Forms: 3–4 chapele, 4–6 -elle, 4–7 -ell, 3– chapel; also 4 chapaile, 5 -ylle, schapell(e, 6 chappelle, -ylle, capell, cappell, 6–8 chappel(l. [ME. chapele, a. OF. chapele (in ONF. capele, Pr. capella, It. cappella):—late L. cappella, orig. little cloak or cape, dim. of cappa, cloak, cape, cope (see CAP). From the cappella or cloak of St. Martin, preserved by the Frankish kings as a sacred relic, which was borne before them in battle, and used to give sanctity to oaths, the name was applied to the sanctuary in which this was preserved under the care of its cappellani or ‘chaplains,’ and thence generally to a sanctuary containing holy relics, attached to a palace, etc., and so to any private sanctuary or holy place, and finally to any apartment or building for orisons or worship, not being a church, the earlier name for which was Oratorium, ORATORY.
The chief data for the history are: the Monk of St. Gall (Vita Car. Magn. i. 4) ‘Quo nomine Francorum reges propter capam St. Martini sancta sua appellare solebant’; a charter of Childebert A.D. 710 (Mabillon De Re Dipl.) containing ‘in oratorio suo seu capella S. Marthini.’ In the capitularies of Charles the Great (cap. v. 182) c. 800 it is used of chapels in or attached to palaces; the Laws of the Lombards (III. iii. 22) have ‘ecclesiae et capellæ quæ in vestra parochia sunt.’
Cappella was generally spelt capella in med.L.; the true form is evidenced not only by It. cappella, but even more by the persistence of -ap- in Fr. and of -p- in the other langs. Capella would have become in F. chevelle; as capillos, caprum, capistrum become cheveux, chevre, chevêtre.]
1. gen. A sanctuary or place of Christian worship, not the church of a parish or the cathedral church of a diocese; an oratory. (In earlier times always consecrated, and having an altar; in modern use not necessarily so.)
a. 1225. St. Marher., 20. Hwa so omi nome makeð chapele oðer chirche.
c. 1275. Lay., 26140. He lette þar arere ane chapel [c. 1205 chireche] mære.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 27198. In kyrcgarth, chapell or kyrk.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 1380. Horn let wurche Chapeles and chirche.
1485. Malory, Arthur (1868), XVI. i. 378/1. They entered into the chapel, and there made their orisons a great while.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 34. There was an holy chappell edifyde, Wherein the Hermite dewly wont to say His holy thinges.
a. 1617. Bayne, On Eph. i. (1643), 13. Where God hath His Church, we say, the Devill hath his Chapell: so on the contrary, where the Devill hath his Cathedrall, there God hath his people.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 249. The Room is a Chappel or small Church.
1644. Direct. Publ. Worship, Ordinance 2. In any church or chappell.
1857. Stanley, Mem. Canterb., i. 19. The first object that would catch their view would be the little British chapel.
fig. 1340. Ayenb., 56. Þe tauerne ys þe scole of þe dyeule … and his oȝene chapele þer huer me deþ his seruese.
2. spec. A private oratory or place of worship.
a. A room or building for private worship in or attached to a palace, nobleman’s house, castle, garrison, embassy, prison, monastery, college, school, or other institution.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 472. Thulke prelat solde in is [the king’s] chapele ichose be.
c. 1330. Amis & Amil., 2342. Sir Amis lete him ly alon, And into his chapel he went anon.
1360–80. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 65. Ȝif þei [lordes & ladies] holden wiþ goddis tresour curatis in here worldly seruyce or chapellis.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., xxxv. Ther-inne was a schapelle, a chambur, and a halle.
1654. Evelyn, Diary, July 12. Thence we went to New College [Oxf.] where the Chapel was in its ancient garb, notwithstanding the scrupulositie of the times.
a. 1672. Wood, Life (1848), 11. He was buried … in the north part of Merton Coll. outer-chappell or church.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., 20. The Chappel of the Jesuites College.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 165. Domestick Chapels … built by Noblemen and others for the private Service of God in their Families … are not consecrated.
1764. H. Walpole, Castle Otr. (1791), 3. The company was assembled in the chapel of the Castle.
1876. Gwilt, Archit., 1003. King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, has no side aisles, but in lieu of them are small chapels between the buttresses.
1880. Shorthouse, J. Inglesant, ix. (1883), 95. Service was sung daily in all the Chapels.
1887. Morley, Crit. Misc., Pattison, III. 156. He read the service in chapel when his turn came.
b. An oratory in a mausoleum, burial vault or aisle (sepulchral, or mortuary chapel), or elsewhere, having an altar at which masses might be chanted for the souls of the deceased (chantry chapel). Hence, a cell or compartment of a cathedral or large church (usually in the aisle, and originally often sepulchral), separately dedicated and containing its own altar. Lady-chapel, a chapel dedicated to the Virgin, often situated eastward of the high altar in a cathedral church. (See LADY.)
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 22. Þer þei fond þe hede is now a faire chapelle.
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 119. A Chirche and A Chapaile with chambers a-lofte.
1428. E. E. Wills (1882), 80. The trinite schapell.
1517. Torkington, Pilgr. (1884), 39. The Chirche of the holy Sepulcre ys Rounde … and hath … Chapellys hygh and lowe, in grett nowmber.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., II. VI. (Arb.), 124. The virgin, to whom he buylded and dedicate a chapell and an altare.
1640. Somner, Antiq. Canterb., 46 b. The high altar at St. Austins, with the Chapells about it.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), II. 264. On the altar of this chapel is the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, in oil colours, by Domenichino.
1842. Burn, Eccles. Law (ed. 9), I. 295. Chantry, was commonly a little chapel, or particular altar in some cathedral or parochial church, endowed … for the maintenance of a priest to pray for the souls of the founder.
1874. Baring-Gould, Lives of Saints, 395. Upon these remains Benedict built two oratories … and … round these chapels rose the monastery.
1875. Dict. Chr. Antiq., I. 343/1. Although very many churches built before A. D. 800 exist … scarcely any clear examples of chapels [forming parts of the main building] can be pointed out. Ibid., 344/1. In the East, as the rule that there should be only one altar in a church has always existed, chapels have rarely formed parts of churches. Ibid., 345/2. At what time the practice of placing an altar and of celebrating the eucharistic service in a sepulchral chapel was first introduced cannot be stated with precision.
Mod. He is buried in Henry the Seventh’s Chapel at Westminster Abbey.
3. A place of public worship of the established Church, subordinate to, or dependent upon, the church of the parish, the accommodation supplied by which it in some way supplements. These are of various kinds.
a. Chapel of ease: a chapel built for the convenience of parishioners who live far from the parish church. Also fig.
1538. Leland, Itin., I. 36. There was a nother Paroche Chirch yn the Towne yet standing, but now it servith but for a Chapelle of Ease.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 32 (1811), 36. Shute … is a chapel for ease to Colliton.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 18. One of those Parish Churches hath fourteene Chappels of ease within the circumference of her limits.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 166. Chapels of Ease … commonly built in very large Parishes, where all the people cannot come to the Mother Church.
1826. Petersdorff, Abr., 433. A chapel of ease may … have the rights of a parochial chapel by custom.
1870. F. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 128. Bolton Church … is considered a Chapel of Ease.
fig. 1622. Massinger, etc. Old Law, III. ii. What is age But the holy place of life, Chapel of ease For all mens wearied miseries.
1651. Cleveland, Square-Cap, iv. Poems, 7.
| Next comes the Puritan in a wrought-Cap, | |
| With a long-wafted conscience towards a Sifter, | |
| And making a Chappell of Ease of her lap, | |
| First he said grace, and then he kist her. |
a. 1859. De Quincey, Wks., II. 113. Sedburgh, for many years, was a sort of nursery or rural chapel-of-ease to Cambridge.
b. Parochial chapel: the place of worship of an ancient division of a parish attached to it by custom and repute, as e.g., in the case of the numerous divisions of the parish of Kendal, and other large parishes of the Lake district; District chapel, that of a modern ‘district’ or division of a parish constituted under the Church Building Acts, from 59 Geo. III., c. 134, onwards. To both of these the name CHURCH is now commonly given, except in remote districts or special instances.
1491. Act 7 Hen. VII., c. 2 § 11. So that thoes espousels be solempnysed in Churche, Chapell, or Oratory.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (1852), 55. This yere [1547] was Barkyng chappylle at the Towre hylle pullyd downe.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. ii. 14. Chappels had beene Churches, and poore mens cottages Princes Pallaces.
c. 1650. Parl. Surveys of Livings, etc. XVII. 238. The Parish [Swyne] hath belonging to it Six Chappells, and a Viccaridge House. Ibid. Drypoole hath a Parochiall Chappell depending upon Swyne.
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 185. Concerning the Mother-Parish-Church twenty shillings, and concerning a Chappel ten shillings.
1838. Act 2 & 3 Vict., c. 49 § 2. In the case of any church or chapel, for or to which any district chapelry has been … assigned … such church or chapel … shall be and is hereby declared to be a perpetual curacy and benefice.
c. 1840. Hook, Ch. Dict., 13. It is to be regretted that countenance to the assumption of the name of chapel for their place of assembly on the part of dissenters, is too often given by our designating as churches many of the new sanctuaries, which are, in fact, only chapels.
1842. Burn, Eccl. Law (ed. 9), I. 306. The last species of chapels, those erected under the authority of the various Church-Building Acts, and usually designated District Chapels.
1855. Ht. Martineau, Eng. Lakes, 120. Wastdale Head … There is a chapel, the humblest of chapels, with eight pews, and three windows in three sides.
1868. A. Sedgwick (title), Memorial by the Trustees of Cowgill Chapel.
1873. Phillimore, Eccl. Law, II. 1824. A parochial chapel is that which has the parochial rights of christening and burying; and this differs in nothing from a church, but in the want of a rectory and endowment.
c. Free chapel: a chapel not subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary, having been founded by the king or by a subject specially authorized by him.
1523. Act 14 & 15 Hen. VIII., c. 9. The Deane and Chapiter … of the free chapell of the kynge, of Sainct Martins le graunde.
1545. Act 37 Hen. VIII., c. 4. There have been divers Colleges, Free Chapels, Chantries, Hospitals, Fraternities.
1672. Cowell’s Interpr., Free Chappel, Libera Capella … the King may Licence a Subject to found such a Chappel, and by his Charter exempt it from the Diocesans Jurisdiction.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 165.
1873. Phillimore, Eccl. Law, II. 1824. The king himself visits his free chapels … and not the ordinary.
d. Proprietary chapel: one that is the property of private persons.
1873. Phillimore, Eccl. Law, II. 1183. Proprietary chapels … are anomalies unknown to the ecclesiastical constitution of this kingdom, and can possess no parochial rights…. Dr. Lushington said … the ancient canon law of this country knew nothing of proprietary chapels or unconsecrated chapels at all…. The necessity of the times … gave rise to the erection of chapels of this kind, and to the licensing of ministers of the Church of England to perform duty therein. Ibid., II. 1834. It is at any time competent to the proprietors of an unconsecrated chapel to convert it to secular purposes.
4. Applied to places of Christian worship other than those of the established church of the country: e.g., to those of Roman Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland, and of the Episcopal Church in Scotland; of the Nonconformists ejected in 1662; of Methodists since the 18th c., and, recently, of Protestant Dissenters generally (in England and Wales).
These uses go back to a time when ‘church’ had still its historical value of the endowed place of worship of a parish, with its beneficed rector or vicar, tithes, etc., and when no other place of worship, whatever its architecture, ritual, or communion, was thought of as the ‘church.’ Of R. C. chapels the earliest mentioned were those of foreign ambassadors, and Roman Catholic queens of the Stuarts (see sense 2 a); in the 18th c., and down to 1830–40, ‘chapel’ was the regular name, as it is still in Ireland. The name first used by Protestants separating from the Church of England was app: ‘meeting-house,’ but the places of worship founded by the non-conforming clergymen ejected in 1662 were commonly ‘chapels’; after that, ‘meeting-house’ and ‘chapel’ were used more or less synonymously by Protestant Dissenters; the former became the prevailing name in the 18th c., but was mostly abandoned for ‘chapel’ in the first half of the 19th c. (except by Quakers). For his connection, Wesley introduced ‘preaching-house’; but Methodist Churchmen appear to have preferred ‘chapel’; and it was in the sequel often used by Wesley as = ‘preaching-house,’ and gradually took its place. During the present century, the custom of applying ‘church’ to the parochial and district chapels of the Church of England, has been followed by the use of ‘church’ for ‘chapel’ by Roman Catholics, Scotch Episcopalians, and many Nonconformists. (See CHURCH.) But the earlier usage has made chapel in Ireland the common appellation of the R. C. places of worship and service, as distinguished from those of the Protestant (Episcopal) Church; and in England and Wales of nonconformist places of worship or service, as distinguished from those of the Church of England. Hence such combinations as chapel-goer, chapel-going, chapel-people, etc.
a. 1662. Pepys, Diary, 21 Sept. The Queene … going to her chappell at St. James’s … I crowded after her … and saw the fine altar, ornaments, and the fryers in their habits. Ibid. (1669), 11 April. I took my wife to St. James’s, and there carried her to the Queen’s Chapel.
a. 1718. Penn, Life, Wks. 1726, I. 135. I have not … look’d into any Chappel of the Roman Religion.
a. 1793. J. Morris, in Arminian Mag. (Feb. 1795), 72. I consented to go with her to the Catholic Chapel.
1794. Z. Yewdall, ibid. Aug. (1795), 321. The Episcopalians had likewise a chapel in the place [Dalkeith]. Ibid. He had taken the English Chapel [at Musselburgh].
c. 1815. Grace Kennedy, Anna Ross, 51. I have decided on taking a pew either in St. George’s Church, or in one of the Church of England Chapels [in Scotland].
1836. Gentl. Mag., April, 421/1. About forty years ago there were only 30 Catholic chapels in Great Britain; but in 1835, we find the number increased to 510.
b. 1662–3. Baxter, Life of Wife (1681), 58. When she saw that I could not use the Chappel which she built, she hired another near. Ibid. (1666–7), in Reliquæ Baxterianæ (1696), III. 19. The churches being burnt, and the Parish ministers gone, the Nonconformists … did keep their meetings very openly, and prepared large Rooms, and some of them plain Chappels, with Pulpits, Seats, and Galleries…. The Independents also set up their Meetings more openly than before.
1694. Trust-deed, Brook St. Chapel, Knutsford, Indent. Mch. 7. The ground on which the said new-erected Chappell or Meeting-house now stands, together with the said Chappell or Meeting-house.
1715. Hearne, Diary, 29 May. Last night a good part of the presbyterian Meeting-house in Oxford was pulled down … in the evening they pulled down a good part of the Quakers’ and Anabaptist Chapels.
1818. W. J. Fox, Wks. (1865), I. 10. A Sermon preached before the Unitarian Society, at Essex-Street Chapel, on Thursday, April 16, 1818.
1836. Gentl. Mag., July, 30/2. A red-brick structure, resembling a dissenting chapel.
c. 1840. Hook, Ch. Dict., 13. The places in which dissenters, whether Romish or Protestant, meet are not chapels, but meeting-houses.
1884. Dale, Manual Congregat. Princ., App. i. A hundred years ago it was probably the universal custom of Congregationalists to call their places of worship ‘meeting-houses.’ ‘Chapel’ … early in this century … displaced the older and better name.
c. 1747. Gentl. Mag., XVII. Suppl. 620. That the said Mr. J. W——y, about two years ago, preached a sermon to the Methodists at Salisbury in Mr. H——ll’s chapel.
[1763. in Tyerman, Life of Wesley, II. iii. 478. The people were to be warned … Against calling our society a church, or the church. Against calling our preachers ministers, our houses meeting-houses (call them plain preaching houses).]
1789. Wesley, Will, 25 Feb., in Coke & Moore, Life (1792), 515. I desire my Gowns, Cassocks, Sashes, and Bands, may remain at the Chapel for the use of the Clergymen attending there.
1792. Coke & Moore, Life J. Wesley (ed. 2). Sold … at the Chapel in the City-Road; and at all the Methodist Preaching-Houses in Town and Country.
1817. S. Drew, Life T. Coke, ix. 180. Independently of the chapels or preaching houses that had been erected in the towns.
5. A chapel service, attendance at the service in a chapel. Hence in college phrase, to keep a chapel, to attend chapel on a single occasion; to keep one’s chapels, to fulfil the prescribed number of attendances; so to miss a chapel, lose a chapel, etc.
1662. Pepys, Diary, 14 Dec. Walked … up and down till chappell time.
1814. Jane Austen, Mansf. Park, ix. Without danger of reprobation because chapel was missed.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, I. 168. After hall they went to Mr. Buck’s to take wine; and after wine to chapel.
1882. C. Kegan Paul, in Century Mag., XXIV. 275. At Oxford, the daily chapel, so often a formal observance, still had its effect on many minds.
Mod. ‘You must keep your chapels.’
b. To hold chapel (F. tenir chapelle): said of certain princes, and especially of the pope attending divine service in state; said of cardinals, when they are present at solemn religious service, without the pope’s intervention.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2285/1. At some Chapels of late held by the Colledge of Cardinals.
6. gen. Of other than Christian worship: A lesser temple, fane, or sanctuary, having an altar to a deity (used e.g., to translate L. sacellum).
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 9149. As Achilles this choise in chapell beheld.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. (1822), 95. He tuke purpois to distroy be augury all the remanent tempillis and chapellis [fana sacellaque].
1535. Coverdale, Amos vii. 13. Prophecy nomore at Bethel, for it is the kynges chapel, and the kynges courte.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 77. Salomon by the instigation of his wiues, builded sometime a Cappell, &c.
1600. Holland, Livy, XI. li. 1091. Behind the church [fanum] of the goddesse Hope, he caused to be built the chappel [ædem] of Apollo the Physician.
1611. Bible, 1 Macc. i. 47. Set vp altars, and groues, and chappels of idols, and sacrifice swines flesh, and vncleane beasts.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., III. 12. And in what Chappel [sacello] too you plaid your Prize.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, VI. xlvi. 54. A new chapel … had been built at Delphi.
7. A choir or body of singers attached to a chapel (usually of a king or prince); ‘now extended to mean the choir or the orchestra, or both, of a church or chapel, or other musical establishment, sacred or secular’ (Grove, Dict. Mus). Often in French form chapelle, Ger. kapelle, or It. capella.
1420. Siege Rouen, 1295, in Archæol., XXII. 381. His chapelle mette hym at the dore there, And wente bifore hym alle in fere.
1515. Pace, in J. S. Brewer, Reign Hen. VIII., xi. (1884), I. 270. Surely he would have out of your chapel not children only but also men … your Graces chapel is better than his.
1546. in Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. II. App. A. 9. The prelats censed the corps, the chappel singing ‘Libera me, Domine.’
1674. Playford, Skill Mus., Pref. 9. The annual allowances of the gentlemen of his Chappel.
8. The sacred vessels, etc., used for the services in a church or chapel. Obs. exc. Hist.
[1475. Bk. Noblesse, 84. Every officer shulde have noo more silver vesselle but for a chapelle and a cupbourde.]
1862. Hook, Lives Abps., II. xi. 654–5. He also gave to the church an excellent chapel, which in his testament he styled his best. [Note.] In the language of the period [1205] a chapel means whatever was required for the performance of divine worship.
† 9. An alembic. [F. ‘chapelle, couvercle d’un alambic’ (Littré), ? from orig. sense of cappella.]
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xxiv. (1737), 103. As for the Chapel … it shall be a Chapel of Rose-water.
10. a. A printers’ workshop, a printing-office. b. A meeting or association of the journeymen in a printing-office for promoting and enforcing order among themselves, settling disputes as to price of work, etc. It is presided over by a father of the chapel annually elected. Hence To hold a chapel.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 120/1. Every Printing-House is termed a Chappel.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., In this sense, they say, the orders, or laws of the Chapel, the secrets of the Chapel, &c.
1771. Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 61. I proposed some reasonable alteration in their chapel laws.
1825. Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 1135. It is to be noted, as a ‘custom of the chapel.’
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xv. (1858), 341. The petty tricks by which Franklin was annoyed were said to be played him by the chapel ghost.
1879. Women’s Suffrage Jrnl., 1 Nov., 183/2. A circular … addressed to all ‘fathers of chapels,’ i.e., trades’ officials in printing shops.
11. slang or low colloq. House of case, privy.
12. attrib. and Comb., as chapel-bell, -cell, -clerk, -door, -prayers, -service, -stead, -tent, -yard, etc.; in sense 4, chapel-goer, -going, -monger, -people, -society, etc.; † chapel-bed, ? one with a canopy; chapel-man, one of the clergy or officials of a chapel; chapel-master, used occas. to translate F. maître de chapelle or Ger. kapellmeister, director of the music of a royal (or other) chapel (sense 7); chapel-rate, a rate for the support of a chapel.
1663. Inv. Ld. J. Gordon’s Furniture, In the chamber next to the lytle chamber, a *chapell bed all of bundwork.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 171. Gynglen … als cleere And eek as loude as dooth þe *Chapel belle.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, II. 446. The chapel-bells Call’d us.
a. 1835. Mrs. Hemans, Streams. Ye have burst away, From your *chapel-cells to the laughing day.
1585. Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 69. The cryis Of Naturis *chapell Clarkis.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 382. A chapel clerk and sexton.
c. 1420. Sir Amadace, xi. Sir Amadace … rode vn-to the *chapelle dur.
1842. Miall, in Nonconf., II. 265. What now is the great body of dissenters? *Chapel-goers, and no more.
1663. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1829), 61. *Chapel men who have countenanced the chapel ceremonies and novations.
c. 1850. Nat. Encycl., I. 1018. He became *chapel-master to Cardinal Charles of Lorraine.
1880. ‘Vernon Lee,’ Belcaro, 113. The poor chapelmaster of Hoffmann.
1812. Religionism, 17. Muse, drop the subject, Pluralists, adieu! Next, *Chapel-mongers, hark!—a word with you.
1658. Walton, Hooker, 15. In four years he was but twice absent from the *chapel-prayers.
1850. Carr v. Mostyn, 19 Law Jrnl., 255. There was no necessity for *chapel-rates, as the trustees would repair.
1820. Keats, Isabella, 467. Seldom did she go to *chapel-shrift.
1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., ii. 63. Congregationalism insulates each *chapel-society.
1687. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 408. The *chappel tent at the camp was open’d this day.
1485. Malory, Arthur (1868), VI. xv. Beyond the *chapel-yard there met him a fair damsel.
1850. Carr v. Mostyn, 19 Law Jrnl., 253. The inhabitants of the said townships … might … bury their dead in the chapelyard.
