Collegiate church
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A collegiate church is a church served and administered by a college of canons or prebendaries, similar to a cathedral, although they are not the seat of a bishop. They were often supported by (sometimes extensive) lands held by the church. In pre-Reformation England there were usually a number of collegiate churches in each diocese, with several hundred in total. They were almost all abolished in England by Henry VIII in 1547 as part of the Reformation by the Act for the Dissolution of Collegiate Churches and Chantries. The royal peculiars alone survived.
A collegiate church typically has its seating arranged parallel with the south and north walls, facing inwards rather than towards the altar at the eastern end. Such an arrangement is found in university chapels and in cathedrals. It has influenced the design of other churches in that the singing choir is seen as representing the idea of a college. The Westminster model of parliamentary seating arrangement arose from Parliament's use of such a chapel for its sittings until Westminster Palace chapel burnt down in 1834.
