Collegiate church
In
In its governance and religious observance, a collegiate church is similar in some respects to a cathedral, but a collegiate church is not the seat of a bishop and has no diocesan responsibilities.
Collegiate churches have often been supported by endowments, including lands, or by
The church building commonly provides both distinct spaces for congregational worship and for the choir offices of the canons.
History
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Canon law of the Catholic Church |
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Chrodegang of Metz for Metz cathedral, and thenceforth came to be described as "collegiate"; and there were also new foundations of this type.
Originally, the endowments of these foundations were held in a common treasury from which each canon received a proportion for their subsistence, such canons being termed prebend; such canons being termed prebendaries. A few major collegiate bodies remained portionary – such as Beverley Minster and the cathedral chapters of Utrecht and Exeter – but in less affluent foundations, the pooled endowments of the community continued to be apportioned between the canons. Both prebendaries and portioners tended in this period to abandon communal living, each canon establishing his own house within the precinct of the church. In response to which, and generally on account of widespread concern that the religious life of collegiate communities might be insufficiently rigorous, many collegiate foundations in the 12th century adopted the Augustinian rule, and become fully monastic, as for example at Dorchester Abbey and Christchurch Priory .
Because each prebend or portion provided a discrete source of income as a separate benefice, in the later medieval period canons increasingly tended to be non-resident, paying a vicar to undertake divine service in their place. Kings and bishops came to regard prebends as useful sources of income for favoured servants and supporters, and it was not uncommon for a bishop or archbishop also to hold half a dozen or more collegiate prebends or deaneries. From the 13th century onwards, existing collegiate foundations (like monasteries) also attracted schools . For founders, this presented the added advantage that masses for the repose of themselves and their families endowed in a chantry would be supported by a guaranteed congregation of grateful and virtuous recipients of charity, which conferred a perceived advantage in endowing such a chantry in a parish church over doing so in a monastery. Consequently, in the later medieval period, testators consistently tended to favour chantries linked to parochial charitable endowments.
One particular development of the chantry college principle was the establishment in university cities of collegiate foundations in which the fellows were graduate academics and university teachers. Local parish churches were appropriated to these foundations, thereby initially acquiring collegiate status. However, this form of college developed radically in the later Middle Ages after the pattern of New College, Oxford, where for the first time college residence was extended to include undergraduate students. Thereafter, university collegiate bodies developed into a distinct type of religious establishment whose regular worship took place in dedicated college chapels rather than in collegiate churches; and in this form they survived the Reformation in England in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge; as also did the associated collegiate schools and chapels of Eton College and Winchester College. In a collegiate church or chapel, as in a Westminster Palace burned down in 1834.
Contemporary examplesThree traditional collegiate churches have survived in England since the Church of St Endelienta, St Endellion, Cornwall .
The idea of a "collegiate church" has continued to develop a contemporary equivalent. Examples of contemporary collegiate churches in America today are The Collegiate Church of Fort Washington Collegiate and West End Collegiate churches, affiliated with the Reformed Church in America .
In the Kastulus), Sts. Philipp and James in Altötting (chapter of St. Rupert) and St. Remigius in Borken. In Portugal the one example (abolished in 1869, restored in 1891 abolished again in 1910 and restored in 1967 – minus its Royal prerogative, the monarchy itself having been abolished in the intervening period) that survives is that of the ancient Real Colegiada of Nossa Senhora da Oliveira in Guimarães. One collegiate church can be found in the Czech Republic: Sts. Peter and Paul in Prague-Vyšehrad .
Historical examplesBelgiumHistorical Collegiate Churches include:
EnglandIn pre-Reformation England there were usually a number of collegiate churches in each diocese, with over a hundred in total. They were mostly abolished during the reign of Edward VI in 1547, as part of the Reformation, by the Act for the Dissolution of Collegiate Churches and Chantries. Almost all continue to serve as parish churches with a resident rector, vicar or curate (although the appointment of a vicar in succession to the priestly services of the Augustinian priory at St Paul's Church, Bedford predates this by nineteen years). Two major collegiate churches, however, Manchester and Southwell, were refounded with a collegiate body after the Reformation; and these were joined by the revived college at Ripon in 1604, all three churches maintaining choral foundations for daily worship. These three churches became cathedrals in the 19th century. Hence, at the beginning the 20th century, the royal peculiars of Westminster and Windsor alone survived with a functioning non-cathedral and non-academic collegiate body. The colleges of Magnus Bequest , an arrangement that continued till 1901.
Otherwise, twelve colleges survived the Reformation in England and Wales in nominal form. In some cases these were refoundations under Saint Endellion in Cornwall, which uniquely continues collegiate to this day, having in 1929 been provided with new statutes that re-established non-resident unpaid prebends and an annual chapter.
IrelandIn St Mary's Collegiate Church (in Youghal founded 1220,[3] County Cork, a building of very remote antiquity, home to a fine choir, The Clerks Choral. St Nicholas' Collegiate Church in Galway, founded in 1320 and granted collegiate status in 1484, is another fine example of a pre-reformation Collegiate Church. The Collegiate Church of St Peter and St Paul is located in Kilmallock ; founded by 1241, it was dedicated as a collegiate church in 1410.
ScotlandThe church now referred to as ' St Giles Cathedral', in Edinburgh, became a collegiate church in 1466, less than a century before the Scottish Reformation .
WalesSt Peter's Collegiate Church, Ruthin, was built by John de Grey in 1310, following the erection of Ruthin Castle by his father, Reginald de Grey in 1277. For some time before this, Ruthin had been the home of a nunnery and a prior. From 1310 to 1536 St Peter's was a Collegiate Church served by a Warden and seven priests. Following the dissolution of the college its work was restored on a new pattern by Gabriel Goodman (1528–1601), a Ruthin man who became Dean of Westminster in 1561. Goodman re-established Ruthin school in 1574 and refounded the Almshouses of Christ's Hospital, together with the Wardenship of Ruthin in 1590. Since then, St Peter's has continued as a Parochial and Collegiate Church with its Warden, Churchwardens and Parochial Church Council. A close relationship is maintained between the Church, Ruthin School and the Almshouses of Christ's Hospital. priests. Thomas Bradwardine, later briefly Archbishop of Canterbury, was Rector of Llanbadarn Fawr 1347–1349, and thereafter the Abbot of the Cistercian Vale Royal Abbey, Chester, was ex officio Rector 1360–1538.
The old Bishop's Palace at Bishop of St David's. In 1974 the old episcopal palace was purchased by Carmarthenshire County Council for use as a museum, whilst a new residence for the bishops, "Llys Esgob", was built in part of the grounds, together with Diocesan Offices – thereby continuing a connection with Abergwili which has now lasted for well over 400 years.[5]
St. Cybi's Collegiate and Parish Church, Holyhead, was another collegiate church, as is the Collegiate and Parish Church of St Mary, St Mary's Square, Swansea, along with St Beuno's Church, Clynnog Fawr. See also
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Literature
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