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 the end 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 monastery was 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 the Placebo, the Dirge, with lessons, lauds, and mass of Requiem, 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.