SYLVIA GILL – RESEARCH PROJECT – CAREERS OF THE CHANTRY
CLERGY OF THE MIDLANDS PRE AND POST-DISSOLUTION
This research is centred on the Midlands section of that part of the clergy
population directly affected by the dissolution of endowed services under
Edward VI, specifically those named in the Certificates drawn up following the
Chantries Act of 1547, and generally referred to as ‘chantry clergy’.
Given the particular reason for their employment, namely the belief in
purgatory and the benefit of prayers for the release of souls confined there,
these priests might be considered as having held the most ‘traditional’ beliefs.
Was this the case? Who persisted in maintaining a traditional perspective
after redundancy? Who converted? What of the pragmatic need to earn a
living? What of local ties and networks?
The objective is to establish what we can of the career patterns of chantry and
stipendiary priests in order to extrapolate further understanding of the impact
of the demands of the Reformation; demands which imposed not only a new
spiritual order but required adaptation to events which, while not expressed as
such, would be recognised today as being part of a radical programme of
‘change management’.
Sylvia Gill
University of Birmingham