divine service at home, not only on week days but also on festivals when, through the inclemency of the weather or bodily infirmity, she cannot conveniently attend the parish church. In 1317, in consideration of Sir Peter Fishacre’s impotency, he is allowed to have Divine service celebrated in his own chamber in his house of Lupton. In 1310, Oliver de Halap, who is broken with age, and has lost the sight of his eyes,senio fractus et luminibus occulorum privatus, is compassionately allowed by the same considerate bishop to have Divine service celebrated in his manor house of Hertleghe.
The custom of having a domestic chaplain extended, in the latter part of the period with which we have to do, not only to the majority of the country gentry, but to wealthy yeomen and well-to-docitizens. Mere country gentlemen sometimes maintained a considerable chapel establishment. Henry Machyn, in his diary,[476]says, in noticing the death, in 1552, of Sir Thomas Jarmyn, of Rushbrook Hall, that “he was the best housekeeper in the county of Suffolk, and kept a goodly chapel of singing men.”
Richard Burre, a wealthy yeoman and farmer of the parsonage of Souwntyng, in 1529, directs in his will that “Sir Robert Beckton,” my chaplain, syng ffor my sowle by the space of ix. yers.[477]
When Alderman Monmouth took Tyndale into his house, and “did promys him x pounds sterling to praye for his father, mother, their soules and all christen soules,”[478]he clearly engaged that greatest of the translators of the Bible as his domestic chaplain. It was very natural, and no doubt usual, that special services for the deceased members of the family should be celebrated in the chapel of the house, and by the chaplain of the family. Not infrequently a chantry was founded in domestic chapels;e.g.“Thomas de Ross, lord of Hamelak and Belvoir, 1412, leaves 400lifor ten chaplains to say mass, etc., in his chapel of Belvoir for eight years.”[479]
Some further examples of it will be found in the chapter on chantries and chantry-priests.
Mr. Christopher Pickering, in his will, dated 1542, leaves “to my sarvands John Dobson and Frances, xxs.a-piece, besydes ther wages; allso I give unto Sir James Edwarde, my sarvand,” etc.[480]One of the witnesses to the will is “Sir James Edwarde, preste,” so that the person whom Mr. Pickering describes as his servant seems to have been his domestic chaplain. Sir Thomas More says “every man has a priest to wait upon his wife;” so Nicholas Blackburn, a wealthy citizen of York, and twice Lord Mayor, leaves in 1431-2 a special bequest to his wife, “to find her a gentlewoman, and a priest, and a servant.”[481]
We have seen that the lord of the house usually selected his own chaplain, and made his own arrangements with him on the subject of remuneration, which most likely consisted of his lodging in the chaplain’s chamber and his board at the lord’s table, and a fixed sum of money, as at Skipton. But there were cases in which the chaplain was nominated by some outside authority, as the rector or vicar of the parish, as in the case of the Vyne, as if to lessen the likelihood of friction between the parish priest and the chaplain of the manor house.
The frequent occurrence of licences to solemnize the marriage of specified persons in the chapel of the bride’s home shows that then, as now, a special licence was required for such occasions.
7 Sep., 1363. Licence for a marriage between Sir Andrew Lutterel, Knt., and Hawise Despencer, to be solemnized by Thos. Abbot of Bourne and the Vicar of Bourne, in the chapel of Lady Blanche Wake of Lidell, within her castle of Bourne.[482]4 Aug., 1417. Licence to Eliz. de Beaumont, for marriage between Wm. Lord Deyncourt and Elizabeth, daughter of the said Elizabeth, to be celebrated in the chapel of Beaumanoir, in the parish of Barowe.[483]1457. Henry, son of Humphrey Duke of Buckingham, was licensed, by the Bishop of Lichfield, to be married in the chapel of Maxstoke Castle to his cousin Margaret, Countess of Richmond.[484]A licence to solemnize a marriage in the chapel of the manor house of Homesid House, Durham, was given in 1500, on account of bad weather and the infirmity of the parents of the bride.[485]
7 Sep., 1363. Licence for a marriage between Sir Andrew Lutterel, Knt., and Hawise Despencer, to be solemnized by Thos. Abbot of Bourne and the Vicar of Bourne, in the chapel of Lady Blanche Wake of Lidell, within her castle of Bourne.[482]
4 Aug., 1417. Licence to Eliz. de Beaumont, for marriage between Wm. Lord Deyncourt and Elizabeth, daughter of the said Elizabeth, to be celebrated in the chapel of Beaumanoir, in the parish of Barowe.[483]
1457. Henry, son of Humphrey Duke of Buckingham, was licensed, by the Bishop of Lichfield, to be married in the chapel of Maxstoke Castle to his cousin Margaret, Countess of Richmond.[484]
A licence to solemnize a marriage in the chapel of the manor house of Homesid House, Durham, was given in 1500, on account of bad weather and the infirmity of the parents of the bride.[485]
In the following case a license was not asked for, because the marriage was uncanonical:—
In 1434, process was issued against Thomas Grene of Norton by Toucester, Knight, for clandestine marriage with Marnia Belers,co’matre sue(co-sponsors), in the private chapel within the house of Ric. Knyghtley at Ffarvesley, in the presence of Ric. Knyghtley and his son and other witnesses.[486]
In 1434, process was issued against Thomas Grene of Norton by Toucester, Knight, for clandestine marriage with Marnia Belers,co’matre sue(co-sponsors), in the private chapel within the house of Ric. Knyghtley at Ffarvesley, in the presence of Ric. Knyghtley and his son and other witnesses.[486]
The clergy[487]sometimes had a domestic chapel intheir houses, but even they were carefully restricted as to the when, and where, and how they might celebrate the Divine service in them.
In the life of J. de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter, 1327, we read that in the earlier part of his career, while still Archdeacon of Nottingham, in 1326, he was sent as nuncio by the pope into France and England. He writes to the pope that he is so overwhelmed with business that he prays for leave for himself and his people to have mass said before daylight. The pope grants it, but desires that the permission be rarely used, because since the Son of Godqui candor est lucis æternæis immolated in the service of the mass, such a sacrament ought not to be celebrated in the darkness, but in the light.[488]In the register of Bishop Grandisson, in 1328, is the record of a licence, only “during pleasure,” to the Rector of Southpole (?), for an oratoryinfra mansum rectoriæ tuæ.[489]1404. Licence to the Rector of Wodemancote to have service in his house for one year, on account of infirmity.[490]
In the life of J. de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter, 1327, we read that in the earlier part of his career, while still Archdeacon of Nottingham, in 1326, he was sent as nuncio by the pope into France and England. He writes to the pope that he is so overwhelmed with business that he prays for leave for himself and his people to have mass said before daylight. The pope grants it, but desires that the permission be rarely used, because since the Son of Godqui candor est lucis æternæis immolated in the service of the mass, such a sacrament ought not to be celebrated in the darkness, but in the light.[488]
In the register of Bishop Grandisson, in 1328, is the record of a licence, only “during pleasure,” to the Rector of Southpole (?), for an oratoryinfra mansum rectoriæ tuæ.[489]
1404. Licence to the Rector of Wodemancote to have service in his house for one year, on account of infirmity.[490]
These domestic chapels were thoroughly furnished with every usual ornament and appliance in a style of sumptuousness proportionate to the rank and means of the master of the house. From the Household Book of the Earl of Northumberland we gather that his chapel had three altars, and that my lord and my lady had each a closet,i.e.anoratory, in which were other altars. The chapel was furnished with hangings, and had a pair of organs. The service books were so famous for their beauty that, on the earl’s death, Cardinal Wolsey intimated his wish to have them. There is mention, too, of suits of vestments, and single vestments, copes and surplices, and altar cloths for the five altars. All these things were under the care of the yeoman of the vestry, and were carried about with the earl at his removals from one to another of his houses.
Catalogues of the furniture of the smaller domestic chapels are numerous in the inventories attached to ancient wills; two may be given here as examples—
Lady Alice West, of Hinton Marcel, Hants, 1395, bequeaths to her son Thomas, “a pair of matins bookes and a pair of bedas,” and to her daughter Iohane, a masse book and all the books that I have of Latin, English, and French, out-take the foresaid mattins books bequeathed to Thomas. Also all my vestments of my chappel with the towels belonging to the altar, and my tapites white and red paled,[491]and blue and red paled, with all my green tapites that belong to my chappel aforesaid, and with the frontals of the aforesaid altar, and with all the curtains and trussing coffers, and all other apparele that belong to my chapel. Also a chalice and paxbrede and holy-water pot with the sprinklers; two cruets, two chandeliers, two silver basins for the altar with scutcheons of my ancestors’ arms, and a sacring bell, and all of silver. Also a table depainted of three (a triptych).[492]
Lady Alice West, of Hinton Marcel, Hants, 1395, bequeaths to her son Thomas, “a pair of matins bookes and a pair of bedas,” and to her daughter Iohane, a masse book and all the books that I have of Latin, English, and French, out-take the foresaid mattins books bequeathed to Thomas. Also all my vestments of my chappel with the towels belonging to the altar, and my tapites white and red paled,[491]and blue and red paled, with all my green tapites that belong to my chappel aforesaid, and with the frontals of the aforesaid altar, and with all the curtains and trussing coffers, and all other apparele that belong to my chapel. Also a chalice and paxbrede and holy-water pot with the sprinklers; two cruets, two chandeliers, two silver basins for the altar with scutcheons of my ancestors’ arms, and a sacring bell, and all of silver. Also a table depainted of three (a triptych).[492]
In the inventories of the will of John Smith, Esq., of Blackmore, Essex, in 1543—
In the chapel chamber, a long setle joyned. In the chapel, one aulter of joyner’s work. Item, a table with two leaves of the passion gilt [a panelled diptych]. Item, a long setle of wainscott. Item, a bell hanging over the chapel. Chapel stuff, copes and vestments three. Aulter fronts four, corporal case one, and dyvers peces of silk necessary for cusshyons v.
In the chapel chamber, a long setle joyned. In the chapel, one aulter of joyner’s work. Item, a table with two leaves of the passion gilt [a panelled diptych]. Item, a long setle of wainscott. Item, a bell hanging over the chapel. Chapel stuff, copes and vestments three. Aulter fronts four, corporal case one, and dyvers peces of silk necessary for cusshyons v.
The altar vessels are not specially mentioned; they were probably included with the other silver, and the altar candlesticks among the “xiiiij latyn candlestics of dyvers sorts,” mentioned elsewhere.
It is a very pleasant feature in the daily life of the manor house of mediæval England which is brought home to us by these studies of ancient domestic architecture and these dry extracts from Episcopal Registers. By the latter part of the fourteenth century it would seem that nearly every manor house had a chapel, and a resident chaplain. Divine services—Matins and mass before breakfast, and evensong before dinner—were said every day; and when the solemn worship of Almighty God held so conspicuous a place in the daily family life, it is not possible that it should not have exercised an influence upon the character and habits of the people; for the family and household really attended the service as a part of the routine of daily duty. There are numerous incidental allusions in the course of historicalnarratives which prove it. Robert of Gloucester says of William the Conqueror—
In church he was devout enow, for him none day abideThat he heard not Mass and Matins, and Evensong and each tide.
The story that William Rufus, before he succeeded to the throne, was first attracted to William of Corboil by the rapidity with which he got through the mass, indicates that even that graceless prince submitted to the irksome restraint of the universal custom. And the stories about Hunting Masses, in which chaplains omitted everything but the essentials of the Divine service, afford the same sort of confirmation.[493]
The Romance of King Arthur is not often quoted as an historical authority, but romances are a picture of contemporary manners and customs, and may be so far depended upon; and this daily service in the castles and manor houses of the Middle Ages is one of the facts of the life of the time which is abundantly illustrated in them. Allusions such as the following are frequent: “And so they went home and unarmed them, and so to evensong and supper. And on the morrow they heard mass, and after went to dinner and to their counsel, and made many arguments what were best to do.”[494]
And in the “Vision of Piers Plowman” we read (Passus v)—
The king and his knights to the church wenten,To hear matins and mass, and to the meat after.
The imagination rests with pleasure on the ordinary orderly life of a mediæval squire’s manor house, sweetened by this domestic religion; on the kindly influence of a pious, sensible chaplain over the whole household, the adviser of the lord, the tutor of the children, the monitor of the domestics. We linger upon the idea of the comfort of it to the widowed Lady Bottreaux, and to the infirm old Sir Peter Fishacre, and to poor old Oliver de Halap, “broken with age, and deprived of the sight of his eyes.”
We may add an illustrative note, which, though of later date, is true to the habits of this earlier period.
“For many years together I was seldom or never absent from Divine service (in church) at five o’clock in the morning in summer, and six o’clock in the winter.” And, again, “at Naworth, the house of Sir Charles Howard, afterwards Earl of Carlisle, there was a chaplain in the house, an excellent preacher, who had service twice every Sunday in the chapel, and daily prayers morning and evening, and was had in such veneration by all as if hee had been their tutelar angel” [which did not prevent him from making love to the eldest daughter of the house, and making mischief for the autobiographer].[495]
By the statute 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13, a limit was set to the number of domestic chaplains. An archbishop might have8 chaplains; a duke, 6; marquis and earl, 5; viscount, 4; bishop, 6; chancellor, baron, and knight of the garter, 3; duchess, marchioness, countess, and baroness, being widows, 2; treasurer and controller of the king’s house, the king’s secretary, the dean of the chapel, the king’s almoner, the master of the rolls, 2; the chief justice of the king’s bench, and warden of the cinque ports, 1. Proviso, that the king’s chaplains may hold as many livings as the king shall give.
By the statute 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13, a limit was set to the number of domestic chaplains. An archbishop might have8 chaplains; a duke, 6; marquis and earl, 5; viscount, 4; bishop, 6; chancellor, baron, and knight of the garter, 3; duchess, marchioness, countess, and baroness, being widows, 2; treasurer and controller of the king’s house, the king’s secretary, the dean of the chapel, the king’s almoner, the master of the rolls, 2; the chief justice of the king’s bench, and warden of the cinque ports, 1. Proviso, that the king’s chaplains may hold as many livings as the king shall give.
THE CHANTRY.
The characteristic feature of the Church work of the seventh century was the conversion of the Teutonic heathen people who had conquered the eastern half of England, and the foundation of a bishopric in every one of the heptarchic kingdoms; of the eighth century, the multiplication of monastic centres of evangelization; of that and the succeeding centuries the spread of the parochial system of a priest for each manor; of the twelfth century, the foundation of monasteries; of the thirteenth century, the foundation of vicarages in the appropriated parishes, and the institution of the new Order of friars; of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the foundation of chantries: during these two centuries about two thousand chantries were founded.
A chantry is a foundation for the maintenance of one or more priests, to offer up prayers for the soul of the founder, his family and ancestors, and usuallyof all Christian souls; and this was the motive of the founders of the majority of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
In the Religious Foundations of earlier times the condition of prayers for the donors was incidental. A man did not build a church for hisvilleor found a monastery on his estate, with the sole or principal view of securing perpetual prayers for himself; but in accordance with the religious views of those times when a man did found any pious work, from a great monastery intended to be a nursery of saints to an almshouse for twelve poor people, he asked—he stipulated in the terms of his foundation deed—for the prayers of the members of his foundation. It would have looked like a want of proper religious feeling had he neglected to seek the benefit of their intercessory prayers. The desire for the prayers of the Church by those who could not found monasteries or build churches, found its satisfaction in benefactions to religious foundations, which secured for the donors the privileges of confraternity, and among these, the prayers of the community.[496]Every religious house had its catalogue of benefactors, or its list ofconfraters; and the grateful convent offered prayers for their good estate while living and the repose of their souls after death.[497]At Durham there lay on the altar a book very richly covered with gold and silver containing the names of all the benefactors of the cathedral church collected out of ancient MSS. about the time of the Suppression.[498]But far more interesting is the “Catalogus Benefactorum” of the great monastery of St. Alban, preserved in the British Museum Library; in it the name of every benefactor is entered, with a note of his gift—of an estate, or house, or sum of money, or sacred vessel; and in many cases a picture of the donor and of his gift is given, the house being shown in the backgroundof the picture, the flagon or purse of gold held in his hand.
Error came in when a man founded a Divine service the sole object of which was to obtain prayers for himself; it was mitigated by the association of family, benefactors, and friends, and the usual addition of all faithful souls. After all, a saint of old was glad that his name should be enrolled in the diptych of his Church, and remembered in her prayers. But a saint would have been content to be included in the general sentence with which the roll concluded—“and all those whose names, O God, Thou knowest.” We, at least, may be satisfied with the commemoration by our Church of “all those who have departed in Thy faith and fear,” without being too ready to find fault with those whose eschatology differed somewhat from ours, and was less scriptural; but whose simple desire, after all, was for God’s mercy on themselves, and who, in anxiety for themselves, did not forget “all faithful souls.”
In some cases it is probable that the common human desire to be remembered after death took this shape; a chantry was a monument; and a monument of living men keeping a name in remembrance has very respectable countenance. This is the explanation of a good number of English titles of nobility, with grants of suitable estates to maintain the title. The Dukedoms of Marlborough and of Wellington, the Earldoms of St. Vincent and of Nelson, were intended by the sovereignwho granted the titles, and the Parliaments which granted the estates, to keep in memory those great men and their services to the country, and have well served their purpose. So, many a chantry kept the name of the founder fresh in the recollection of his descendants, and of the people of his neighbourhood, which would otherwise have been forgotten. The desire to have one’s name kept alive on the lips of prayer was not an unworthy one.
But the two thousand chantries founded between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries were not all of this exclusively personal kind. Many included objects of general utility, which under the name of a chantry could be founded and endowed in a legal way, evading many legal difficulties. Some of the chantries were really chapels-of-ease for an outlying population; some were additions to the working clerical staff of a town; some were grammar schools, the chantry priest being really the schoolmaster.
Chantries began to be founded late in the thirteenth century. The “Taxatio” records only two: one of Hugh of Wells, Bishop of Lincoln, who died 1225, the other at Hatherton, in the Archdeaconry of Coventry.[499]The number of them increased more and more, and the greater proportion were founded in the fifteenth century.[500]They were distributed veryunequally over the country. Some of the cathedrals served by canons had a considerable number, perhaps because founders of chantries who were great noblemen and ecclesiastics preferred to be commemorated in the mother church of their diocese. Thus, St. Paul’s, London,[501]had 37; York, 3; Lichfield, 87; Lincoln, 36; Chichester, 12; Exeter, 11; Hereford, 11; Sarum, 11; none in Wells; none in Bath Abbey Church, but 18 in the adjoining college of Delamond Roy. The cathedrals served by monks seem not to have encouraged the founding of chantries; thus there are none in Durham, Ely, Norwich, Worcester, Winchester, and only, exceptionally, 4 in Canterbury, 2 in Rochester; 4 in the Church of Austin Canons, which was the Cathedral of Carlisle. They were numerous in the great town churches, founded by the wealthy citizens; there were over 180 in the city and suburbs of London; 42 in the city of York; 23 in Newcastle; 4 in the city of Lincoln; 10 in the city of Hereford; 13 in the town of Newark; 7 in Doncaster; 5 in Rotherham, etc. They were unequally distributed over the country parishes; in Norwich diocese, there are very few outside the towns; in Yorkshire they are very numerous; in Wales there are almost none.
We give at length the history of a chantry at Ipswich, as an illustration of these personal chantries.
Edmund Daundy, merchant of Ipswich, in 1514, founded a perpetual chantry for a chantry priest at the altar of St. Thomas the Martyr, in the parish church of St. Lawrence, in Ipswich, for the prosperous state of King Henry VIII. and Katharine his queen, of himself, Edmund Daundy, Thomas Wulcy (Cardinal Wolsey), clarke, dean of the cathedral church of Lincoln, and of Wm. Daundy, his son, for the term of their life, and for their souls after their decease; and also for the souls of Anne, his late wife, Robert Wulcy and Jane, his wife, father and mother of the same Thomas Wulcy, etc.The presentation is to be in the hands of the wardens of the parish and six men nominated by the bailiffs, who shall elect and nominate a man to the Prior of Holy Trinity, who shall present him to the Ordinary for admittance; and if the parish priest refuse to induct him, he may induct himself. He is to take oath to keep the statutes of the foundation, perform the duties personally, not be absent for more than twenty days, except from infirmity, not take any other benefice, office, stipend, trental, nor yearly service, but the £11 6s.8d.[502]granted by the founder; he shall abstain from all unlawful games and sports.His duties are, to say twice in the weekdirgeandcommendations, and once in the week mass ofrequiem, with the collect,Almighty and Everlasting God, who governest both the quick and dead, etc., with its ... and post communion thereto pertaining; and each day the same priest, singing his mass, and going to the altar’s end before he washes his hands at the lavatory, shall say this psalm,De profundis, with the collectFidelium, etc., at the end whereofhe shall say, “May the soul of Edmund Daundy, founder of this chantry, and the souls of his parents and kinsfolk and benefactors, and all Christian souls, rest in peace and quietness. Amen.”Also the priest is to be present in the choir of the parish church of St. Lawrence, having on his surplice, at mattins, processions, mass, and evensong, singing the psalmodies with the other priests and clarks every Sunday and Doublefeast and other convenient times, in augmenting of the Divine service, except any lawful case do let him.Further on, he orders that the names of the persons to be prayed for, viz. the king and queen, Edmund Daundy, Thomas Wulcy, and Wm. Daundy, among the quick during their lives, and also the names of Anne, Robert, and Jane among the dead, shall be written on a table, and the said table by the said priest shall be set openly upon the altar of St. Thomas the Martyr, etc., to the intent that every day the said priest, in his mass, shall pray for the prosperity of our said sovereign lord the king, and the said Edmund the founder, etc., etc.He assigns for the residence of the priest his messuage lately built, with a garden and a certain lane, and all its appurtenances, lately built in the parish of St. Lawrence.He has provided for the chantry a mass-book, two complete vestments, and a book called a Coucher; and he directs that the vestments, books, chalices, and other ornaments of the altar given, or to be given, by him or any other patron, after mass shall be properly put away in a chest and locked up.[503]He also wills that the priest shall deposit yearly 2s.4d.in a box, with two keys, one to be kept by himself and the other by the churchwardens,for the maintenance of the house, chantry, furniture, etc. Also, that every priest shall leave to his successor 40s., for the costs and charges of his successor about his presentation, admission, institution, and induction.He makes elaborate arrangements for his year-day, with the whole service ordained for the dead, for ever. The chantry priest is on that day to distribute to the parish priest of St. Lawrence ministering about the same anniversary, 12s.; to the twelve priests, masses and other divine services there doing, 6s.; to the parish clerk, 12d.; to the other six clerks there singing and serving God, 12d., equally among them; to twelve children there singing and serving God, 12d.; to the sexton and ringing of the bells, 6d.; to twelve poor indigent persons of the said parish to pray for his soul and the souls above said, 2s.; and to the two bailiffs of Ipswich, 13s.4d.—that is to say, to every one of them to offer at the said anniversary, 12d., and to control the said anniversary, 6s.8d.“And because it is not in man but in God to foresee and provide all things, and oftentime it fortuneth that what in the beginning was thought to be profitable, afterwards is found not to be so,” therefore he reserves to himself only the power to alter these statutes.[504]
Edmund Daundy, merchant of Ipswich, in 1514, founded a perpetual chantry for a chantry priest at the altar of St. Thomas the Martyr, in the parish church of St. Lawrence, in Ipswich, for the prosperous state of King Henry VIII. and Katharine his queen, of himself, Edmund Daundy, Thomas Wulcy (Cardinal Wolsey), clarke, dean of the cathedral church of Lincoln, and of Wm. Daundy, his son, for the term of their life, and for their souls after their decease; and also for the souls of Anne, his late wife, Robert Wulcy and Jane, his wife, father and mother of the same Thomas Wulcy, etc.
The presentation is to be in the hands of the wardens of the parish and six men nominated by the bailiffs, who shall elect and nominate a man to the Prior of Holy Trinity, who shall present him to the Ordinary for admittance; and if the parish priest refuse to induct him, he may induct himself. He is to take oath to keep the statutes of the foundation, perform the duties personally, not be absent for more than twenty days, except from infirmity, not take any other benefice, office, stipend, trental, nor yearly service, but the £11 6s.8d.[502]granted by the founder; he shall abstain from all unlawful games and sports.
His duties are, to say twice in the weekdirgeandcommendations, and once in the week mass ofrequiem, with the collect,Almighty and Everlasting God, who governest both the quick and dead, etc., with its ... and post communion thereto pertaining; and each day the same priest, singing his mass, and going to the altar’s end before he washes his hands at the lavatory, shall say this psalm,De profundis, with the collectFidelium, etc., at the end whereofhe shall say, “May the soul of Edmund Daundy, founder of this chantry, and the souls of his parents and kinsfolk and benefactors, and all Christian souls, rest in peace and quietness. Amen.”
Also the priest is to be present in the choir of the parish church of St. Lawrence, having on his surplice, at mattins, processions, mass, and evensong, singing the psalmodies with the other priests and clarks every Sunday and Doublefeast and other convenient times, in augmenting of the Divine service, except any lawful case do let him.
Further on, he orders that the names of the persons to be prayed for, viz. the king and queen, Edmund Daundy, Thomas Wulcy, and Wm. Daundy, among the quick during their lives, and also the names of Anne, Robert, and Jane among the dead, shall be written on a table, and the said table by the said priest shall be set openly upon the altar of St. Thomas the Martyr, etc., to the intent that every day the said priest, in his mass, shall pray for the prosperity of our said sovereign lord the king, and the said Edmund the founder, etc., etc.
He assigns for the residence of the priest his messuage lately built, with a garden and a certain lane, and all its appurtenances, lately built in the parish of St. Lawrence.
He has provided for the chantry a mass-book, two complete vestments, and a book called a Coucher; and he directs that the vestments, books, chalices, and other ornaments of the altar given, or to be given, by him or any other patron, after mass shall be properly put away in a chest and locked up.[503]He also wills that the priest shall deposit yearly 2s.4d.in a box, with two keys, one to be kept by himself and the other by the churchwardens,for the maintenance of the house, chantry, furniture, etc. Also, that every priest shall leave to his successor 40s., for the costs and charges of his successor about his presentation, admission, institution, and induction.
He makes elaborate arrangements for his year-day, with the whole service ordained for the dead, for ever. The chantry priest is on that day to distribute to the parish priest of St. Lawrence ministering about the same anniversary, 12s.; to the twelve priests, masses and other divine services there doing, 6s.; to the parish clerk, 12d.; to the other six clerks there singing and serving God, 12d., equally among them; to twelve children there singing and serving God, 12d.; to the sexton and ringing of the bells, 6d.; to twelve poor indigent persons of the said parish to pray for his soul and the souls above said, 2s.; and to the two bailiffs of Ipswich, 13s.4d.—that is to say, to every one of them to offer at the said anniversary, 12d., and to control the said anniversary, 6s.8d.
“And because it is not in man but in God to foresee and provide all things, and oftentime it fortuneth that what in the beginning was thought to be profitable, afterwards is found not to be so,” therefore he reserves to himself only the power to alter these statutes.[504]
The Pudsay Chantry at Bolton-by-Bowland, Yorkshire, was founded for a priest to pray for the soul of the founder, etc., and all Christian souls, and also to say mass at the manor house of Bolton when he shall be required by the said founder or his heirs.[505]
Frequently a chantry was endowed for more than one priest; that of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral was for two priests, whose stipends at theend of the fifteenth century amounted to £12 each. The endowment of the early Chantry of Hugh of Wells, at Lincoln, was held by the sacrist who, out of its £21 6s.8d.a year, had to find two chaplains and to pay alms to the poor at the obit. The Burghersh Chantry, at Lincoln Cathedral, was for five chaplains and six boys who lived together in the chantry house in the Cathedral Close; the endowment, after paying for the maintenance and schooling of the boys, left £7 9s.a piece to each of the cantarists. There was a chantry of six priests at Harwood, Yorkshire. There were many others with two and three priests. Richard III. commenced the foundation of a chantry of a hundred chaplains in York Minster; six altars were erected, and the chantry house begun, when the king’s death on Bosworth Field put an end to the magnificent design.[506]The foundation of his fortunate rival, though not so extravagant, was of regal splendour. Henry VII.’s chapel at Westminster is the sumptuous chantry chapel in which his monument, with its bronze effigy, protected by the bronze herse, still remain uninjured. The title deed of the endowment which he made for the perpetuation of his memory still remains in the form of a handsome volume, whose pages are adorned with miniature pictures, and the great seals are still attached to it, in their silver cases. First, he provided for three additional monks to say masses for him, who were to be called the king’s chantry monks. On every anniversary, the greatest bell of the monasterywas to be rung for an hour, and the bells rung as at the most solemn anniversaries. A hundred wax tapers, each 12 lbs. in weight and 9 feet long, were to be set upon and about the herse, and there continually to burn during all the time of the service of thePlacebo, theDirge, with lessons, lauds, and mass ofRequiem, and all the orations, observances, and ceremonies belonging thereto. Also 24 new torches were to be held about the herse all the time of the service. Twenty pounds were to be given in alms, viz. 25 marks among the blind, lame, impotent, and most needy people, 2d.to each man and woman, and 1d.to each child so far as it will go; and 5 marks to be given to the 13 bedesmen and 3 bedeswomen provided in the said monastery (of whom one was to be a priest, and all under the government of a monk), 12d.to each. A weekly obit was to be held, at which the bells were to be rung; and alms given to the 13 bedesmen and 2 bedeswomen and 124 others, 1d.to each. Thirty tapers were to burn at the weekly obit, to be renewed when they had burnt down to 5 feet long; to burn also during high mass and first and latter evensong, and at every principal feast; and at the coming of the king and queen for the time being into the Church of the said monastery, and of any of royal blood, dukes, and earls. Four of the torches to be held about the herse at weekly obits, to be renewed when wasted to 7 feet long. Four tapers, one at each side and one at each end, were to burn perpetually night and day, besides the 100 aforesaid, to be renewed when wasted to 6 feet.
Abbot, monks, and bedesmen of Westminster Abbey.
Every year, on some day before the anniversary, the abstract of the grant was to be read in the chapter house, and the Chief Justice or King’s Attorney or Recorder of London to be present, and to receive 20s.for the attendance, and after the reading to go straight to the herse and say certain psalms. The woodcut, taken from one of the illuminations of this title deed, represents the abbot and several monks and the bedesmen above mentioned.
Parochial benefices were sometimes appropriated to the maintenance of chantries; in some cases what was done amounted to this: that the parish church was converted into a chantry for the lord of the manor and his family. Thus, in 1319, Sir John de Trejagu, Knt., founded a chantry for four chaplains in the Church of St. Michael Penkvil for prayers for himself and family. The proposal was approved by the bishop, who made the church collegiate, and the chief of the four clergymen who were to serve it an archpriest, with the care of the parishioners.
So, in 1334, Eresby Church was appropriated tothe Chantry Chapel of Spillesby by the bishop, on the petition of Sir Rob. de Willughby, Knt., and a master and twelve chaplains of the chantry were founded there by Sir John de W. and Lady Johan his wife.[507]In 1395, Elizabeth de Willughby, Consort of Sir Robert, lord of Eresby, left her body to be buried in the above chantry, and bequeathed to the chantry a crucifix of gold in which is a piece of the cross of our Lord, and set with two rubies and two emeralds, with a circle of pearls on the head, to remain there for ever without being alienated.[508]
Isabel, widow of Sir Fulke de Penbridge (1410), purchased the advowson of Tonge Church, Shropshire, from Shrewsbury Abbey, rebuilt the church in its present beauty, and endowed it with £50, to support a warden, five chaplains, and thirteen old men. The chaplains were not to take other preferment. If any of the poor men were sick or bedridden, they were to be visited three times a week by one of the chaplains. If any stranger dined in hall, the chaplain who introduced him was to pay for his dinner, 3s.if at the high table, 1s.4d.if at the low.[509]
Sometimes a man founded more than one chantry, perhaps, in churches on his several estates; thus, Ralph Basset, of Drayton, Knight, in 1389 leaves £200 to found two chantries, “one in St. Mary’s Chapel in Olney Churchyard, and one in the new chapel builtby me at Colston Basset.”[510]Sir William de Molynes, Knight, in 4 Richard II., leaves bequests “to every chaplain of my three chantries.”[511]
The founder of a chantry usually kept the right to nominate the cantarist in his own family. Thus, the founder of a chantry of three priests, who were to dwell together in a house vulgarly called Muston, in the parish of Leverton and Leake, left the right of presentation to her daughters.[512]Sometimes the presentation was left to the parish priest, as at Edmonton;[513]sometimes it was even vested in the parishioners, as at Harlow.[513]
Chantries continued to be founded up to the very eve of their general destruction:e.g.one at Bishopstone Church, Hereford, in 1532; in Lugwardine Church, in 1541; and in Welsh Newton, in a doubtful way, as late as 1547.[514]
It may be worth while to say that the clergy were as much given to making arrangements for posthumous prayers for themselves and their families as the laity. A large proportion of the chantry chapels in cathedrals were founded for themselves by bishops. One of the earliest is that of Bishop Hugh of Wells, of Lincoln inA.D.1235; Bishop Stavenby of Lichfield, who died 1238, set the example there; and so in other cathedrals. Thereis a pleasing touch of sentiment in Bishop Weseham’s foundation of a chantry in Lichfield Cathedral for himself and his friend, Bishop Grostete of Lincoln, of which cathedral he had himself been dean before his promotion to the episcopate.[515]
Not many parish priests founded chantries, because they were seldom rich enough to undertake anything so costly; but the numerous instances in their wills of provision made for trentals, month’s minds, and obits, attest their belief and feeling on the subject.[516]There is a quaint touch of professional experience in the condition of the bequest of John Cotes, Canon of Lincoln in 1433, to the resident canons, vicars, chaplains, poor clerks, and choristers attending his funeral, “and present at the whole office, not to those going like vagabondsthrough the middle of the church at the time of the said office.”[517]
The majority of the chantries were founded at an existing altar of a cathedral, monastic, or parish church; but chantry chapels were specially provided for many of these services, and were the occasion of the introduction of a great deal of architectural variety and interest in existing churches. In the cathedrals, little chapels were screened off in various places. A very favourite locality for the burial of a bishop was between the great pillars of the nave or choir; the space between the pillars was converted into a little chapel by stone screens which enclosed the tomb and altar, and left space for a priest to minister and an acolyte to serve, while those attending the service stood or knelt outside, and could see or hear through the open-work of the screen. Without going further than Winchester Cathedral, we shall find illustrations of varieties of plan and elevation of these chantry chapels.
Those of Wykeham and Edyngdon on the south side of the nave have the space between two pillars screened off with elaborate tabernacle work of stone, and are groined above. Those of Fox and Gardiner are on the south and north sides of the choir; each has a small chamber adjoining the chapel. Those of Cardinal Beaufort and Waynflete are on the south and north sides of the retro-choir. On each side of the Lady Chapel is a space enclosed for achantry chapel by wooden screens; that on the south (to Bishop Langton) has benches round the three sides, panelled at the back and canopied by a tester, for people attending the service.
Tewkesbury Abbey.The Warwick Chantry Chapel.
Cuckfield Church, Sussex—before restoration.
In a parish church, the place provided for a memorial service was sometimes a chapel added to the choir of the church and opening into it, butpartitioned by stone, or, more frequently, wooden screens; these chapels were sometimes architecturally beautiful, and added to the spaciousness and dignity of the church. But often, instead of being an addition to the spaciousness of the church, they were a practical infringement upon its space; for the most frequent provision for a chantry was made by screening off the east end of an aisle, either of the chancel or nave. There were rare examples of the chantry chapel being a detached building in the churchyard. At Winchester there is an example both of a chantry at the side of the College chapeland also of another, with a priest’s chamber over it,[518]in the middle of the cloister court.
Screen of Chantry Chapel, Dennington, Suffolk.
It seems desirable to repeat here that some of the domestic chapels were founded as chantry chapels, or had a chantry subsequently founded within them; as the domestic chapel at the Vyne, Hants. There were two chantries in the chapel of Pontefract Castle; one in the chapel of the manor house at Topcliff, Yorkshire, and at Cransford, Dorset, and in the Bishop of Durham’s manor house at Darlington. Very probably the service in a domestic chapel always included some commemoration of the departed members of the family.
It was only well-to-do people who could afford to found and endow a perpetual chantry; there were many less costly ways in which men showed their solicitude for their own well-being, and their affection for their belongings, by making such provision for mortuary prayers and masses as their means allowed. Sometimes provision is made for a chantry to last for a limited number of years. Thus—