Education in England in the Middle Ages / Thesis Approved for the Degree of Doctor of Science in the University of London

by Albert William Parry

CHANTRIES.

One of the characteristics of the ecclesiastical life of this country during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the institution of chantries; altogether upwards of 2,000 of them are known to have been founded during the period. As chantry priests played an important part in connection with the provision of educational facilities in England, the topic of chantries calls for careful consideration.

A chantry may be defined as a foundation for the purpose of providing a priest who shall pray daily, primarily for the soul of the founder, and secondly for the souls of all Christian people. The earliest instances of chantries definitely recognised as such, date from the latter part of the thirteenth century. The “Taxatio of Pope Nicholas” only mentions two; one which was founded by Hugh of Lincoln, who died in 1225, and the other which existed at Hatherton in the county of Warwick. The custom gradually grew, but did not become common until the fifteenth century, the period in which the number of such institutions largely increased.[457]

The idea of offering prayers for the souls of the faithful departed was not a new one. The practice is at least as old as the institution of the Christian faith, and is a custom which is perfectly natural to those who believe in the immortality of the soul, and a state of future personal existence. It had also been a custom, “from time immemorial,” that prayers for the souls of the founders were regularly offered up in religious houses and other ecclesiastical foundations. A list of donors and benefactors was carefully preserved, and prayers for their good estate were offered up for them while they were living, and for the repose of their soul after death. Thus, the “Catalogus Benefactorum” of St. Albans Monastery, with its detailed account of every benefaction, is still preserved in the British Museum.[458] The distinctive mark of a chantry was, that it was expressly founded for the apparently selfish purpose of making financial provision to secure the prayers of others for the future well-being of the soul of the founder.

But though this selfish and personal purpose may have been the dominating thought in the case of some foundations, yet it is probable that it was not the only purpose of the majority of these institutions. The primary point to be remembered is that it is a laudable desire to wish to perpetuate one’s memory, especially if the memorial should take a form which will benefit the social community. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the prevailing method of doing this was by establishing a chantry.

In attempting to investigate the reasons why chantries were founded, we are faced from the outset with a difficulty. The licence in mortmain, by which permission to assign lands for the support of the chantry priest was effected, scarcely ever mentions any other object for the memorial except the chantry itself, whilst the foundation statutes, which enumerate more specifically the purpose of the founder, are very rarely forthcoming.

An example will make this clear. In 1414 Langley, Bishop of Durham, issues to himself an episcopal licence empowering the founding of the chantry he wished to endow. In the same year he, in his temporal capacity as Earl of a County Palatine, grants a licence in mortmain, authorising the chantry to hold lands and to make the chantry priest a corporation.[459] Both these records are available, but in neither of them is there any reference to the real objects for which the chantry was to be instituted. Consequently, if further information was not forthcoming, we would assume that all that the Bishop of Durham had done was to evince, in some tangible manner, his belief in the efficacy of masses for the departed.

Fortunately, however, there still survives a lengthy deed,[460] dated the day after the licences to which we have referred were granted. This deed specifies that the priests appointed to the chantry were to keep schools of grammar and of song respectively, in addition to offering prayers for the souls of the departed, and that a certain sum of money out of the proceeds of the chantry was to be used for the purpose of distribution to the poor.[461]

Strangely enough, we are dependent for information as to the purposes of chantries, on the instrument which brought about their destruction. In 1545 was passed the Chantries’ Act of Henry VIII. This Act began by reciting that many people had been appropriating the endowments of “Colleges, Freechapelles, Chantries, Hospitalles, Fraternities, Brotherhoods, Guilds and Stipendarie Priests,” and that the expenses of the war with France and Scotland had been heavy, and then proceeded to give authority to the king to send out commissioners to investigate the nature of these endowments and afterwards to take such action as he thought fit.

“Apparently, Henry had a fit of reaction after the Chantries’ Act was passed. He is reported to have dissolved Parliament with a speech in which he said he was going to reform chantries, not destroy them.”[462]