In the armies and navies of all Christian countries chaplains are officially appointed, with the single exception of France, where the office was abolished on the separation of Church and State. In the army of the United States of America chaplains are originally appointed by the president, and subsequently are under the authority of the secretary of war, who receives recommendations as regards transfer from department commanders. By act of Congress, approved in April 1904, the establishment of chaplains was fixed at 57 (15 with the rank of major), 12 for the artillery corps and 1 each for the cavalry and infantry regiments. There is no distinction of sect. In the U.S. navy the chaplains are 24 in number, of whom 13 rank as lieutenants, 7 as commanders, 4 as captains.
In the armies of Roman Catholic countries there are elaborate regulations. Where the chaplains are numerous a chaplain-major is generally appointed, but in the absence of special sanction from the pope such officer has no spiritual jurisdiction. Moreover, chaplains must be approved by the ordinary of the locality. In Austria there are Roman Catholic, Greek Church, Jewish and Mahommedan chaplains. The Roman Catholic chaplains are classed as parish priests, curates and assistants, and are subject to an army Vicar Apostolic. In war, at an army headquarters there are a “field-rabbi,” a “military imam,” an evangelical minister, as well as the Roman Catholic hierarchy. By a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda (May 15, 1906), the archbishop of Westminster is the ecclesiastical superior of all commissioned Roman Catholic chaplains in the British army and navy, and he is empowered to negotiate with the civil authorities concerning appointments.
In Germany, owing to the fact that there are different religions in the different states, there is no uniform system. In Prussia there are two Feldprobste (who are directly under the war minister), one Lutheran, one Roman Catholic. The latter is a titular bishop, and has sole spiritual authority over soldiers. There are also army corps and divisional chaplains of both faiths. Bavaria and Saxony, both Roman Catholic states, have no special spiritual hierarchy; in Bavaria, the archbishop of Munich and Freysing is ex officio bishop of the army.
The origin of the office of capellanus or cappellanus in the medieval church is generally traced (see Du Cange, Gloss, med. et infim. Latin.) to the appointment of persons to watch over the sacred cloak (cappa or capella) of St Martin of Tours, which was preserved as a relic by the French monarchs. In time of war this cloak was carried with the army in the field, and was kept in a tent which itself came to be known as a cappella or capella. It is also suggested that the capella was simply the tent or canopy which the French kings erected over the altar in the field for the worship of the soldiers. However this may be, the name capellanus was generally applied to those who were in charge of sacred relics: such officials were also known as custodes, martyrarii, cubicularii. Thus we hear of a custos palatinae capellae who was in charge of the palace chapel relics, and guarded them in the field; the chief of these custodes was sometimes called the archicapellanus. From the care of sacred relics preserved in royal chapels, &c. (sacella or capellae), the office of capellanus naturally extended its scope until it covered practically that of the modern court chaplain, and was officially recognized by the Church. These clerics became the confessors in royal and noble houses, and were generally chosen from among bishops and other high dignitaries. The arch-chaplain not only received jurisdiction within the royal household, but represented the authority of the monarch in religious matters, and also acquired more general powers. In France the arch-chaplain was grand-almoner, and both in France and in the Holy Roman Empire was also high chancellor of the realm. The office was abolished in France at the Revolution in 1789, revived by Pius IX. in 1857, and again abolished on the fall of the Second Empire.
The Roman Catholic Church also recognizes a class of beneficed chaplains, supported out of “pious foundations” for the specific duty of saying, or arranging for, certain masses, or taking part in certain services. These chaplains are classified as follows:— Ecclesiastical, if the foundation has been recognized officially as a benefice; Lay, if this recognition has not been obtained; Mercenary, if the person who has been entrusted with the duty of performing or procuring the desired celebration is a layman (such persons also are sometimes called “Lay Chaplains”); Collative, if it is provided that a bishop shall collate or confer the right to act upon the accepted candidate, who otherwise could not be recognized as an ecclesiastical chaplain. There are elaborate regulations governing the appointment and conduct of these chaplains.
Other classes of chaplains are:—(1) Parochial or Auxiliary Chaplains, appointed either by a parish priest (under a provision authorized by the Council of Trent) or by a bishop to take over certain specified duties which he is unable to perform; (2) Chaplains of Convents, appointed by a bishop: these must be men of mature age, should not be regulars unless secular priests cannot be obtained, and are not generally to be appointed for life; (3) Pontifical Chaplains, some of whom (known as Private Chaplains) assist the pontiff in the celebration of Mass; others attached directly to the pope are honorary private chaplains who occasionally assist the private chaplains, private clerics of the chapel, common chaplains and supernumerary chaplains. The common chaplains were instituted by Alexander VII., and in 1907 were definitely allowed the title “Monsignore” by Pius X.
CHAPLIN, HENRY (1841– ), English statesman, second son of the Rev. Henry Chaplin, of Blankney, Lincolnshire, was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, and first entered parliament in 1868 as Conservative member for Mid-Lincolnshire. He represented this constituency (which under the Redistribution Act of 1885 became the Sleaford division) till 1906, when he was defeated, but in 1907 returned to the House of Commons as member for Wimbledon at a by-election. In 1876 he married a daughter of the 3rd duke of Sutherland, but lost his wife in 1881. Outside the House of Commons he was a familiar figure on the Turf, winning the Derby with Hermit in 1867; and in politics from the first the “Squire of Blankney” took an active interest in agricultural questions, as a popular and typical representative of the English “country gentleman” class. Having filled the office of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster in Lord Salisbury’s short ministry of 1885–1886, he became president of the new Board of Agriculture in 1889, with a seat in the cabinet, and retained this post till 1892. In the Conservative cabinet of 1895–1900 he was president of the Local Government Board, and was responsible for the Agricultural Rates Act of 1896; but he was not included in the ministry after its reconstruction in 1900. Mr Chaplin had always been an advocate of protectionism, being in this respect the most prominent inheritor of the views of Lord George Bentinck; and when in 1903 the Tariff Reform movement began under Mr Chamberlain’s leadership, he gave it his enthusiastic support, becoming a member of the Tariff Commission and one of the most strenuous advocates in the country of the new doctrines in opposition to free trade.
CHAPMAN, GEORGE (? 1559–1634), English poet and dramatist, was born near Hitchin. The inscription on the portrait which forms the frontispiece of The Whole Works of Homer states that he was then (1616) fifty-seven years of age. Anthony à Wood (Athen. Oxon. ii. 575) says that about 1574 he was sent to the university, “but whether first to this of Oxon, or that of Cambridge, is to me unknown; sure I am that he spent some time in Oxon, where he was observed to be most excellent in the Latin and Greek tongues, but not in logic or philosophy.” Chapman’s first extant play, The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, was produced in 1596, and two years later Francis Meres mentions him in Palladis Tamia among the “best for tragedie” and the “best for comedie.” Of his life between leaving the university and settling in London there is no account. It has been suggested, from the detailed knowledge displayed in The Shadow of Night of an incident in Sir Francis Vere’s campaign, that he saw service in the Netherlands. There are frequent entries with regard to Chapman in Henslowe’s diary for the years 1598–1599, but his dramatic activity slackened during
