Many chantries were altars or chapels inside churches, or endowments that supported thousands of priests who said Masses for the dead. In addition there were many schools and hospitals established as good works. In 1547 a new law closed down 2,374 chantries and seized their assets.[39] Although the Act required the money to go to "charitable" ends and the "public good," most of it appears to have gone to friends of the Court.[40] Historian A.G. Dickens has concluded: