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Chantry

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Dictionaries
American Church Dictionary
• Chantry
1910 New Catholic Dictionary
• Chantry
Webster Dictionary
• Chantry
• Chantries
Encyclopedias
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Chantry
McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia
• Chantry
The Catholic Encyclopedia
• Chantry

(Fr. chanterie, from chanter, to sing; Med. Lat. cantuaria), a small chapel built out from a church, endowed in preRef ormation times for the express purpose of maintaining priests for the chanting of masses for the soul of the founder or of some one named by him. It generally contained the tomb of the founder, and, as the officiator or mass-priest was often unconnected with the parochial clergy, had an entrance from the outside. The word passed through graduations of meaning. Its first sense was singing or chanting. Then it meant the endowment funds, next the priests, and then the church or chapel itself.