Chantries

 Abstract.  In medieval times there were between 10 and 20 chantry chapels around the cathedral each providing prayers for the deceased. Each chantry was administered by a priest and with payment for services brought in funding for the priests. The earliest were for kings of England. They disappeared following Reformation.

    A chantry is a chapel or altar with an endowment from a priest or a high-ranking benefactor, and dedicated to provide prayers and litany for the dead, often the benefactor and his family, but sometimes for all Christian souls. It was to gain atonement for their sins committed during their lives and then achieve eternal peace. The earliest chantries were in the early years of the 13th-century and it is probable more than half the number of chantries founded in England were between 1425 and 1500.[1]

Most of the chantries in the cathedral (some were chapels without any endowment) were founded by men who were being commemorated, but some were founded by bishops for notable individuals.[2] The chantries were paid through lands and rents or by a grant to buy lands, with the king’s permission, to produce a yearly sum to support the chantry. The endowment provided a salary for a priest and to buy candles for the altar. They were ministered mostly by vicars, but by the end of the 13th-century a separate body of chantry chaplains emerged. Sometimes the chantry priest was appointed by the descendants of the founder of the chapel.

 Very early in the current cathedral there is some evidence for two chantries for the souls of two kings of England[3] and they were attached to the altar of St John. The earliest altar recorded was in the early 1220s and named St Mary’s.[4] One of the earliest chantry chapels in England was for Bishop Stavenby, probably founded in 1238.[5] In 1241, there were five chaplains attending the principal altars which must have included St Chad’s altar[6] in the nave, possibly St Peter’s altar in the presbytery (or the retrochoir) and St Stephen in the north transept. The altar of St Thomas was mentioned in the Sacrist’s Roll of 1345/6.[7] By the end of the 13th-century there were at least thirteen chantries attached to one of the ten altars located around the high altar.[8]

The Acts of the Dean and Chapter, 1321–84[9] listed the ten altars of the Virgin Mary, and those of Saints Chad, John, Radegund (1242), Catherine (1240s), Thomas (1321), Peter (off the choir south aisle and probably the consistory court, 1254, and founded by Dean Mancetter), Stephen (1254), Andrew (probably in the north choir aisle), and Nicholas (probably in the south choir aisle, 1390). In 1335, the chapter ordered an inquiry into the chantries and found only five of the 20 chantries were being properly served. Some were being administered from a distance. It appeared the chaplains were not being remunerated sufficiently. In 1411, Bishop Burghill gave to the thirteen chantry priests without official houses a site on the south side of the Close. However, poor endowments continued with some chantries closing and some being re-dedicated and re-endowed. By 1429, the poor financial state meant loans had to be secured to pay the chaplains. Evidently the chantries were not always revenue raising assets for the cathedral.

An altar for St Blaise, probably in the choir, was founded by Dean Heywood, 1457–92. The altar had an alabaster table on which scenes of the saint's life were depicted.[10] Blaize was the patron saint of wool-combers and most likely attracted the attention of pilgrims connected with the wool trade. St Kenelm's altar was recorded in 1466.[11] In 1468, Heywood founded a chantry with the altar of Jesus and St Anne. The altar stood in its own chapel in a loft, which lay across the north choir aisle next to the choir screen. Its furnishings included statues of the Risen Christ and of St Anne, a pair of organs, and choir stalls.[12] In 1499, there was an altar of St George. A chapel was built by Dean Yotton which stood against the outer wall of the nave opposite the second bay from the central crossing. This was his chantry chapel when he died in 1512. By 1720, Yotton’s tomb was set in the nave wall. There is a reference in 1523 to Bishop Pattishall's chantry at St. Stephen's altar, located in the north transept according to Browne Willis, 1727.

Brown Willis plan of cathedral, 1720, published 1727

In 1535, there were seventeen chantry chaplains. Endowments brought in £95 annually. With Reformation came the dissolution of the cathedral's chantries in 1548 and the termination of chantry chaplains.[13] They narrowly escaped losing all their property at the beginning of 1549 under the terms of the Chantries Act of 1547. Across England around 2,000 chantry chapels and guild chapels disappeared. In Staffordshire some of the chantry chaplains found livings elsewhere, but most received a pension[14] and left. The chantry chaplains' college of houses was sold to London speculators and came eventually into the hands of the corporation of Lichfield. All statues on the high altar and in the chapels were removed and by the end of 1549 the chantry chapels had been dismantled. The richest at the time of Dissolution was the chantry to the chapel of St Nicholas.

Ironically, in 1546 Henry VIII died and he ordered in his will that masses should be said for his soul in the chantry chapel which he had built at Windsor.[15] In the reign of Mary, 1553-1558, an attempt was made to revive chantries, to restore their lost possessions, and to repair the damage done to the chapels ; but the property of the chantries, which had in most cases passed into the hands of private individuals could not be recovered, consequently few new chantries were founded and few repaired.[16]

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[1] P. Biver and F. E. Howard, ‘Chantry Chapels in England,’ Archaelogical Journal, (1909), 66, 1, 3.

[2] H. E. Savage, ‘The Great Register of Lichfield’ (Unpub. article in the Cathedral Library, 1923), 3. An expanded publication is H. E. Savage, ‘The Great Register of Lichfield Cathedral, known as Magnum Registrum Album’. In the Third Series of The Collections for a history of Staffordshire, (1924), Staffordshire Record Society, 1–365. This ‘Great White Register’ was, Savage suggested, started in 1323.

[3] Henry I and Edward I are likely dedications. It would not be surprising to know Richard II either had a dedicated altar or at one time it was intended to have one (author’s view).

[4] H. E. Savage (1924), 15.

[5] E. L. Cutts, Parish priests and their people in the Middle Ages in England, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, (1898), 451.

[6] H. E. Savage (1924), 331.

[7] J. C. Cox and W. H. S. J. Hope, ‘Sacrist's Roll of Lichfield Cathedral A.D. 1345’, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal (1882), 4, 107–138.

[8]  M W Greenslade and R B Pugh, 'House of secular canons - Lichfield cathedral: To the Reformation', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 3, (London, 1970),153.

[9] Bodleian M.S. Ashmole. 794, Part 1, fol. 48–9.

[10] H. E. Savage, Thomas Heywode, Dean (Unpub. article in the Cathedral Library, 1925), 9–10.

[11] Lichfield Cathedral Library, MS. Lichfield 4, f. 21v. Kenelm, as a boy, inherited the throne of Mercia. On a hunting trip to a forest in Worcestershire (Clent?) he was killed by his jealous sister. Kenelm’s head fell to the forest floor, but his soul took flight in the form of a dove which flew to Rome to inform the pope. The pope made him a saint.

[12] Ibid. 11–18. Also, Lichfield Cathedral Library MS. Lichfield 4, fol.22v and 31.

[13] The 17 chantries terminated and their value are listed in T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 13–4.

[14] Ibid, 14.

[15] P. Biver and F. E. Howard (1909), 3.

[16] Ibid 4.