English Chantries: The Road to Dissolution

The chantries of medieval England were founded in the belief that intercessory masses could shorten the period spent by souls in purgatory. They played a greater role in the daily life of sixteenth-century Englishmen than did monasteries, yet the dissolution of the monasteries has been a far more popular subject of study than the dissolution of the chantries. Alan Kreider writes about the social, religious, and numerical importance of the chantries. He explains the significance of purgatory in their founding, as well as the theological and economic changes of the 1530s and 1540s that caused the government to jettison traditional practices concerning prayers for the deceased.