chantry
(ˈtʃɑːntrɪ, ˈtʃæ-)
Forms: 4–5 chaunterie, 4–6 -tre, 5 chawnterye, 5–6 chauntery(e, 6 chauntrie, -trye, chawntory, chanterie, (? schawittry, schawnter), 6–7 chauntrey, 7 chantrie, 5–9 chauntry, 5– chantry.
[ME. chaunterie, a. OF. chanterie, f. chanter to sing: see -ery. In med.L. cantaria, cantuaria, whence cantarie, cantuarie, q.v.]
† 1. Singing or chanting (of the mass). Obs.
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 63 Þe chauntre of þe chapel cheued to an ende. |
† 2. Incantation, enchantment. Obs.
| 1460 Lybeaus Disc. 2056 (Mätz.) How that lady bryght To a warm [= worm] was dyght Thorugh kraft of chaunterye. |
3. An endowment for the maintenance of one or more priests to sing daily mass for the souls of the founders or others specified by them. Also applied to the body of priests so endowed.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 512 And ran to Londone, unto Seynte Poules, To seeken him a chaunterie for soules. 14.. Tundale's Vis. 2080 Men that..foundyd chyrchys and chantryse. 1509 Plumpton Corr. 206 To occupie peassiablely his poore chawntory all the profitte & commodity to the said chawntory belonging. 1545 Brinklow Lament. (1874) 86 The greate substance which ye bestowe vpon chauntries. 1775 T. Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry II. 98 Priam founds a regular chantry of priests. 1868 Milman St. Paul's 145 The foundation of chantries, in which masses were to be sung for the departed. |
b. A chapel, altar, or part of a church so endowed.
| 1418 E.E. Wills (1882) 27 To singe goddys seruice for my soule..in the Chaunterie of the Chirche of Saint Leonard. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iv. i. 318, I haue built two Chauntries, Where the..Priests sing still for Richards Soule. a 1600 Rites & Mon. Ch. Durham (1733) 56 In a Chantry made of most excellent blue Marble stood our Lady's Altar. 1826 Scott Woodst. i, It still contains some arches of the old chantry. 1868 J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 31 ‘Chantries’ were added to churches, or enclosed by screens within them, for the erection of altars. |
c. attrib. as in chantry-house, chantry-door, chantry-lands, etc.; chantry-priest, a priest attached to a chantry.
| 1480 Bury Wills (1850) 62 My seid chauntry priest..wiche is assigned to pray for the seid soules. 1546 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 62 Unius cubiculi vocati le Chauntre house. 1549 Latimer Serm. before Edw. VI (Arb.) 68, I woulde not that ye should do wyth chauntrye priestes, as ye dyd wyth the Abbotes. 1663 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1829) 47 Having used the service book peaceably within the chantry [printed chanry] kirk of Ross. 1732–8 Neal Hist. Purit. (1822) I. 65 The chantry-lands were sold among the laity. 1881 Academy 29 Oct. 334 The chantry-priests had a character of their own. |