CANCELLAFIIUS (Lat.). A chancellor.
In ancient law, a janitor or one who stood at the door of the court and was accustomed to carry out the commands of the judges; afterwards a secretary; a scribe; a notary. Du Cauge.
In early English law, the keeper of the king's seal.
The office of chancellor is of Roman origin. He appears at first to have been a chief scribe or sec retary, hut was afterwards invested with judicial power, and had superintendence over the other officers of the empire. From the Romans the title and office passed to the church ; and therefore ev ery bishop of the Catholic church has, to this day, his chancellor, the principal judge of his consistory. In ecclesiastical matters it was the duty of the can cellarius to take charge of all matters relating to the books of the church,—acting as librarian ; to correct the laws, comparing the various readings, and also to take charge of the seal of the church, affixing It when necessary In the business of the church.
When the modern kingdoms of Europe were es tablished upon the ruins of the empire, almost every state preserved its chancellor, with different jurisdictions and dignities, according to their dif ferent constitutions. In all he seems to have had a supervision of all charters, letters, and such other public instruments of the crown as were authenti cated in the most solemn manner ; and when seals came into use, he had the custody of the public seal. According to Du Cange it was under the reign of the Merovingian kings in France that the cancel lartii first obtained the dignity corresponding with that of the English chancellor, and became keepers of the king's seal.
In this latter sense only of keeper of the seal, the word chancellor, derived hence, seems to have been used in the English law ; 3 Ma. Com. 46.
The origin of the word has been much disputed; but it seems probable that the meaning assigned by Du Cange is correct, who says that the caricalarii were originally the keepers of the gate of the king's tribunal, and who carried out the commands of the judges. Under the civil law their duties were va ried, and gave rise to a great variety of names, as notarius, a notis, abactis, eecretarius, a secretis, a cancellis, a reeponsis, a libellis, generally derived from their duties as keepers and correctors of the statutes and decisions of the tribunals.
The transition from keeper of the seal of the church to keeper of the king's seal would be natu ral and easy in an age when the clergy were the only persons of education sufficient to read the documents to which the seal was to be appended.
And this latter sense is the one which has remained and been perpetuated In the English word Chancel lor. See Du Cange; Spelman, Gloss.; Spence, Eq. Jur. 78 ; 3 Bla. Com. 46.
It was an evolution which passed through several stages, the first of which had its origin in the pe riod when the king was actually as well as theoret ically the fountain of justice and equity. At first he personally heard their complaints and administered justice to his subjects.
It was, however, after the growth of the popula tion had increased the applications to the king for the redress of grievances to such an extent as to re quire him to seek assistance, that the officer after wards called chancellor appeared. He was then a scribe to whom were referred the complaints made, and it was his duty to determine if they should he entertained and the form of writ adapted to the case. Thus what was afterwards the primary duty of the chancellor was devolved upon this officer, called the ref crew/Arius, and known by this title, according to Selden, during the reign of Ethelbert and subsequent kings to Edred. To separate and protect them from the suitors this officer and his assistants sat by a lattice, the laths of which were called carice114, and to this commentators ascribe the origin of the word cantellariue, which was used in the reign of the Confessor and is not clearly traced to an earlier date. At that time little more appears than that he was an officer who issued writs, but during Anglo-Saxon times he seems to have been little more, and the charter of Westminster shows his precedence at that time to have been after two archbishops, nine bishops, and seven abbots, though now the lord chancellor is second only after the royal family. True, it is said by Ingulphus that Edward the Elder appointed Torquatel his chancel lor, so that whatever business of the king, spiritual or temporal, required a decision, should be decided by his advice and decree, aud, being so decided, the decree should be held irrevocable ; Spence, Eq. Jur. 78, n. Nevertheless there does not seem to have been at that period a conception of the office as one main tained for the exercise of judicial functions. Ac cording to Pollock and Maitland, "even in Edward I.'s reign It is not in our view a court of justice ; it does not hear and determine causes. It was a great secretarial bureau, a home office, a foreign of fice, and a ministry of justice;" 1 Hist. Eng. Law 172.