phase two: chantry

• how did the Black Death impact the site?

  1348 - The Black Death swept throughout Europe -50% of England's population died. As plague continued to return, people became more religious and interested with Purgatory.
• what is Purgatory and how did the Black Death change how people viewed it?

  Purgatory = place between Heaven and Hell where souls went after they died.

  Following Black Death, people began to confess their sins often or paid for prayers for themselves and their family after they died - chants.
• what were Chantries?

  Chapels/Churches where priests were paid to chant prayers for the dead. People feared 'bad' death so left money to the church for prayers to be chanted for them to get into Heaven.
• how was the community involved in Chantries?

  -wealthy nobles set up their own chapels so priests could pray for their family once they died.

  -merchants joined together in religious guilds -> they shared the cost of a chantry chapel and paid priests to say daily prayers for their dead.
• what physical evidence is there at the site of a chantry?

  1379 - the 'Guild of the Assumption of the Virgin' was formed at the site. As a redundant church, the whole building was made a chantry - this was atypical (most chantries were on the side of other churches).
• how was the site impacted from chantries?

  became wealthy, popular and a prestigious religious guild.
• how did the site impact from the popularity it gained as a chantry?

  nobilities left money for the site in their wills for new features, repairs and decoration e.g. John Clerk left money in his will for a window to be built at the site (physical evidence that it was a chantry), and Henry V gave an endowment (money) for a ever-lasting chantry at the site - full-time chantry priest and education was provided for sons of the guilds members - began to be utilized as a site of education (learn to read/write)
• who ruled England in the beginning of the 1500?

  Henry VIII - 1509
• what impact did William's rule have on the site?

  Between 1529 - 1537 Henry separated the English Church from the Catholic Church led by the Pope. He created an independent Church of England that he was the head of.
• what did Henry VIII do as Head of the Church of England?

  -practiced policies that would spread Protestantism later

  -Dissolution of the monasteries: destruction of the monasteries and removal of their finances gave him Church Land which was converted to the Crown, and the money he took from the monasteries supported his battles.
• what impact did Dissolution of the monasteries have on the site?

  -redistribution of wealth - faced financial difficulties as Beeleigh Abbey controlled by the crown

  -site was white-washed (removed of all statues/decorations to become more alike to the style of Protestant Churches)
• who seceded Henry VIII after he died and what impact did this have on the site?

  1549 - Edward VI -> continued Protestant faith by shutting down all guilds in England including 'Guild of the Assumption of the Virgin' at the site. All possessions were confiscated by the Crown and the site was no longer used as a Chantry, converted to a typical Protestant white-washed church.
• why did the sites function as a Chantry not end when Henry VIII destroyed the monasteries?

  Beeleigh Abbey was purchased from the Crown by John Gates including the right to appoint a vicar at St Peters (the site), this allowed the Guild of the Assumption of the Virgin to continue until 1549 when Edward VI shut down all guilds in England and began his reign as the first true Protestant King