What is the most approved derivation of the word Chapel?--_Capella_,
from the goat-skin covering of what was at first a movable tabernacle?
_capa_, a cape worn by _capellanus_, the chaplain? _capsa_, a chest
for sacred relics? _kaba Eli_ (Heb.), the house of God? or what other
and better etymon?
Is it not invariably the purpose of a Chapel to supply the absence or
incommodiousness of the parish church?
At what period of ecclesiastical history was the {334} word Chapel
first introduced? If there be any truth in the legend that St.
Martin's hat was carried before the kings of France in their
expeditions, and that the pavilion in which it was lodged originated
the term, it is probably a very old word, as the Saint is stated to
have died A.D. 397. Yet the word in not acknowledged by Bingham.
Is Chapel a _legal_ description of the houses of religious meeting,
which are used by those who dissent from the Church of England?
Was the adoption of the word Chapel by dissenters, or their submission
to it, indicative of an idea of assistance, rather than of rivalry or
opposition, to the Church?
Any answer to these inquiries, which are proposed only for the sake
of information, by one whose means of reference and investigation are
limited, will be very acceptable.
Alfred Gatty.
Ecclesfield, March 5. 1850.
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