Chapter House

Chapter House
Chapter House: • A building attached to a monastery or cathedral in which the meetings of the chapter are held
Chapter House:     Chapter House

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    A building attached to a monastery or cathedral in which the meetings of the chapter are held. In monasteries the chapter house was used daily after Prime (and sometimes after Terce), for the reading of the "Martyrology" and the "Necrology", for the correction of faults, the assigning of the tasks for the day, and for the exhortation of the superior, and again for the evening Collation or reading before Complin. Secular canons used the chapter house for similar purposes, and for the formal transaction of public business of common interest to the body corporate. The chapter house is not mentioned by St. Benedict (d. 543), nor is it indicated in the ancient plan of the Abbey of St. Gall, drawn up in 820; the monks then probably assembled for chapter in a part of the cloister near the church. The need of a separate building made itself felt, and the chapter house is mentioned in the statutes approved by the Council of Aachen in 816. The shape of the chapter houses varied: some were rectangular, others rectangular with an apsidal termination, others again were circular or polygonal. The rectangular room, with a wooden roof, and little architectural distinction, is characteristic of the continent of Europe. In England the chapter house was the object of very careful designing and elaborate ornamentation; the polygonal-shaped chapter house is a triumph of English thirteenth-century architecture, and no single instance of it is found either in France or Germany. The earliest example is probably that of Lincoln, decagonal in shape, which was built from 1240-1260. Other instances are those of York, Lichfield, Southwell, Salisbury, and Wells. English examples of the elongated form will be found at Bristol, Canterbury, Chester, Durham, Gloucester, and Oxford. The ingenious theory which seeks to identify the polygonal shape with secular foundations, and the rectangular shape with monastic foundations, breaks down in presence of the circular chapter house of Worcester, and the octagonal chapter house of Westminster Abbey, both Benedictine in origin.

    MARTÈNE, De Antiquis Monachorum Ritibus (Rouen, 1700); ROCK, Church of our Fathers (London, 1849), III, 79; DUCANGE, Glossarium (Paris, 1883), s. v. Capitulum; GASQUET, English Monastic Life (London, 1904); CABROL, Dictionnaire d'archéol. chrét. (Paris, 1903), s. v. Abbaye; BUMPUS, The Cathedrals of England and Wales (London, 1905-6); BOND, Gothic Architecture (London, 1905).

    EDWARD MYERS

    Transcribed by WGKofron With thanks to Fr. John Hilkert, Akron, Ohio

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Chapter house — Chapter Chap ter, n. [OF. chapitre, F. chapitre, fr. L. capitulum, dim. of caput head, the chief person or thing, the principal division of a writing, chapter. See {Chief}, and cf, {Chapiter}.] 1. A division of a book or treatise; as, Genesis has … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
chapter house — chapter houses 1) N COUNT A chapter house is the building or set of rooms in the grounds of a cathedral where the members of the clergy hold their meetings. 2) N COUNT In a university or college, a chapter house is the place where a fraternity or … English dictionary
chapter house — n. 1. the place where a chapter, as of monks, meets ☆ 2. the house of a fraternity or sorority chapter … English World dictionary
Chapter-house — (engl., spr. tschäppter haus), Kapitelhaus, ein vier oder mehreckiger Anbau an englische Kathedralen, in dem sich das Domkapitel zu seinen Sitzungen zu versammeln pflegte … Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon
chapter house — chapter ,house noun count 1. ) AMERICAN a meeting place for students who are members of a FRATERNITY or SORORITY at a university 2. ) a building where the priests who work in a CATHEDRAL have meetings … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
Chapter house — This article is about church architecture. For the Navajo administrative meeting place, see Chapter house (Navajo Nation). The Chapterhouse at Lincoln Cathedral. Note the flying buttresses surrounding the building … Wikipedia
chapter house — 1. Eccles. a building attached to or a hall forming part of a cathedral or monastery, used as a meeting place for the chapter. 2. a building used by a chapter of a society, fraternity, sorority, etc. [bef. 1150; ME chapitelhus, OE captelhus] * *… … Universalium
chapter house — noun Etymology: Middle English chapitre hous, from chapitre chapter + hous house 1. : a building, room, or suite of rooms where a chapter meets or transacts its business 2. : a meeting place or residence of a local chapter of a college fraternity … Useful english dictionary
chapter house — noun a) A building attached to a cathedral, church, or monastery and used as a meeting place. The cloister, and the chapter house adjoining to the church, are the finest here of any I have seen in England; the latter is octagon, or eight square,… … Wiktionary
chapter house — UK / US noun [countable] Word forms chapter house : singular chapter house plural chapter houses 1) a building where the priests who work in a cathedral have their meetings 2) American a meeting place for students who are members of a fraternity… … English dictionary

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