Chantry - Abolition of Chantries Acts, 1545 and 1547

Abolition of Chantries Acts, 1545 and 1547

When Henry VIII initiated the Reformation in England, Parliament passed an Act in 1545 that defined chantries as representing misapplied funds and misappropriated lands. The Act stated that all chantries and their properties would belong to the King for as long as he should live. Along with the dispersal of the monasteries, the Act was designed to help cover the cost of the war with France. Because Henry did not live long after the Act was passed, few chantries were closed or given over to him. His successor, Edward VI, had a new Act passed in 1547, which completely suppressed 2,374 chantries and guild chapels; it also authorized inquiries to determine all of their possessions. Although the act called for the money to go to "charitable" ends and the "public good," most of it appears to have gone to Edward VI's advisors. The Crown sold many chantries to private citizens: for example, in 1548 Thomas Bell (Mayor of Gloucester) purchased at least five in his city. The Act provided that the Crown had to guarantee a pension to all chantry priests displaced by its implementation.

Historians believe that the most significant effect of the chantries, and the most significant loss resulting from their suppression, was educational. The chantry priests had provided education. Since they were not ordinaries and did not offer public masses, they could serve their communities in other ways. When Edward VI closed the chantries, priests were displaced who had taught the poor and rural residents; afterwards such people suffered greatly diminished access to education for their children. Some of the chantries were converted into the grammar schools named after King Edward.

Royal Peculiars were not covered by any of the above Acts of Parliament, so were not abolished. Most declined over time. The jurisdiction of almost all was abolished in the 19th century. Some royal peculiars survive, including Westminster Abbey and St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.