CH A 
ing chaplains, together with the number 
each is allowed to qualify, is as follows : an 
archbishop, eight; a duke or bishop, six; 
marquis or earl, five ; viscount, four ; ba- 
ron, knight of the garter, or lord chancel- 
lor, three ; a duchess, marchioness, count- 
ess, baroness, the treasurer and comptrol- 
ler of the king’s house, clerk of the closet, 
the king’s secretary, dean of the chapel, 
almoner and master of the rolls, each of 
them two ; chief justice of the King’s 
Bench, and warden of the Cinque Ports, 
each one. Alt these chaplains may pur- 
chase a license or dispensation, and take 
two benefices with cure of souls. A chap- 
lain must be retained by letters testimonial 
under liand and seal ; for it is not sufficient 
that he serr'e as chaplain in the family. 
CHAPLET, in architecture, a small or- 
nament carved into round beads, pearls, 
olives, and pater-nosters, as is frequently 
done in baguettes. 
CHAPPE, in heraldry, the dividing an 
escutcheon by lines drawn from the centre 
of the upper edge to the angles below, into 
three parts, the sections on the sides being 
of a different metal or colour from the rest. 
CHAPTER, in ecclesiastical policy, a 
society or community of ecclesiastics be- 
longing to a cathedral or collegiate church. 
It was in the eighth century that the 
body of canons began to be called a chap- 
ter. The chapter of the canons of a cathe- 
dral were a standing council to the bishop, 
and during the vacancy of the see, had the 
jurisdiction of the diocese. In the earlier 
ages, the bishop was head of the chapter ; 
afterwards abbots and otlier dignitaries, as 
deans, provosts, treasurers, &c. were pre- 
ferred to this distinction. The deans and 
chapters had the privilege of choosing the 
bishops in England, but Henry VIII. got 
this power vested in the crown ; and as the 
same prince expelled the monks from the 
cathedrals, and placed secular canons in 
their room, those he thus regulated were 
called deans and chapters of the new foun- 
dation ; such are Canterbury, Winchester, 
Ely, Carlisle, &c. 
CHARA, in botany, a genus of the Mo- 
noecia Mouandria class and order. Natural 
order of Inundate. Naiades, Jussieu. Es- 
sential character: male, calyx and corolla 
none ; anther before the germ, underneath. 
Female, calyx four-leaved; corolla none; 
stigma five-cleft ; seed one. There are four 
species, of which C. tomentosa, brittle 
chara, or stone wort, is always flesh- 
coloured when alive, and when dry it 
CH A 
becomes ash-coloured; stem twisted, brit- 
tle, and gritty in the mouth like coralline ; 
low and creeping in marshes where there is 
little water. In summer this plant abounds 
in oblong berries, growing yellow when 
ripe, having small black seeds in them. It 
is an annual, flowering from June to Oc- 
tober. 
CHARACTER, in a general sense, de- 
notes any mark whatever, serving to repre- 
sent either things or ideas ; thus, letters are 
characters, types, or marks of certain 
sounds, words, of ideas, &c. 
Characters are of infinite advantage in 
almost all sciences, for conveying in the 
most concise and expressive manner an 
author’s meaning; however, such a multi- 
plicity' of them, as we find used by difiereut 
nations, must be allowed to be a very con- 
siderable obstacle to the- improvement of 
knowledge ; several authors have therefore 
attempted to establish characters that should 
be universal, and which each nation might 
read in their own language; and, conse- 
quently, which should be real, not nominal 
or arbitrary, but expressive of things them- 
selves ; thus, the universal character for a 
horse would be read by an Englishman horse, 
by a Frenchman cheval, by the Latins equus, 
by the Greeks mvo;, &c. 
The first who niade any attempts for an 
universal character in Europe, were Bishop 
Wilkins and Dalgarme ; Mr. Leibnitz also 
turned his thoughts that way; and Mr. 
Lodwic, in the Philosophical Transactions, 
gives a plan of an universal character, which 
was to contain an enumeration of all such 
single sounds as are used in any language. 
The advantages he proposed to derive from 
this character were, that people would be 
enabled to pronounce truly and readily any 
language that should be pronounced in their 
hearing ; and lastly, that this character 
would serve as a standard to perpetuate the 
bounds of every language whatsoever. 
Character is also used in several of the 
arts, for a .symbol, contrived for the more 
concise and immediate conveyance of the 
knowledge of things. We shall here sub- 
join the principal of them. 
Characters used in algebra and arith- 
metic. 
a, b, c, d, &c. the first letters of the al- 
phabet, are the characters of given quanti- 
ties ; and z, y, x, &c. the last letters, are 
the characters of quantities sought. See 
the article Algebra. 
m, n, r, s, t, &c. are characters of inde- 
terminate exponents both of ratios and of 
