A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



monks. This was the last Benedictine foundation in England. Restricted 

 m Its flow by external obstacles rather than by slackening °^ ^^^j^ ^^^^^j,, 

 the liberality of the laity began to run in new channels. The tavou 

 form of benefaction now in constantly increasing measure djn to tnc 

 Reformation was the foundation of ch-tries ^^e doctrine of purgatory 

 and of the efficacy of prayers for the dead and of the sacrifice of the altar 

 o abbreviate its Lor! hid taken firm root throughout Ch-stendom^ Th 

 landowning class had heaped gifts upon the monasteries for their souls and the 

 out o? their relations, but' they now desired a more direct, instant, and 

 individual intercession. This was secured by endowing a perpetual chaplain 

 to sing mass for the souls of the founders and their kindred, to which were 

 sometimes added the souls of all the faithful, at an a tar in their parish 

 church or parochial chapel, more rarely in a conventual church. In some 

 cases the chantry was attached to an existing altar, in others a new one was 

 contrived in an aisle, but not infrequently a chapel was built on to the older 

 fabric ; by the addition of such chantry chapels the church of Manchester 

 was doubled in size during the two centuries preceding the Reformation 

 The founder and his descendants were often buried in the chapel he had 

 endowed, and the chantry priest was surrounded by the sculptured effigies 

 and inlaid brasses of those for whose souls he continually ministered. It 

 must not be assumed that the motives of chantry founders were always 

 purely personal ; these special endowments increased the dignity of the 

 church and its services, the chantry priest being commonly bound to assist 

 the parish clergy in addition to his special work. Sometimes too he was 

 required to act as schoolmaster for a certain number of free scholars, but of 

 this arrangement no Lancashire instance is recorded before the fifteenth 

 century. 



An occasional chantry had been founded in the thirteenth century. 

 About 1 208-9 the family of Beetham endowed one in the church of Cocker- 

 sand Abbey ,^'' and another was founded about seventy years after at Conis- 

 head Priory.^" In the following age they became more numerous, some 

 sixteen being recorded."' 



The foundation of endowed chantries was carefully watched both by 

 the lay and the ecclesiastical authorities. Gifts of land for this purpose 

 required a licence from the crown for alienation in mortmain, and the bishops 

 usually applied to them the same principles as governed the creation of 

 vicarages. Perpetual chaplainships were ordained with a fixed stipend, and 

 the incumbents were presented by the founders and their heirs to the 

 diocesan, from whom they received admission to the chantry."* In the case 

 of the well-endowed Winwick chantry in Huyton church (1383) Bishop 

 Stretton insisted that each of the two chaplains should be paid 10 marks a 

 year in money, and drew up elaborate regulations as to the oath they were 

 to take, their manner of life and the duties incumbent upon them."^ It is 

 noteworthy that the endowment out of which this chantry was provided had 



'" CockersanJ Chart. 330, 1013. They also endowed two beds in the abbey infirmary 



'" Duchy of Lane. Anct. D., L. 564 For others ascribed to this century by Canon Raines (Lana. 

 Chantries (Chet. Soc.), 3'. 7+. 225. 204) there is either insufficient evidence or (e.g. Roiceden) some con- 

 fusion with the older and wider sense of ' canuria,' in which it is equivalent to ' capella.' 



'" Accounts of the various chantries will be found in the topographical section. 



'" These admissions are entered in the Epis. Reg. •» Reg. of Burs^ough, fol. 94-8. 



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