At this service, however, no congregation was required
to be present, but merely the priest, and an acolyte to assist him; and it
was in allusion to the low or private masses thus performed, that Bishop
Jewell, whilst condemning the practice as untenable, observes, "And even
suche be their private masses, for the most part sayde in side iles,
alone, without companye of people, onely with one boye to make answer."
The screens by which these chapels were enclosed have in numerous
instances been destroyed; still many have been preserved, and chantry
chapels parted off the church by screen-work of stone may be found in the
churches of Bradford Abbas, Dorsetshire; and Aldbury, Hertfordshire; in
which latter church is a very perfect specimen of a mortuary chapel, with
a monument and recumbent effigies in the midst of it. Chantry chapels
enclosed on two of the sides by wooden screen-work are more common.
Although no ancient high altar of stone is known to exist, some of the
ancient chantry altars have been preserved: these are composed either of a
solid mass of masonry, covered with a thick slab or table of stone, as in
the north aisle of Bengeworth Church, near Evesham, and in the south aisle
of Enstone Church, Oxfordshire; or of a thick stone slab or table, with a
cross at each angle and in the centre, supported merely on brackets or
trusses built into and projecting from the wall, as in a chantry chapel in
Warmington Church, Warwickshire; or partly on brackets and partly
sustained on shafts or slender piers, as in a chantry chapel,
Chipping-Norton Church, Oxfordshire.
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