a singer in the choir of a cathedral. The word is almost grown obsolete, chorister or singing-man being commonly used instead of it. All greater chapters Chapters have chantors and chaplains to assist the canons, and officiate in their absence.

**Chantor** is used by way of excellence for the precentor or master of the choir, which is one of the first dignities of the chapter. At St David's in Wales, where there is no dean, he is next in dignity to the bishop. The ancients called the chantor *primicerius cantorum*. To him belonged the directions of the deacons and other inferior officers.

Chantors in the temple of Jerusalem, were a number of Levites employed in singing the praises of God, and playing upon instruments before his altar. They had no habits distinct from the rest of the people; yet in the ceremony of removing the ark to Solomon's temple, the chantors appeared dressed in tunics of byssus or fine linen. 2 Chron. v. 12.

**Chantry**, or **Chaustry**, a church or chappel, endowed with lands, &c. for the maintenance of one or more priests to say mass for the souls of the donors. Hence,

**Chantry-rents**, are rents still paid to the crown by the purchasers of those lands.

**Chaos**, that confusion in which matter lay when newly produced out of nothing at the beginning of the world, before God, by his almighty word, had put it into the order and condition wherein it was after the six days creation.

**Chaos**, in zoology, a genus of insects belonging to the order of vermes zoophyta. The body has no shell or covering, and is capable of reviving after being dead to appearance for a long time: It has no joints or external organs of sensation. There are five species, mostly obtained by infusions of different vegetables in water, and only discoverable by the microscope.

**Chapeau**, in heraldry, an ancient cap of dignity worn by dukes, being scarlet-coloured velvet on the outside, and lined with a fur. It is frequently borne above an helmet instead of a wreath, under gentlemen's crests.

**Chapel**, or **Chappel**, a place of divine worship, served by an incumbent under the denomination of a chaplain.

**Chapel** is also a name given to a printer's work-house; in which sense they say, the laws of the chapel, the secrets of the chapel.

**Knights of the Chapel**, called also poor knights of Windsor, were instituted by Henry VIII. in his testament. Their number was at first thirteen, but has been since augmented to twenty-six. They assist in the funeral services of the kings of England: They are subject to the office of the canons of Windsor, and live on pensions assigned them by the order of the garter. They bear a blue or red cloke, with the arms of St George on the left shoulder.

**Chapelet**, in the menage, a couple of stirrup leathers, mounted each of them with a stirrup, and joined at top in a foot of leather buckle, called the head of the chapelet, by which they are made fast to the pommel of the saddle, after being adjusted to the rider's length and bore. They are used both to avoid the trouble of taking up or letting down the stirrups, every time that the gentleman mounts on a different horse and saddle, and to supply the place of the academy saddles, which have no stirrups to them.

**Chapiters**, in architecture, the same with capitals.

**Chapiters**, in law, formerly signified a summary of such matters as were inquired of, or presented before justices in eyre, justices of assize or of the peace, in their sessions.

Chapiters, at this time, denote such articles as are delivered by the mouth of the justice in his charge to the inquest.

**Chaplain**, an ecclesiastic who officiates in a chapel. See Chapel.

The king of Great Britain hath forty-eight chaplains in ordinary, usually eminent doctors in divinity, who wait four each month, preach in the chapel, read the service to the family, and to the king in his private oratory, and say grace in the absence of the clerk of the cloister. Besides, there are twenty-four chaplains at Whitehall, fellows of Oxford or Cambridge, who preach in their turns, and are allowed £30. per annum each. According to a statute of Henry VIII. the persons vested with a power of retaining chaplains, together with the number each is allowed to qualify, is as follows: An archbishop, eight; a duke or bishop, six; marquess or earl, five; viscount, four; baron, knight of the garter, or lord-chancellor, three; a dutchess, marchioness, countess, baroness, the treasurer and comptroller of the king's house, clerk of the cloister, the king's secretary, dean of the chapel, almoner, and matter of the rolls, each of them two; chief justice of the king's bench, and warden of the cinque-ports, each one. All these chaplains may purchase a licence or dispensation, and take two benefices with cure of souls. A chaplain must be retained by letters testimonial under hand and seal; for it is not sufficient that he serve as chaplain in the family.

**Chaplain of the order of Malta**, otherwise called diaco, and clerk conventual, the second class of the order of Malta. The knights make the first rank.

**Chaplet**, a string of beads used by the Roman Catholics, to count the number of their prayers. The invention of it is ascribed to Peter the hermit, who probably learned it of the Turks, as they owe it to the East-Indians.

Chaplets are sometimes called pater-nosters, and are made of coral, of diamonds, of wood, &c. The common chaplet contains fifty ave-marias, and five pater-nosters. There is also a chaplet of our Saviour, consisting of thirty-three beads, in honour of his thirty-three years living on earth, instituted by father Michael the Camaldulian.

**Chappe',** in heraldry, the dividing an escutcheon by lines drawn from the centre of the upper edge to the angles below, into three parts, the sections on the sides being of a different metal or colour from the rest.

**Chappel in frith**, a market town of Derbyshire, about twenty-six miles north-west of Derby; W. long. 1° 50'; N. lat. 53° 22'.