of
worship, attached either to the palaces of the sovereign, "chapels
royal," or to the residence of a private person, to a college, school,
prison, workhouse, &c. Further, the word has particular legal
applications, though in each case the building might be and often is
styled a church. These are places of worship supplementary to a parish
church, and may be either "chapels of ease," to ease or relieve the
mother-church and serve those parishioners who may live far away,
"parochial chapels," the "churches" of ancient divisions of a very large
and widely scattered parish, or "district chapels," those of a district
of a parish divided under the various church building acts. A "free
chapel" is one founded by the king and by his authority, and visited by
him and not by the bishop. A "proprietary chapel" is one that belongs to
a private person. They are anomalies to the English ecclesiastical law,
have no parish rights, and can be converted to other than religious
purposes, but a clergyman may be licensed to perform duty in such a
place of worship. In the early and middle part of the 19th century such
proprietary chapels were common, but they have practically ceased to
exist. "Chapel" was early and still is in England the general name of
places of worship other than those of the established Church, but the
application of "church" to all places of worship without distinction of
sect is becoming more and more common. The word "chapel" was in this
restricted sense first applied to places of worship belonging to the
Roman Church in England, and was thus restricted to those attached to
foreign embassies, or to those of the consorts of Charles I. and II. and
James II., who were members of that church. The word is still frequently
the general term for Roman Catholic churches in Great Britain and always
so in Ireland. The use of "chapel" as a common term for all
Nonconformist places of worship was general through most of the 19th
century, so that "church and chapel" was the usual phrase to mark the
distinction between members of the established Church and those of
Nonconformist bodies. Here the widened use of "church" noticed above has
been especially marked. Most of the recent buildings for worship erected
by Nonconformist bodies will be found to be styled Wesleyan,
Congregational, &c., churches. It would appear that while the word
"chapel" was not infrequent in the early history of Nonconformity,
"meeting-house" was the more usua