Founder
Henry attached the greatest importance to the religious aspects of his new foundation and he planned that the services would be conducted on a magnificent scale by providing an establishment of 10 priest Fellows, 10 chaplains, 10 clerks and 16 choristers. There were 14 services a day plus prayers that were said. There would also be masses offered for the founder's parents and after his death for the Founder instead. This last custom reflected the belief in the Middle Ages that prayers said for a dead person's soul hastened the progress of said soul from Purgatory to Paradise.
This was befitting for a church that was to become a great place of pilgrimage in Europe: for about a decade pilgrims attracted by the relics and the Indulgences flocked to Eton on the Feast of the Assumption in August, when there was a fair lasting six days on the fields.
For around forty years before the present Chapel was completed, services were held in the parish church which was dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin. In the 1460s the annual influx of pilgrims died out, and the large establishment of clergy was permanently reduced in size.
Today the Chapel services still remain a key part of the life of the College: boys attend Chapel once on Sundays in addition to compulsory services three or four days a week, and the numerous optional services that take place out of school hours.
Read more about this topic: Eton College Chapel
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