Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/561

CHANCEL. 481 CHANCELLOR. CHANCEL (OF., from Med. Lat. canccltus, screen. Lat. cancclli, grating, dim. of cancer^ lattiue). The end of the cliiirch opposite the entrance. Isually in fact, and always in ritual, the east end, the choir end, was called the chan- cel l>ecause it was divided from the body of the church by a screen or rail which marked the beginning of the part reserved for the dergj-. In Koman Catholic churches the screen was usu- ally not high except in monastic churches, and in Gothic cathedrals, hut in Greek and Russian cliurches it completely shuts off the spectator, as it did also in many mediieval English churches. The division was made sometimes so as to inchide the place for singers in the nave, sometimes it divided olT only the altar and what was behind it to the end of the apse. In fact, it was used in England as practically synony- mous with choir. A cliancel aisle is the aisle or deambulatnry of the choir. See Apse : B.vstLic.v: ClloiK: Ciillicil: Reredos. CHANCELADE, shax's'-lad'. A prehistoric station in Dordogne. France, belonging to the ilagdalenian Paleolithic epoch. At the foot of an escarpment, beneath seven feet of debris, a hu- man skeleton was found on the bed rock. For the literature, consult Mortillet, Le prekistorique (Paris. lOOO). CHANCELLOR (OF. cliancekr. Fr. chance- lirr. Lat. rinirrllnrliis. porter, doorkeeper, from ca»c'lli. lattice). Under the later Roman em- perors the chancellor was an usher or olHcer whose duty it was to stand at the railing or latticework {cancelli) to protect the judicial officer from the Crowding of the people and to act as intermediary between him and those hav- ing business with the court. Upon the breaking up of the Roman Empire the officer of the Crown in both the Eastern Empire and the Roman- German Empire and the kingdoms of the West, whose duty it was as notary or scribe to prepare and seal all important documents, was known as a chancellor. His position was one of great in- fluence, and he became the chief officer of the Crown. The office was also adopted by the ecclesiastical court at Rome as an inheritance from the Roman Empire, and the office was in turn created in , the several bishoprics, each diocese having its chancellor. In France the chancellor was an officer of State of great power and dignity. He was charged with the care of the great seal ; lie presided over the King's councils, and under him several other officers bearing the name of chancellor were em- ployed in the administration of justice and the preser-ation of public order. During the Revo- lution the office was abolished (1700). It was revived by Xapoleon I., though deprived of many of its functions. It was continued by the Rour- bons. but finally, in 1848, merged with the Min- istry of .Tustice. The chief functionary of the Austrian Empire and of other European States has often been termed chancellor, and on the establishment of the Cterman Empire Bismarck, as the Prime Minister and chief administrative officer, was made Chancellor of the Empire (Reichskanzler.) In England the chancellor, known as the Lord Chancellor or Lord High Chancellor, is the high- est judicial officer of the Crown, the law adviser of the Mini*tr>- and the Keeper of the Great Seal. The existence of the office in England, as in the tither States of Europe, is to be ascribed to the inlluence of the constitution of the Roman Em- l)irc, this inlluence being exercised in no small measure llirough the medium of the Church. In the early history of tlie office the Chancellor was always an ecclesiastic and the confidential adviser of the sovereign in State affairs. It is for this reason that he has been called the keeper of the King's conscience, and it is to this peculiar method of exercising his judicial functions upon cquiiable or conscientious, as distinguished from purely legal, principles that the Court of Chan- cery (q.v.), over which he i)resided, became of the highest importance in English jurisprudence. The Lord High Chancellor is the highest civil officer of the Crown, ranking ne.xt after the roval family and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Chancellor is a privy councilor by his office, a memhcr of the Cabinet, and prolocutor, or presid- ing otTicer in the House of Lords, by prescription. The writs for the convocation of Parliament are issued in his name. Though the form in which his tenure of office is terminated is by the resumption of the Great Seal by the sovereign, the Chancellor practically resigns office with the party to which he is attached. He has the appointment of all justices of the peace througliout the kingdom, but this privilege he exercises generally on the recommendation of the Lords Lieutenants. But the most important, and. as it now seems, some- what anomalous branch of his patronage, arises out of his having been originally an ecclesiastic. Though the last bishop who held the office was .lohn Williams. Archbishop of York, who was Lord Keeper from .luly 10. 1021. t" Xovember 1, 1025, the Chancellor still continues to be patron of all the Crowti livings of the value of £20 per annum, or under ( though in 1SG.3 about 300 were sold to augment the incomes of those sold and those retained), and visitor of all hospitals and col- leges of the King's foundation. As representing the paternal character of the sovereign, again, the Chancellor is the general guardian of all in- fants, idiots, and lunatics, and has the super- vision of all charitable uses in the kingdom. As regards his judicial patronage, the arrangement is. that the Chancellor appoints in general all the judges of the superior courts, except the two Chief .Justices, who are nominated by the Prime ilinister of the day. Of inferior appointments, the latter also bas reserved to him the commis- sioners of bankruptcy and the judges of the county courts. All these functions the Chancellor jierforms in addition to his extensive duties as the supreme judge of the Court of Chancery, both as an ordinary court of common law and of record, and as an extraordinary court of equity, iluch inconvenience had arisen from the accumu- lation of duties in the single person of thi.s high dignitary, and various expedients had been de- vised for lessening the evil. Vice-chancellors bad been appointed, and the duties of the blaster of the Rolls had been extended. In 1S75 a consider- .ible change was made by consolidating all the vice-chancellors' courts into one division, called the Chancery Division of the High Court. And the Chancellor's duties in the House of Lords as the highest appeal court were liglitened bystatute in 1876. The proposal of a Minister of .Justice has. however, not yet found favor. The salarj- of the Cliancellor is £10,000 a year, and he has an annuity of f.'jOOO on liis retirement from office. The style of the Chancellor, since the union with Scotland, has been Lord High Chancellor of Great