Chantries in the Parish, or 'Through the Looking-glass'

Abstract

Far from being the preserve of the great and the good, or gracing only high-grade churches such as abbeys or cathedrals, chantries ordinarily had a more humdrum character and expression. Most were of temporary duration, sited at existing altars in parish churches, and founded by the more middling sort — wealthier parishioners in either town or countryside. This essay dwells on the chantries established by men and women in Bristol in the century and more before the Reformation, and seeks particularly to place what was nonetheless still a relatively ambitious post obit arrangement into its supporting context — be this either the particular parish in which the service was to function or the circumstances of the founder's family. Rather than conceiving of chantries as relatively self-interested provisions, profiting only their founders, the following argues that these arrangements supported priests whose presence was intended primarily to benefit the broader community. As well as seeking to identify the contribution made by such undertakings, this essay explores the strategies employed both by families and by the parish community, each often assisting the other, to establish and sustain the highly valued auxiliary priests that chantries entailed.