The Romance of Words. CHANCELLOR

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 95, 16 January 1935, Page 7

The Romance of Words. CHANCELLOR

Originally a chancellor was an officer having charge of records which stood near the lattice-work, or bar, which fenced off the seat of the judge or judges from the rest of the court. It was also his duty to introduce such functionaries as were entitled to pass inside to the court. He was- thus a kind of doorkeeper. The word itself is derived through the Latin “cancellus.” a cross-bar, occurring more usually in the plural in the sense of lattice, grating. Then he became a secretary’ who sat inside the lattice-work to write. Later he was invested with judicial functions. In England the Lord Chancellor was originally the King’s chief secretary, to whom petitions were referred, whence he was called referendarius. 'I he word chancellor was first used in England in 920. Being generally an ecclesiastic, he became keeper of the King’s conscience. Having to express the sovereign’s views in cases appealed to him in the Courts of Law,"he gradually acquired a great legal standing himself, and finally developed into rhe powerful personage in the State chat the Lord High Chancellor now is He, is the highest judicial functionary in the kingdom, and ranks above every temporal lord, excepting those of tne royal blood; he is also above every Spiritual lord, except the Archbishop of Canterbury.