[FinanseMikky]

Henry VIII wasn't keen on the idea:

An Act of 1545 empowered confiscation by the king of all charities, whether chantries, hospitals, guilds or colleges.

Chantries, like Dartford’s Stampit Chantry, were a particular target of another act passed in 1547.

The main purpose of a chantry was to fund priests to say masses for the dead, thereby implying the existence of purgatory, an intermediate stage where the dead waited before going to heaven or hell. The Protestants could not find proof in the Bible of the existence of ‘purgatory’; this gave them an excellent excuse to dissolve the chantries and seize all the land that had once funded the employment of chantry priests. The Crown received over £600,000 from the dissolution of chantries as land passed into lay hands. Dartford’s Stampit Chantry in Holy Trinity church was dissolved in 1547. The lamps were taken away, the figure of the Virgin Mary removed, and the altar pulled down. http://www.dartfordarchive.org.uk/ea...religion.shtml


I thoroughly enjoyed 'A Distant Mirror'- perhaps because the times depicted seemed so very modern in some respects.

[TriamiCaw]

As a practical matter, what happens if the Church breaks its promise to say masses forever?

Is the noble suddenly yanked out of Heaven and cast into the outer darkness to wail and gnash his teeth?