medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On 20/04/2010 22:32, Dr Jim Bugslag wrote:
>
> I'm not sure if this is exactly what you had in mind, but the private
> mass obligations in monasteries and cathedral priories in England was a
> real problem. For example, at Durham, two years after the Chapel of the
> Nine Altars was begun, in 1244, the monks were pledged to 7332 masses a
> year. If (and I've heard differing opinions about this) only one mass
> per day could be said at each altar, at least 21 altars would have been
> needed to fulfil this enormous obligation.
I don't think it would be at all difficult to find 21 altars in a
cathedral the size of Durham - particularly after the building of the
Chapel of the Nine Altars. I don't think it was that individual altars
were limited to one mass per day, although the priests probably were.
Rather, such continuous use would tend to "clog up" the various altars
and detract from whatever else was supposed to be happening there. Not
to mention taking up quite a bit of the monks' time...
John Briggs
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