The most powerful form of prayer was the Mass, and saying masses for the dead was a central feature of popular faith. In the thousands of wills that survive from this era, it is typical to find legacies for prayer and masses. People of middling wealth might arrange for a mass on the day of their death, for the thirty days thereafter, and on the first anniversary of their death. The rich created perpetual endowments, called chantries, in which a priest was to say Mass daily for them, their kinsfolk,