Cancellarius

A chancellor; a scrivener, or notary. A janitor, or one who stood at the door of the court and was accustomed te carry out the commands of the judges.

Lat. [from cancelli, q. v.] An officer in the lower Roman empire, otherwise called scriba, notarius, graphiarius, suretarius, scriniarius, a cancellis, a secretis, ab actis, a Hbellis, antigraphus, logothetes, and caniclinus. Spelman, A scribe, secretary, register, notary; a chancellor. See Chancellor. This term had originally no connection with courts of justice, or the cancelling of instruments. It first occurs in the history of Flavins Vopiscus, A. D. 287, and was the name of an officer of very humble rank, viz. an usher, or doorkeeper, who had the charge of the cancelli, or latticed doors leading to the presence chamber of the emperors. Vopisc. Hist. Aug. Scrip, vol. ii. 300. Salmas. ad Id. vol. ii. 796, note. Ducange, voc. Cancellarius. 1 Wooddes, Led. 95. 1 Gibbon's Bom. Emp. (c. 12,) 193, note, (Am. ed.) The name was afterwards applied to the secretaries, scribes, notaries, or registers, who attended on the emperors and principal judges, and sat in a separate place, enclosed with a partition of cancelli, or lattice work, {seclusi a turba molestiis inter cancellos agereni.) Spelman. Vopisc. Hist vol. u. 797, 804. 1 Wooddes. Lect. ub. sup. See Cancelli, In the course of time, one of these cancellarii gained a precedency above the rest, and rose to a high degree of rank and power, as appears from thg description given by Cassiodorus, Idb. 11. form. 6. Lib, 12* farm. 1. The ordinary part of his function at this time seems to have been to receive petitions and supplications addressed to the throne, and to frame and issue the imperial writs and mandates. 1 Wooddes. Led. 96. From the Roman empire the name and office of cancellariu Sy or chancellor, passed to the Romish church; and were finally adopted by the courts of most of the states of Europe. Id. ibid. Spelman. 3 BL Com. 46. The first mention of the chancellor, as a public officer in England, is in the time of Edward the elder, about A. D. 920. Ingulph. apud Spelman. 1 Spence's Chancery, 78, and notes.. CANCELLARIUS. L. Lat. A chancellor. Bract, fol. 338 b. 403 b. Cancellarius et subtheeaurariue aeaccarii domini regis; chancellor of the exchequer. Towns. PL 209. Cancellarius dupatOLS et comitatus palatini domini regis Lanc^; chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. Id, 210.