Capellanía

Capellanía, an ecclesiastical endowment. The capellanía, or chantry, was one of several pious works commonly founded during the colonial period. The purpose of the chantry was to say masses in perpetuity for the spiritual benefit of the founder and his family. The chantry consisted of a capital endowment invested in real estate as a mortgage or lien at a standard rate of interest (7 percent until 1622, 5 percent thereafter). Other forms of endowment were also accepted, including real estate and voluntary encumbrances on previously unencumbered property.

In general the chantry served as a means of maintaining capital within one extended family, as a hedge against Spanish inheritance laws, which tended to fragment wealth. The founder of the chantry might indicate that one son would serve as the chaplain, another the patron or administrator, and a third, perhaps, the borrower of the capital endowment who would pay the interest. Although an ecclesiastical institution, the church intervened only in instances of legal disputes over the administration of the chantry. The chantry was one of several forms of permanent income recognized by the Catholic Church as sufficient for the purpose of ordination. Consequently the chantry was a means of providing family members with an income upon entering the clergy.

See alsoCatholic Church: The Colonial Period .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arnold J. Bauer, "The Church in the Economy of Spanish America: Censos and Depósitos in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," in Hispanic American Historical Review 63 (1983): 707-733.

John F. Schwaller, Origins of Church Wealth in Mexico: Ecclesiastical Revenues and Church Finances, 1523–1600 (1985), esp. pp. 111-127.

Additional Bibliography

Rodríguez Gonzalez, Ana Luz. Cofradías, capellanías, epidemias y funerales: Una mirada al tejido social de la Independencia. Bogotá: Banco de la República: El Ancora Editores, 1999.

Saguier, Eduardo R. "Las pautas hereditarias del Régimen Capellánico Ríoplatense." The Americas Vol. 51, No. 3 (Jan., 1995): 369-392.

Wobeser, Gisela von. Vida eterna y preocupaciones terrenales: Las capellanías de misas en la Nueva España, 1700–1821. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1999.

                                           John F. Schwaller