Commemoration Flashcards
What was a chantry?
Arrangements founded by individuals or groups providing for a priest to celebrate mass daily, usually at an existing altar in a parish church.
What was the average salary of a chantry priest in Bristol?
Around £6.
What were some of the wider benefits associated with chantry foundation?
It was a charitable act adding to the intensity of parochial devotion - parish acquired a free priest who assisted with masses, lauds, matins, choir…
Chantry chapels provided accessibility for parishioners physically out of reach of a religious institution (can hear mass).
Chantry priests played an educational role through religious instruction to parishioners but also as teachers in schools.
Who was Thomas Halleway? And describe his chantry foundation.
He was Mayor of Bristol during the 1430s and established a perpetual chantry in the mid-1450s.
A morrowmass priest was funded and given a chamber to live (a property endowment).
A lamp was to burn before the precious sacrament.
Liturgical equipment donated: Mass Book for the High Altar, a suit of vestments worth £20.
Further instructions for priest - to be active in wider worship by attending choir, being present at matins, lauds and evensong.
How were temporary chantries different to perpetual?
They functioned usually between 5-20 years to speed soul through Purgatory.
Operated in a similar fashion to perpetual chantries: stipendiary priest funded, liturgical equipment donated but once duration has finished the equipment reverted back to the parish.
Describe John Leycestre’s and Clement Wilteshire’s temporary chantry.
Leycestre: founded a 20 year chantry in the parish church of St Stephen’s in 1436.
He stipulated that his priest was to remain active in wider worship assisting masses, matins and vespers.
Wilteshire: founded a 3 year chantry and provided two suits of vestments.
What was the order of a funeral?
Exequies on eve of interment, the Requiem mass, the dirige on the morrow and the burial.
Candles and torches were burned, bells rung and members of the poor offered alms (prayers of poor = the most efficacious).
What did John Bannebury request at his funeral in 1404?
Requested that 24 paupers carry torches at his burial and the preceding Offices with each receiving a gown, hood and 2 silver pennies.
What did John Richard want distributed to the poor on his funeral day in 1411?
Bread to the value of 20s. to be given to the poor on his burial day.
What was an anniversary?
Essentially a re-enactment of the funeral, as if the corpse was once again present.
All the composite rites were observed with bells being rung to advocate townspeople to pray. The poor were often present and alms were distributed.
What did the Chestre’s want distributed on their anniversary?
20d. worth of bread to be distributed to the poor.
Donating liturgical equipment was another form of commemoration, describe an example.
At the High Altar of All Saints’, a tabernacle of gold and silver with a figure of Saint Saviour is flanked by John Hadden and his wife Christine - they are fixing themselves at the most sacred point within the church.
What are bede rolls and why were they important?
They were lists of good doers that were read aloud at High Mass on Sundays - made parishioners aware of who donated what indicating what certain signs and images associate to certain people.
Combination of both aural and visual commemoration - people were aware of generous activity.
