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 vagabonds through 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 a chantry 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, but partitioned 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 chapel and also of another, with a priest’s chamber over it,[518] in the middle of the cloister court.
