In the fourteenth century two chantries were founded in the chapel. In 1547 a new law closed down 2,374 chantries and seized their assets. During the English Reformation, the chantries were abolished. The chantries and guilds which supported them became illegal or their functions taken from them. If chantries were in religious communities, they were sometimes headed by a warden or archpriest. As a result, many of the smaller chantries within the chapel were preserved. Many such hospitals were chantries with bedesmen. It had ceased to exist before the suppression of chantries and hospitals. The chantry ended in consequence of the Abolition of Chantries Act 1547. Part of this corruption involved prayers for the dead and chantries. The Chantries Act 1547 abolished the remaining chantries and confiscated their assets. Some of the chantries were converted into the grammar schools named after King Edward. In 1547, under the Chantries Act the Guildhall Chapel and Library were forfeited.