Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England

by Edward Lewes Cutts

he Byzantine emperors first set up a private chapel in their houses; kings followed their example, and the nobles followed the example of their kings; and there was a danger of the clergy of these chapels, supported by their lords, making themselves independent of the oversight of the bishops, and of the worship of the rich being separated from the worship of the poor.[446] In 692, the second Trullan Council decreed that no clergyman should perform the rite of baptism or celebrate the Eucharist in such a chapel without the bishop’s permission. Gregory the Great gives licence for the consecration of an oratory which Firmilian, a notary, has built on his farm outside the city of Fermo, on condition that there shall not be a baptistery or cardinalem presbyterum, a titled parish priest.[447] The Council of Clermont, 535, decreed that on Sundays and festivals all should come to church, and not invite priests to their houses to say mass.

Conisborough Castle.
10. The Chapel.

The great Saxon nobles had chapels in their houses and private chaplains. Their chaplains are sometimes named in their wills, e.g. Queen Ethelfleda, c. 972, leaves “4 hides of land to her reeve, 2 to her page, and 2 to each of her priests.” Lotgiva gives legacies “to Ailric my household priest, and to Ailric my page.”[448] Some of them Roger of Wendover accuses of hearing in bed the daily mass said by their chaplains.[449] With the Norman nobles the custom was universal; of the numerous castles of the Norman period which remain to us, we do not call to mind one which has not a chapel in the keep-tower. They differ in size, from an oratory contained within the thickness of the wall, as at Conisboro’ and at Brougham, to a church forming a prominent feature of the plan and elevation, as at the White Tower, London, and at Colchester.

The chapel in the White Tower is the largest of the series. It is situated on the principal (first) floor, and under it on the ground floor is a kind of crypt. It has a nave with aisles, and a chancel with circular apse. Gundulph of Rochester, who was its architect, gave great importance to the chapel by projecting its round apse beyond the line of the east wall like a great semicircular bastion, the only break in the massive quadrangular plan. The keep of Colchester Castle, no doubt by the same architect, is exactly on the same plan, only that the chapel is without aisles.

In the keeps of Rochester, Newcastle, Hedingham, Middleham, and others, a commodious chapel, with handsome ornamentation of zigzag arch mouldings and vaulted roof, is contained in the annex to the keep, which defends the great stone stair leading to the principal floor. It is very probable that where the keep had only a small oratory there was always a larger chapel in the castle bailey[450] for the general inhabitants of the castle, for in later times we commonly find an oratory for the lord and another for the lady, and a chapel besides.

In the Edwardian castles, the chapel is a constant feature. Conway affords a good example; there it is on the south side of the outer court, and the chaplain’s room is in the adjoining tower. There are also, in the inner court adjoining the state apartments, two small elegant oratories, one called the king’s and the other the queen’s. There are other examples at Beaumaris, Kidwelly, etc. Usually a small vestry and a priest’s chamber communicate directly with the chapel.

MARRIAGE OF COUNT WALERAN DE ST. POL WITH THE SISTER
OF RICHARD, KING OF ENGLAND.
ROYAL 14, E. IV., f. 30.

In the great houses of the nobles down to the end of the mediæval period, the chapel is as universal a feature as the hall or the great chamber.[451] The chapels at Ightham Mote, Kent; at Bodiam, Sussex; at the Vyne, Hampshire; and at Wolsey’s Palace at Hampton Court, are fine examples. The still perfect chapel of Haddon Hall is in all respects like an ordinary village church, with font and pulpit. The College Chapels of Oxford and Cambridge, of Eton and Winchester, and of all the other mediæval colleges and schools, the chapels of the Episcopal Palaces at Winchester, Farnham, Lambeth, etc., are all normal examples of the architectural features and furniture of the domestic chapels, and their services are examples of the manners and customs of the chapel services of the greater mediæval houses.