CHANCE-MEDLEY 



97 



KH-- i;ni ininiMer of Foreign Affairs is some- 

 time- called Vice-chancellor. Besides these state- 

 .-ellnix. tin-re were officers in many other 



itie- to \vlioui tin- title was given. Every 

 li-!io|i has his i-luincellor in the Church of Home, 

 ami t Ill-re an- -till chancellors of cathedrals, 



dioceses, universities, \'c. 



< ll.-llirrllor. l->u:i>. It is usually said that 

 the \i-tcnce or the office in England, as in the 

 nt ln-r states of Europe, is to be ascribed to the 

 influence which the constitution of the Roman 

 empire had on the constitutions of the modern 

 nations. This influence was exercised in no small 

 mea-ure through the medium of the church, the 

 profession of the law l>eing generally exercised by 

 ia-tics; and it is for this reason, probably, 

 that the bishop and the king are furnished with 

 oltieers hearing the same title, and exercising 

 analogous functions. Soon after the Norman Con- 

 ipiest the English chancellor became a judicial 

 ullii-er of high rank (see CHANCERY), and a 

 confidential adviser of the sovereign in state 

 aHairs. Being charged with the supervision of 

 charters and other instruments, he obtained the 

 custody of the great seal. The office of chan- 

 cellor, or Keeper (q.v.), which in 1576 was 

 declared to be exactly the same, is created with- 

 out writ or patent, by the mere delivery of the 

 gre/it seal. The chancellor, if a baron, takes 

 precedence of every temporal lord not a member 

 of the royal family, and of all bishops except the 

 Archbishop of Canterbury. To slay the chancellor 

 is treason. The chancellor is a privy-councillor 

 by his office, and prolocutor, or speaker of the 

 House of Lords, by prescription. Though the 

 form in which his tenure of office is terminated 

 is by the resumption of the great seal by the 

 so\ereign, the chancellor is now always a cabinet 

 minister, and resigns office with the party to which 

 he is attached. He has the appointment of all 

 justices of the peace throughout the kingdom, but 

 this privilege he exercises generally on the recom- 

 mendation of the lord-lieutenants. But the most 

 important, and, as it now seems, somewhat anom- 

 alous branch of his patronage, arises out of his 

 having been originally an ecclesiastic. Though the 

 lii-t bishop who held the office was John Williams, 

 Archbishop of York, who was Lord Keeper from 1621 

 to 1625, the chancellor still continues to be patron of 

 a large number of crown livings (though in 1863 

 almut 300 were sold to augment the incomes of 

 those gold and those retained), and visitor of all 

 hospitals and colleges of the king's foundation. 

 As representing the paternal character of the 

 sovereign, again, the chancellor is the general 

 protector of all infants, idiots, and lunatics, and 

 baa the supervision of all charitable uses in the 

 kingdom. His jurisdiction ' in lunacy ' is com- 

 mit ted to him by special delegation from the 

 sovereign. As regards his judicial patronage, the 

 arrangement is, that the chancellor appoints in 

 general all the judges of the superior courts, 

 except the chief -justice, who is nominated by the 

 prime-minister of the day. He also appoints the 

 judges of the county courts, and various subordi- 

 nate officers. All these functions the chancellor 

 performs in addition to his extensive duties as a 

 judj/e in the House of Lords, the Privy-council, 

 the Court of Appeal, and the Chancery Division 

 of the High Court of Justice. Objection has 

 often been taken to the combination of judicial 

 and political offices in the same person, but the 

 proposal to appoint a minister of justice has not 

 yet found favour. The salary of the chancellor is 

 :10,000 a year, and he has an annuity of 5000 on 

 retiring from office. 



Among the notable Lord Chancellors of England 

 have been Cardinal Wolsey (1515), Sir Thomas 



More (1529), Bishop Gardiner (1553K Sir Fraud* 

 Bacon (1617), Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (I860), 

 Ashley, Karl of Shafteslmry (1672), Lord- .Mln-xi 

 (UMf), I lard wicked 737), Thurlow (1778), Eldon 

 (1801, 1807), Ernkine (1806), Lyndhurnt (1 

 1834, 1841), Brougham (1H.SO), Cranworth (Is.vj 

 1865), Chelmsford ( I8r>8, 1866), Campbell (I860). 

 Westbury (1861), Cairns (1868, 1874), Hatherlev 

 (1868), Selborne (1872, 1880), Halbury (1885, 

 1886), Henchell ( 1886, 1892). See Lord Campbell , 

 Lives of the Chancellors ( 1845-47). 



The office of Chancellor of Scotland, which was 

 analogous to that of England, was abolished at 

 the Union, a keeper of the Great Seal (q.v.) being 

 appointed. The English chancellor is descril>e3 

 as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and Ire- 

 land ; but in Scotland he has scarcely any jurisdic- 

 tion, and in Ireland there is a separate chancellor, 

 whose powers and duties are similar to those of 

 the English chancellor. 



CHANCELLOR OF A CATHEDRAL is an officer who 

 formerly had charge of the chapter library, custody 

 of the common seal, superintendence of the choir 

 practices, and headship of the cathedral schools ; 

 sometimes being also visitor of all church schools in 

 the diocese. Hence he was often styled Scholasti- 

 cus or Capischolius ( = Caput Scholte). These func- 

 tions are now generally in abeyance. 



CHANCELLOR OF A DIOCESE is, as legal adviser 

 to the bishop, an ecclesiastical judge, uniting the 

 functions of vicar-general and official principal, 

 appointed to assist the bishop in questions of 

 ecclesiastical law, and hold his courts for him. By 

 an act of Henry VIII. it is provided that he may 

 be a layman, whether married or single, provided 

 he be doctor of the civil law, lawfully create and 

 made in some university. By the canons of 1603 

 he must be a bachelor of law, at the least, or a 

 master of arts. There are certain cases, however, 

 in which the bishop must sit in person. 



For other Chancellors, see UNIVERSITIES, EX- 

 CHEQUER, LANCASTER ( DUCHY OF). 



Chancellor, RICHARD, a daring English sea- 

 man, who seems to have been brought up in the 

 household of the father of Sir Philip Sidney, and 

 was chosen in 1553 as captain of the Bonaventure 

 and ' pilot-general ' of Sir Hugh Willoughby's 

 expedition in search of a North-east Passage to 

 India. The ships were parted in a storm off the 

 Lofoden Islands, and Chancellor, after waiting 

 seven days at Vardohus, the rendezvous that 

 had been agreed upon, proceeded alone into the 

 White Sea, and travelled thence overland to the 

 court at Moscow, where he was very hospitably 

 treated, and was able to conclude a treaty 

 giving freedom of trade to English ships. His 

 interesting account of Russia was published in 

 Hakluyt's Navigations. Next spring Chancellor 

 rejoined his ship and returned to England, where 

 his hopeful reports led to the establishment soon 

 after of the Muscovy Company. In the summer 

 of 1555 he made a second voyage in the Bona- 

 venture to the White Sea, and was at Moscow 

 once more in the succeeding winter. In July 1556 

 he set sail on his voyage homewards, but on 10th 

 November was lost in the wreck of his ship in 

 Aberdour Bay off the Aberdeenshire coast. 



Chancellorsville, a post-station of Spottsyl- 

 vania county, Virginia, near the south bank of the 

 Rappahannock, 11 miles W. of Fredericksburg. In 

 a desperate battle here, May 2 and 3, 1863, General 

 Lee defeated the Federal forces under Hooker. 

 The Confederates, however, suffered a severe loss 

 in 'Stonewall Jackson,' who was accidentally 

 wounded by his own men. See JACKSON (T. J.) 



Chance-medley and Chaiid-iucdiey are 



law expressions, which practically both mean the 



