Liberty University

SWOT Analysis of the Chaplaincy Duties from 1200-1600AD

A Research Paper Submitted to Dr. Paul Greer
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For
The Course CHPL 500

Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary

By
Melissa Rolan

Lynchburg, Virginia
Saturday, January 30, 2011

SWOT ANALYSIS OF THE CHAPLAINCY DUTIES FROM 1200-1600AD Chaplains kept the faith by holding on to the “be, know, do concept between the 1200s and the 1600s AD. Being a practitioner of faith meant applying the rites commanders and the papacy authorized as a mission requirement. Knowing meant priests were to have a thorough knowledge of the rites of penance, mass, final unction, and viaticum. [1] Doing simply meant conducting the
Threats As mentioned above the success of the chaplaincy would also be their downfall. For example, the Wars of the Three Kingdoms stirred mixed emotions about religion (Catholic and Protestant) and higher authority. To some the higher authority was to fight for God and to others it was fight for the king. Baptist Hanserd Knollys writes after leaving school, “to go into the Parliaments Army, and preached freely to the common Souldiers, till I did perceive the Commanders sought their own things more than the cause of God and his People, breaking their Vows and solemne Engagements. Whereupon I left the Army.” [6] Some of the chaplains that were preaching were not ordained, and were the root cause for some of the dissent and misconceptions spreading throughout the civil war. But the pressures of patronage and the anxieties of the army command about heterodoxy increasingly removed chaplains…and replaced them with mechanic preachers…often were not men of stature in civilian life. [7]
Conclusion
Between the 1200s and the 1600s AD, the duties of the chaplains changed from filling a position to becoming a spiritual advisor to being a man of political stature. In some ways their strengths became their weaknesses. Governments used the chaplain to pray for victory in battle, and chaplains used the moment to provide victory for God, but was lost