DOMESTIC CHAPELS.
The 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
The western end of the chapel is sometimes divided into two stories, both
opening upon the sacrarium; the upper story was usually intended for the
family, and the lower for the domestics. Sometimes the chapel on the
principal floor has, besides its internal approaches, an external stone
stair by which people from other parts of the house could enter the chapel
without passing through the house, as at the fourteenth-century houses of
Inceworth (?) and Earth, both in Cornwall.
The principal residence of a great noble needed a chapel of considerable
size to accommodate the number of people, as numerous as the population of
a country parish or a small town, who were gathered into the castle during
the residence of its lord:--the lord’s household of knights and squires,
yeomen and pages; his lady’s separate household of ladies, bower-women,
and women in various kinds of service; the garrison of the castle, with
its commanders of knightly degree, their squires, men-at-arms, yeomen, and
grooms; the several staffs which looked after the various departments of
the service, the chambers, kitchens, stables, kennels, and mews; besides a
constant flow of visitors, with their complex trains of guards and
attendants.
In England only the chief royal houses have maintained the mediæval
dignity of their ecclesiastical domestic establishments. Windsor Castle,
besides its oratory, has its noble chapel dedicated to St. George the
Patron Saint of England,[452] and its establishment of dean and canons,
singing men and boys, housed in a picturesque group of collegiate
buildings arranged round several cloistered courts. The Tower of London,
besides its chapel in the White Tower, has its church of St. Peter ad
Vincula in the courtyard.
Many of the great nobles, who maintained a state little inferior to that
of royalty, had their chapel establishment of proportionate dignity. In
the opinion of that time, a man of great rank and estate owed it to the
glory of God that the worship of his household should be offered with
circumstances of solemn splendour; he owed it to the well-being of the
numerous people who depended upon him; and to the still more numerous
people of all estates, who looked to him for an example.
The Duke of Buckingham’s house at Thornbury had a chaplain, eighteen
clerks of the chapel, and nine boys.[453]
The household book of Henry Algernon, the fifth Earl of Northumberland,
who was born in 1477, and died in 1527, gives us very full details of the
organization of the chapel staff of a great nobleman, their duties, and
their emoluments in money and kind. They consisted of a dean, who was to
be a D.D., or LL.D., or B.D., and ten other priests, eleven gentlemen, and
six children who composed the choir.[454] The secular duties which were
assigned to some of them will perhaps be better understood by a reference
to the past. The clergy had always been the advisers of the English kings
and nobles in the ordinary affairs of life: the Archbishop of Canterbury
was the king’s official chief counsellor till long after the Norman
Conquest. Every ealdorman and great thane probably had a learned clerk in
his house, not only as a chaplain, but as an adviser in general affairs.
Henry II. organized his domestic religious establishment into a Department
of State, and used Churchmen in the civil administration as ministers,
ambassadors, and judges--there were none others so capable. The nobles
were following on the same lines, when they made one chaplain steward,
another secretary, and another tutor, in addition to their not burdensome
duties in the maintenance of Divine worship. So the people resorted to
their parish priest to advise them in their domestic difficulties and
extraordinary matters of business, to arbitrate in their differences, and
make their wills, for the simple natural reason of his wider knowledge of
affairs, his greater experience of mankind, his disinterestedness, and,
not least, his sacred character.
In the castles of less noble and wealthy persons it is not uncommon to
find that there were several chaplains organized into a college of secular
priests, as at Colchester, Exeter, Hastings, Pontefract, etc., and not
infrequently endowed out of the rectories in the lord’s gift. In some
instances the lord of numerous estates endowed the chapel of his principal
castle with the churches upon all his estates, as at Colchester,
Clitheroe, etc. The intention probably was not so much to enrich the
chaplain or form an endowment for the collegiate staff of the chapel, as
to make the castle chapel the mother church of the village churches on the
surrounding estates; just as the seneschal of the castle was the superior
officer of the bailiffs of the various manors; and so to concentrate the
ecclesiastical administration of all the estates, as well as their civil
administration, under the eye of the lord and his most trusted agents.
Sometimes, on the other hand, the lord gave the service of the castle
chapel into the hands of some neighbouring monastery (probably of his own
founding), as at Colchester to the Abbey of St. John, at Brecon to the
Priory of Brecon. When Robert de Haia, in 1120, founded the Priory of
Boxgrove, Sussex, he stipulated that he should choose one of the canons to
officiate in the chapel of his neighbouring manor house of Holnaker. So
Sir Ralph de Eccleshall, _temp._ Edward I., gave his mill, etc., to the
monks of Beauchief, who covenanted in return to find him a priest for his
chapel at Eccleshall. They stipulated, however, that in floods or snow
they shall be excused from sending one of their canons to Eccleshall, but
may say the due masses in their own church at Beauchief. So the chapel of
the De Lovelot’s castle at Sheffield was served by the canons of their
Priory of Worksop.
The Collegiate Church of St. George within the royal castle of Windsor
had, and still has, an establishment consisting of a dean, twelve canons,
eight minor canons, eight vicars choral, and eight chorister boys.[455]
The Chapel of Wallingford Castle[456] was served by a dean, five
prebendaries, and a deacon. Tickhill had four prebendaries;[457] three was
a common number, as at Exeter, etc.; Pontefract had two. The chapel of
Bridgenorth Castle had a college of secular priests, and in later times
served as a parish church to the people of the borough. The castle chapels
at Nottingham and Skipton were rectories. The Castle Chapel at Kirby
Ravensworth had a chantry of two priests.
The chapels of Skipton, Tutbury, and Stafford Castles are called “free
chapels.” Of Skipton Castle Chapel certain liberties and duties of the
parson or chaplain were written in two mass-books, one new, the other old,
in one of which the earl granted that the said chaplain should have meat
and drink sufficient within the hall of the lord of the castle for him and
one garçon[458] with him. And if the lord be absent, and no house kept, he
and his successors shall have for every ten weeks one quarter of wheat and
vi_s._ viii_d._; and vi_d._ in money and one robe or gown yerely at ye
Nativity of o’r Lord, or xiii_s._ iv_d._ in monie. An inquisition of
Edward III. adds as part of the endowment one _cameram fenestratam_ (a
chamber with a window) and pasture for viii oxen, vi cows, and two horses,
and sufficient timber for repairing his house and chamber, and dry wood
for firing. At the dissolution of chantries and free chapels, it became a
question whether this was not a parsonage.[459] In other cases, the
chaplain had a definite endowment, which seems to have been calculated
upon the not very large income of a parish chaplain. The four chaplains of
Tickhill were endowed with £5 each; the chaplain of Nottingham Castle with
£5; the chaplain at Pleshey Castle, Essex, with £5;[460] the chaplain at
Denbeigh with £8, the foundation of the king; at Southampton with £10,
payable by Royal Letters out of the customs of that port. Probably in many
cases there was no endowment; the chapel was practically a “free chapel,”
and the emoluments such as were agreed upon between the patron and his
nominee; these would naturally tend to become a customary payment and
perquisites; the Skipton agreement gives an instance of what was probably
customary: viz. a corrody for himself and a boy, and a small sum in money.
The priest of the Chapel of Skelton Castle, Yorkshire, was, at the time of
the Suppression, only partly paid by Lady Conyers, 23_s._; and his stipend
was made up of payments from half a dozen other persons, from the 18_s._
of R. Robinson, down to the 3_s._ 10_d._ of John Gyll, making a total of
£4 2_s._ 10_d._[461]
The domestic chapels of the nobility and great men were always
consecrated, and had a perpetual licence for Divine service.
Very probably, where there were several chaplains, they all served their
lord in various clerkly capacities. So Piers Plowman:--
Somme serven the Kyng, and the silver tellen
In chequer and chauncerie, challengen his dettes
Of wardes, and of wardemotes, weyes and theyves;
And some serven as servants lordes and ladies,
And in stede of stewardes sitten and demen.
The domestic chaplain is frequently named in wills as a witness or an
executor, and not infrequently as a legatee; _e.g._ Giles de Gadlesmere,
knight, 1337, leaves to Wm. Ocham, clerk, 100 shillings, unless he be
promoted before my death; Wm. de Ocham is one of the witnesses to the
will.[462]
We find in the “Valor Eccl.” a considerable number of chantries recorded
as founded in the chapels of castles. There is doubt in some cases whether
these were the ordinary endowments of the chaplain, made under the name of
a Chantry, for reasons of legal convenience, or whether, in addition to
the ordinary chaplain, a special endowment had been made for mortuary
masses, and, if so, whether the ordinary chaplain was also the Cantarist
and received the chantry endowment in addition to his normal stipend. The
chaplain celebrating in the chapel of the Castle of Downhead received from
the grant of King Stephen £5 a year, and chaplain for celebrating mass
twice every week at Penhill, for the soul of the founder, £2 13_s._
4_d._[463] There were chantries in the chapels of the castles of Chester,
Sherifhoton, Pickering, Malton, Pontefract, Penrith, Sandall, Skelton,
Whorleton, Kermerdenin in Wales, Durham, Barnard Castle, Tutbury,
Stafford, Wilton, Norham, Alnwick, etc. The lord of Bridgenorth Castle
arranged with the Dean and Canons of Windsor to supply a priest to
celebrate three days a week for the founder and King John.
Any one might build an oratory in his house,[464] but Divine service, that
is the Holy Communion, might not be celebrated in it without the bishop’s
permission. Towards the close of the thirteenth century, the lesser gentry
began to include a chapel in the plan of their manor houses, and the
custom seems to have become almost universal in the following centuries.
We may take it as an indication of a growing desire to maintain the
regular daily practice of religious worship in a seemly solemn way for
their families and households.
In the valuable digest of the Exeter Registers, for which historical
students are much indebted to Canon Hingeston-Randolph, the licences
issued during the twenty-four years of Edmund Stafford’s Episcopacy
(1395-1419) are arranged under the family names of the persons to whom
they were granted, and there are two hundred and seventy-two names. In
many cases the licence extends to all their mansions and manors in the
Diocese of Exeter; which gives a rough estimate of about three hundred
domestic chapels in the manor houses of the two counties of Devon and
Cornwall; if we multiply that figure by twenty-six, we get a rough
estimate of over seven thousand domestic chapels in England and Wales.
All these domestic chapels, except those of royal houses[465] and of some
free chapels, were under the jurisdiction of the bishop, and a constant
and perhaps jealous oversight was maintained lest they should detract from
the general assembly of all the parishioners for united worship in the
parish church, or interfere with the pastoral position and rights of the
rectors of the parishes. People with interest at Rome sometimes obtain
their licence direct from the pope. There is an example of the king’s
ambassador obtaining a batch of them in 1343, but they are granted with
strict limitations.
Among the Constitutions of Archbishop Stratford, made at the Council of
London (1342), is one which even restricts the power of the bishops to
grant licences: it decrees that “all licences granted by the bishops for
celebrating mass in places not consecrated other than to noble men and
great men of the realm, and to persons living at a considerable distance
from the church, or notoriously weak or infirm, shall be void.” The decree
goes on to say that “whosoever, against the prohibition of the canon,
shall celebrate mass in oratories, chapels, houses, or other places, not
consecrated, without having obtained the licence of the diocesan, shall be
suspended from the celebration of Divine service for the space of a
month.”[466]
Robert Fitz Aer, the second of the name (c. 1190-1195), gave to the
Convent of Haughmond certain lands on condition that they would have
Divine service performed in his Chapel of Withyford three days a week,
when he or his wife or their heirs were resident in the manor. All
festivals were excluded from the agreement, and the parishioners were
not to attend these services to the injury of the mother church.[467]
Here is an early example of the foundation of a domestic chapel under the
guise of a chantry:--
Sir G. de Breaute, in right of Joane his wife, had liberty given him
by Robert Dean of St. Paul’s, with the consent of Walter Niger, Vicar
of Navestock, Essex, to found a chapel and chantry in his court at
Navestock, provided he and his heirs maintained a chaplain at his own
charge, sworn to preserve the liberty of the mother church, and to pay
the vicar all the profits he should receive there, and admit none of
the parishioners to confession or other offices there under pain of
being suspended by the vicar. The founder also and the heirs of the
said Joane his wife, and whoever else had the said chapel in his
lordship, were also to be sworn to preserve the rights of the mother
church under like pain. In which chapel the chaplain was to administer
the mass only with Bread and Holy Water, forbearing all other holy
offices, saving that at Easter the founder and his wife and heirs,
together with his free servants and guests, were to be admitted to the
sacrament of the altar; but all his servants were to go to the mother
church throughout the year.[468] And for this grant the founder and
his wife and heirs were to give to the mother church two wax candles,
each weighing a pound, to be offered, one at the Purification, the
other at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, before
vespers.[469]
Another similar example is the chapel at the Vyne, Hampshire.
In the twelfth century, Robert, Dean of Sherburn, granted to William
FitzAdam and his heirs to build a chapel in the parish of St. Andrew,
Sherborne, for the use of himself, his wife, and his household. The
said Robert to provide the chaplain, who shall eat at William’s table,
and receive a stipend for his services from Robert; saving the rights
of the mother church; and William FitzAdam and his wife to attend
worship, and receive communion at the parish church on Christmas,
Easter, Purification, Whitsunday, and St. Andrew’s Day.
The present chapel at the Vyne is a late perpendicular building, in a
perfect state of repair; with its ancient screens and stalls. It has an
anti-chapel over which was my lord’s oratory; the two chambers for the
chaplain on the south side have been converted into mortuary chapels of
the time of Charles II.[470]
From the time that the Bishop’s Registers began, _i.e._ from the close of
the thirteenth century, down to the time of the Reformation, they abound
in entries of the granting of licences for oratories in private houses.
They run in a customary form,[471] setting forth that the licence is given
to a particular person by name, his wife and children, servants, and
guests, to have Divine offices said in the oratory of his house of
so-and-so; there is usually a clause that on Sundays and other festivals,
they shall go to their parish church, there to hear the Divine service;
and a further clause requiring that all fees and offerings shall be paid
to the priest. A licence was not given once for all; very much to the
contrary. Sometimes it was given during the pleasure of the bishop;
sometimes for one year; for two years; for three years; renewable from
time to time; sometimes for the period of the grantee’s life. In the
Episcopal Registers of Exeter, a number of licences are registered to the
family of Bottreaux, which, when put together, give a glimpse of family
history, and illustrate the principles on which the licences were granted.
Licence to hold service in the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, at Boswithguy
(the oratories are frequently named under the invocation of some saint),
appears in the second year of Bishop Stafford’s Register, 1396, to
Elizabeth Bottreaux; and is renewed in 1398. In 1399, a general licence is
given to William, son of Sir William Bottreaux, Knight, and to Sir Ralph
Bottreaux, Knight, and to John and Anna, children of the said Sir William.
Again, in 1410, a general licence is given to William, “lord of
Bottreaux,” his wife, and their sons and daughters. We conjecture that
this William died in the following year, and was succeeded by his son
John, for again, in 1411, a licence is given to John Bottreaux, and
Elizabeth his wife, for all their manors and mansions in the diocese.[472]
Sometimes, perhaps it was when the manor house was at very inconvenient
distance from the parish church, the licence was given “omissa clausula
Volumus, etc.,” _i.e._ without the restricting clause about Sundays and
other festivals.
The Registry of Archbishop Walter Gray records grants in 1229 to Alberic
de Percy, to have a chaplain to celebrate Divine offices in the chapel of
Sutton so long as he lives; to Alexander de Vilers and his heirs to have
Divine offices in his chapel of Newbottle for his family and guests for
ever;[473] to Robert le Vavasour and his heirs, at his chapel of
Hindishal; in 1254, to S. de Heddon and his heirs in the chapel of his
court of Headdon.[474]
In 1343, Thomas de Peckam obtained a bull from Pope Alexander, licensing
him, since in winter he cannot get to his parish church because of the
floods, that he may have Divine service in his chapel at Wyke.[475]
Temporary licences were sometimes granted in special cases of temporary
sickness or chronic infirmity; Bishop Stapledon, in 1312, permits Dame
Isabella de Fishacre to have Divine service at home, not only on week days
but also on festivals when, through the inclemency of the weather or
bodily infirmity, she cannot conveniently attend the parish church. In
1317, in consideration of Sir Peter Fishacre’s impotency, he is allowed to
have Divine service celebrated in his own chamber in his house of Lupton.
In 1310, Oliver de Halap, who is broken with age, and has lost the sight
of his eyes, _senio fractus et luminibus occulorum privatus_, is
compassionately allowed by the same considerate bishop to have Divine
service celebrated in his manor house of Hertleghe.
The custom of having a domestic chaplain extended, in the latter part of
the period with which we have to do, not only to the majority of the
country gentry, but to wealthy yeomen and well-to-do citizens. Mere
country gentlemen sometimes maintained a considerable chapel
establishment. Henry Machyn, in his diary,[476] says, in noticing the
death, in 1552, of Sir Thomas Jarmyn, of Rushbrook Hall, that “he was the
best housekeeper in the county of Suffolk, and kept a goodly chapel of
singing men.”
Richard Burre, a wealthy yeoman and farmer of the parsonage of Souwntyng,
in 1529, directs in his will that “Sir Robert Beckton,” my chaplain, syng
ffor my sowle by the space of ix. yers.[477]
When Alderman Monmouth took Tyndale into his house, and “did promys him x
pounds sterling to praye for his father, mother, their soules and all
christen soules,”[478] he clearly engaged that greatest of the translators
of the Bible as his domestic chaplain. It was very natural, and no doubt
usual, that special services for the deceased members of the family should
be celebrated in the chapel of the house, and by the chaplain of the
family. Not infrequently a chantry was founded in domestic chapels; _e.g._
“Thomas de Ross, lord of Hamelak and Belvoir, 1412, leaves 400{li} for ten
chaplains to say mass, etc., in his chapel of Belvoir for eight
years.”[479]
Some further examples of it will be found in the chapter on chantries and
chantry-priests.
Mr. Christopher Pickering, in his will, dated 1542, leaves “to my sarvands
John Dobson and Frances, xx_s._ a-piece, besydes ther wages; allso I give
unto Sir James Edwarde, my sarvand,” etc.[480] One of the witnesses to the
will is “Sir James Edwarde, preste,” so that the person whom Mr. Pickering
describes as his servant seems to have been his domestic chaplain. Sir
Thomas More says “every man has a priest to wait upon his wife;” so
Nicholas Blackburn, a wealthy citizen of York, and twice Lord Mayor,
leaves in 1431-2 a special bequest to his wife, “to find her a
gentlewoman, and a priest, and a servant.”[481]
* * * * *
We have seen that the lord of the house usually selected his own chaplain,
and made his own arrangements with him on the subject of remuneration,
which most likely consisted of his lodging in the chaplain’s chamber and
his board at the lord’s table, and a fixed sum of money, as at Skipton.
But there were cases in which the chaplain was nominated by some outside
authority, as the rector or vicar of the parish, as in the case of the
Vyne, as if to lessen the likelihood of friction between the parish priest
and the chaplain of the manor house.
* * * * *
The frequent occurrence of licences to solemnize the marriage of specified
persons in the chapel of the bride’s home shows that then, as now, a
special licence was required for such occasions.
7 Sep., 1363. Licence for a marriage between Sir Andrew Lutterel,
Knt., and Hawise Despencer, to be solemnized by Thos. Abbot of Bourne
and the Vicar of Bourne, in the chapel of Lady Blanche Wake of Lidell,
within her castle of Bourne.[482]
4 Aug., 1417. Licence to Eliz. de Beaumont, for marriage between Wm.
Lord Deyncourt and Elizabeth, daughter of the said Elizabeth, to be
celebrated in the chapel of Beaumanoir, in the parish of Barowe.[483]
1457. Henry, son of Humphrey Duke of Buckingham, was licensed, by the
Bishop of Lichfield, to be married in the chapel of Maxstoke Castle to
his cousin Margaret, Countess of Richmond.[484]
A licence to solemnize a marriage in the chapel of the manor house of
Homesid House, Durham, was given in 1500, on account of bad weather
and the infirmity of the parents of the bride.[485]
In the following case a license was not asked for, because the marriage
was uncanonical:--
In 1434, process was issued against Thomas Grene of Norton by
Toucester, Knight, for clandestine marriage with Marnia Belers,
_co’matre sue_ (co-sponsors), in the private chapel within the house
of Ric. Knyghtley at Ffarvesley, in the presence of Ric. Knyghtley and
his son and other witnesses.[486]
The clergy[487] sometimes had a domestic chapel in their houses, but even
they were carefully restricted as to the when, and where, and how they
might celebrate the Divine service in them.
In the life of J. de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter, 1327, we read that
in the earlier part of his career, while still Archdeacon of
Nottingham, in 1326, he was sent as nuncio by the pope into France and
England. He writes to the pope that he is so overwhelmed with business
that he prays for leave for himself and his people to have mass said
before daylight. The pope grants it, but desires that the permission
be rarely used, because since the Son of God _qui candor est lucis
æternæ_ is immolated in the service of the mass, such a sacrament
ought not to be celebrated in the darkness, but in the light.[488]
In the register of Bishop Grandisson, in 1328, is the record of a
licence, only “during pleasure,” to the Rector of Southpole (?), for
an oratory _infra mansum rectoriæ tuæ_.[489]
1404. Licence to the Rector of Wodemancote to have service in his
house for one year, on account of infirmity.[490]
These domestic chapels were thoroughly furnished with every usual ornament
and appliance in a style of sumptuousness proportionate to the rank and
means of the master of the house. From the Household Book of the Earl of
Northumberland we gather that his chapel had three altars, and that my
lord and my lady had each a closet, _i.e._ an oratory, in which were
other altars. The chapel was furnished with hangings, and had a pair of
organs. The service books were so famous for their beauty that, on the
earl’s death, Cardinal Wolsey intimated his wish to have them. There is
mention, too, of suits of vestments, and single vestments, copes and
surplices, and altar cloths for the five altars. All these things were
under the care of the yeoman of the vestry, and were carried about with
the earl at his removals from one to another of his houses.
Catalogues of the furniture of the smaller domestic chapels are numerous
in the inventories attached to ancient wills; two may be given here as
examples--
Lady Alice West, of Hinton Marcel, Hants, 1395, bequeaths to her son
Thomas, “a pair of matins bookes and a pair of bedas,” and to her
daughter Iohane, a masse book and all the books that I have of Latin,
English, and French, out-take the foresaid mattins books bequeathed to
Thomas. Also all my vestments of my chappel with the towels belonging
to the altar, and my tapites white and red paled,[491] and blue and
red paled, with all my green tapites that belong to my chappel
aforesaid, and with the frontals of the aforesaid altar, and with all
the curtains and trussing coffers, and all other apparele that belong
to my chapel. Also a chalice and paxbrede and holy-water pot with the
sprinklers; two cruets, two chandeliers, two silver basins for the
altar with scutcheons of my ancestors’ arms, and a sacring bell, and
all of silver. Also a table depainted of three (a triptych).[492]
In the inventories of the will of John Smith, Esq., of Blackmore, Essex,
in 1543--
In the chapel chamber, a long setle joyned. In the chapel, one aulter
of joyner’s work. Item, a table with two leaves of the passion gilt [a
panelled diptych]. Item, a long setle of wainscott. Item, a bell
hanging over the chapel. Chapel stuff, copes and vestments three.
Aulter fronts four, corporal case one, and dyvers peces of silk
necessary for cusshyons v.
The altar vessels are not specially mentioned; they were probably included
with the other silver, and the altar candlesticks among the “xiiiij latyn
candlestics of dyvers sorts,” mentioned elsewhere.
* * * * *
It is a very pleasant feature in the daily life of the manor house of
mediæval England which is brought home to us by these studies of ancient
domestic architecture and these dry extracts from Episcopal Registers. By
the latter part of the fourteenth century it would seem that nearly every
manor house had a chapel, and a resident chaplain. Divine services--Matins
and mass before breakfast, and evensong before dinner--were said every
day; and when the solemn worship of Almighty God held so conspicuous a
place in the daily family life, it is not possible that it should not have
exercised an influence upon the character and habits of the people; for
the family and household really attended the service as a part of the
routine of daily duty. There are numerous incidental allusions in the
course of historical narratives which prove it. Robert of Gloucester says
of William the Conqueror--
In church he was devout enow, for him none day abide
That he heard not Mass and Matins, and Evensong and each tide.
The story that William Rufus, before he succeeded to the throne, was first
attracted to William of Corboil by the rapidity with which he got through
the mass, indicates that even that graceless prince submitted to the
irksome restraint of the universal custom. And the stories about Hunting
Masses, in which chaplains omitted everything but the essentials of the
Divine service, afford the same sort of confirmation.[493]
The Romance of King Arthur is not often quoted as an historical authority,
but romances are a picture of contemporary manners and customs, and may be
so far depended upon; and this daily service in the castles and manor
houses of the Middle Ages is one of the facts of the life of the time
which is abundantly illustrated in them. Allusions such as the following
are frequent: “And so they went home and unarmed them, and so to evensong
and supper. And on the morrow they heard mass, and after went to dinner
and to their counsel, and made many arguments what were best to do.”[494]
And in the “Vision of Piers Plowman” we read (Passus v)--
The king and his knights to the church wenten,
To hear matins and mass, and to the meat after.
The imagination rests with pleasure on the ordinary orderly life of a
mediæval squire’s manor house, sweetened by this domestic religion; on the
kindly influence of a pious, sensible chaplain over the whole household,
the adviser of the lord, the tutor of the children, the monitor of the
domestics. We linger upon the idea of the comfort of it to the widowed
Lady Bottreaux, and to the infirm old Sir Peter Fishacre, and to poor old
Oliver de Halap, “broken with age, and deprived of the sight of his eyes.”
We may add an illustrative note, which, though of later date, is true to
the habits of this earlier period.
“For many years together I was seldom or never absent from Divine service
(in church) at five o’clock in the morning in summer, and six o’clock in
the winter.” And, again, “at Naworth, the house of Sir Charles Howard,
afterwards Earl of Carlisle, there was a chaplain in the house, an
excellent preacher, who had service twice every Sunday in the chapel, and
daily prayers morning and evening, and was had in such veneration by all
as if hee had been their tutelar angel” [which did not prevent him from
making love to the eldest daughter of the house, and making mischief for
the autobiographer].[495]
By the statute 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13, a limit was set to the number of
domestic chaplains. An archbishop might have 8 chaplains; a duke, 6;
marquis and earl, 5; viscount, 4; bishop, 6; chancellor, baron, and
knight of the garter, 3; duchess, marchioness, countess, and baroness,
being widows, 2; treasurer and controller of the king’s house, the
king’s secretary, the dean of the chapel, the king’s almoner, the
master of the rolls, 2; the chief justice of the king’s bench, and
warden of the cinque ports, 1. Proviso, that the king’s chaplains may
hold as many livings as the king shall give.