A Medieval Royal Office Becomes a Licensed Profession

The word chaplain descends from the cappa, the cloak of Saint Martin of Tours kept as a relic, and its earliest holders were clergy who guarded that relic for the Frankish kings and then, by extension, any priest attached to a royal or noble household or its private chapel rather than to a parish. Military chaplaincy grew from the same root, clergy who accompanied medieval armies, and hospital and prison chaplaincy developed later as those institutions themselves became organised and permanent.

The office professionalised substantially in the twentieth century, particularly in healthcare, where chaplains in the United States and several other countries now typically complete supervised clinical pastoral education and hold board certification through bodies that set standards regardless of the chaplain's denomination. Recognition of chaplains outside the Christian traditions has followed unevenly: several national health services and university systems now employ Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu chaplains alongside Christian ones, while the question of humanist and secular chaplains, who offer the same pastoral presence without any religious content, remains actively contested, with some prisons, universities and health systems in the United Kingdom and the United States recognising the role and the United States military notably slower to do so.