Chapellage

/ˌtʃæpəˈlɑːdʒ/ noun

Definition

A tax or payment made to support a chapel, or the maintenance and administration of a chapel.

Etymology

From chapel plus the suffix -age (from Old French, meaning 'the state, condition, or act of'), which commonly forms nouns from verbs and nouns.

Kelly Says

Medieval villages had complex fee systems for everything—chapellage shows how churches charged communities for religious services, revealing how spirituality was literally monetized in the Middle Ages.

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