philosopher and theologian was born at Champeaux near Melun. After
studying under Anselm of Laon and Roscellinus, he taught in the school
of the cathedral of Notre Dame, of which he was made canon in 1103.
Among his pupils was Abelard. In 1108 he retired into the abbey of St
Victor, where he resumed his lectures. He afterwards became bishop of
Chalons-sur-Marne, and took part in the dispute concerning investitures
as a supporter of Calixtus II., whom he represented at the conference of
Mousson. His only printed works are a fragment on the Eucharist
(inserted by Jean Mabillon in his edition of the works of St Bernard),
and the _Moralia Abbreviata_ and _De Origine Animae_ (in E. Martene's
_Thesaurus novus Anecdotorum_, 1717, vol. 5). In the last of these he
maintains that children who die unbaptized must be lost, the pure soul
being denied by the grossness of the body, and declares that God's will
is not to be questioned. He upholds the theory of Creatianism (that a
soul is specially created for each human being). Ravaisson-Mollien has
discovered a number of fragments by him, among which the most important
is the _De Essentia Dei et de Substantia Dei_; a _Liber Sententiarum_,
consisting of discussions on ethics and Scriptural interpretation, is
also ascribed to Champeaux. He is reputed the founder of Realism. For
his views and his controversy with Abelard, see SCHOLASTICISM and
ABELARD.
See Victor Cousin, introduction to his _Ouvrages inedits d'Abelard_
(1836), and _Fragments pour servir a l'histoire de la philosophie_
(1865); G.A. Patru, _Wilhelmi Campellensis de natura et de origine
rerum placita_ (1847); E. Michaud, _Guillaume de Champeaux et les
ecoles de Paris au XIIe siecle_ (2nd ed., 1868); "William of Champeaux
and his Times" in _Christian Observer_, lxxii. 843; B. Haureau, _De la
philosophie scolastique_ (Paris, 1850); Opuscula in J.P. Migne's
_Patrologia_, clxiii.
CHAMPERTY, or CHAMPARTY (Lat. _campi partitio_, O. Fr. _champ parti_),
in English law, a bargain between a plaintiff or defendant in a cause
and another person, to divide the land (_campum partiri_) or other
matter sued for, if they prevail, in consideration of that person
carrying on or defending the suit at his own expense. It is a
misdemeanour punishable by fine or imprisonment. It differs only from
maintenance (q.v.), in that the recompense for the service which has
been given is always part of the matter in suit, or some profit growing
out of it. So an agreement by a solicitor not to charge costs on
condition of retaining for himself a share of the sums recovered would
be illegal and void. It is not, however, champerty to charge the
subject-matter of a suit in order to obtain the means of prosecuting it.
See _Fifth Report of the Criminal Law Commissioners_, pp. 34-9.
CHAMPION (Fr. _champion_, Late Lat. _campio_ from _campus_, a field or
open space, i.e. one "who takes the field" or fights; cf. Ger. _Kampf_,
battle, and _Kampfer_, fighter), in the judicial combats of the middle
ages the substitute for a party to the suit disabled from bearing arms
or specially exempt from the duty to do so (see WAGER). Hence the word
has come to be applied to any one who "champions," or contends on behalf
of, any person or cause. In the laws of the Lombards (lib. ii. tit. 56
SS 38, 39), those who by reason of youth, age or infirmity could not
bear arms were allowed to nominate champions, and the same provision was
made in the case of women (lib. i. tit. 3 S 6, tit. 16, S2). This was
practically the rule laid down in all subsequent legislation on the
subject. Thus the _Assize of Jerusalem_ (cap. 39) says: "These are the
people who may defend themselves through champions; a woman, a sick man,
a man who has passed the age of sixty, &c." The clergy, too, whether as
individuals or corporations, were represented by champions; in the case
of bishops and abbots this function was part of the duties of the
_advocatus_ (see ADVOCATE). Du Cange gives instances of mercenary
champions (_campiones conductitii_), who were regarded as "infamous
persons" and sometimes, in case of defeat, were condemned to lose hand
or foot. Sometimes championships were "serjeanties," i.e. rendered
service to lords, churches or cities in consideration of the grant of
certain fiefs, or for annual money payments, the champion doing homage
to the person or corporation represented by him (_campiones homagii_).
The office of "king's champion" (_campio regis_) is peculiar to England.
The function of the king's champion, when the ceremonial of the
coronation was carried out in its completeness, was to ride, clad in
complete armour, on his right the high constable, on his left the earl
marshal, into Westminster Hall during the coronation banquet, and
challenge to single combat any who should dispute the king's right to
reign. The challenge was thrice repeated by the herald, at the entrance
to the hall, in the centre, and at the foot of the dais. On picking up
his gauntlet for the third time the champion was pledged by the king in
a gilt-covered cup, which was then presented to him as his fee by the
king. If he had had occasion to fight, and was victorious, his fee would
have been the armour he wore and the horse he rode, the second best in
the royal stables; but no such occasion has ever arisen. This
picturesque ceremonial was last performed at the coronation of George
IV. The office of king's champion is of great antiquity, and its origins
are involved in great obscurity. It is said to have been held under
William the Conqueror by Robert or Roger Marmion, whose ancestors had
been hereditary champions in Normandy. The first authentic record,
however is a charter of Henry I., signed by Robert Marmion (_Robertus de
Bajucis campio regis_). Of the actual exercise of the office the
earliest record dates from the coronation of Richard II. On this
occasion the champion, Sir John Dymoke, appeared at the door of the
Abbey immediately after the coronation mass, but was peremptorily told
to go away and return later; moreover, in his bill presented to the
court of claims, he stated that the champion was to ride in the
procession before the service, and make his challenge to all the world.
This seems to show that the ceremony, as might be expected, was
originally performed _before_ the king's coronation, when it would have
had some significance. The office of king's champion is hereditary, and
is now held by the family of Dymoke (q.v.).
See Du Cange, _Glossarium_, s.v. "Campio"; L.G. Wickham Legg,
_English Coronation Records_ (Westminster, 1901); J.H.T. Perkins,
_The Coronation Book_ (London, 1902).
CHAMPIONNET, JEAN ETIENNE (1762-1800), French general, enlisted in the
army at an early age and served in the great siege of Gibraltar. When
the Revolution broke out he took a prominent part in the movement, and
was elected by the men of a battalion to command them. In May 1793 he
was charged with the suppression of the disturbances in the Jura, which
he quelled without bloodshed. Under Pichegru he took part in the Rhine
campaign of that year as a brigade commander, and at Weissenburg and in
the Palatinate won the warm commendation of Lazare Hoche. At Fleurus his
stubborn fighting in the centre of the field contributed greatly to
Jourdan's victory. In the subsequent campaigns he commanded the left
wing of the French armies on the Rhine between Neuwied and Dusseldorf,
and took a great part in all the successful and unsuccessful expeditions
to the Lahn and the Main. In 1798 Championnet was named
commander-in-chief of the "army of Rome" which was protecting the infant
Roman republic against the Neapolitan court and the British fleet.
Nominally 32,000 strong, the army scarcely numbered 8000 effectives,
with a bare fifteen cartridges per man. The Austrian general Mack had a
tenfold superiority in numbers, but Championnet so well held his own
that he ended by capturing Naples itself and there setting up the
Parthenopean Republic. But his intense earnestness and intolerance of
opposition soon embroiled him with the civilians, and the general was
recalled in disgrace. The following year, however, saw him again in the
field as commander-in-chief of the "army of the Alps." This, too, was at
first a mere paper force, but after three months' hard work it was able
to take the field. The campaign which followed was uniformly
unsuccessful, and, worn out by the unequal struggle, Championnet died at
Antibes on the 9th of January 1800. In 1848 a statue was erected in his
honour at Valence.
See A.R.C. de St Albin, _Championnet, ou les Campagnes de Hollande, de
Rome et de Naples_ (Paris, 1860).
CHAMPLAIN, SAMUEL DE (1567-1635), French explorer, colonial pioneer and
first governor of French Canada, was born at Brouage, a small French
port on the Bay of Biscay, in 1567. His father was a sea captain, and
the boy was early skilled in seamanship and navigation. He entered the
army of Henry IV., and served in Brittany under Jean d'Aumont, Francois
de St Luc and Charles de Brissac. When the army of the League was
disbanded he accompanied his uncle, who had charge of the ships in which
the Spanish allies were conveyed home, and on reaching Cadiz secured
(1599) the command of one of the vessels about to make an expedition to
the West Indies. He was gone over two years, visiting all the principal
ports and pushing inland from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico. The MS.
account of his adventures, _Bref Discours des Choses plus remarquables
que Samuel Champlain de Brouage a recognues aux Indes Occidentales_, is
in the library at Dieppe. It was not published in French until 1870,
although an English translation was printed by the Hakluyt Society in
1859. It contains a suggestion of a Panama Canal, "by which the voyage
to the South Sea would be shortened by more than 1500 leagues." In 1603
Champlain made his first voyage to Canada, being sent out by Aymar de
Clermont, seigneur de Chastes, on whom the king had bestowed a patent.
Champlain at once established friendly relations with the Indians and
explored the St Lawrence to the rapids above Montreal. On his return he
published an interesting and historically valuable little book, _Des
sauvages, ou voyage de Samuel Champlain de Brouage fait en la France
Nouvelle_. During his absence de Chastes had died, and his privileges
and fur trade monopolies were conferred upon Pierre de Guast, sieur de
Monts (1560-1611). With him, in 1604, Champlain was engaged in exploring
the coast as far south as Cape Cod, in seeking a site for a new
settlement, and in making surveys and charts. They first settled on an
island near the mouth of the St Croix river, and then at Port Royal--now
Annapolis, N.S.
Meanwhile the Basques and Bretons, asserting that they were being ruined
by de Monts' privileges, got his patent revoked, and Champlain returned
with the discouraged colonists to Europe. When, however, in modified
form, the patent was re-granted to his patron Champlain induced him to
abandon Acadia and establish a settlement on the St Lawrence, of the
commercial advantages of which, perhaps even as a western route to China
and Japan, he soon convinced him. Champlain was placed in command of one
of the two vessels sent out. He was to explore and colonize, while the
other vessel traded, to pay for the expedition. Champlain fixed on the
site of Quebec and founded the first white settlement there in July
1608, giving it its present name. In the spring he joined a war party of
Algonquins and Hurons, discovered the great lake that bears his name,
and, near the present Ticonderoga, took with his arquebus an important
part in the victory which his savage friends obtained over the Iroquois.
The Iroquois naturally turned first to the Dutch and then to the English
for allies. "Thus did new France rush into collision with the redoubted
warriors of the Five Nations. Here was the beginning, and in some
measure doubtless the cause, of a long suite of murderous conflicts,
bearing havoc and flame to generations yet unborn" (Parkman). Champlain
returned to France and again related to Henry IV.--who had previously
learned his worth and had pensioned him--his exciting adventures. De
Monts failed to secure a renewal of his patent, but resolved to proceed
without it. Champlain was again (1611) in Canada, fighting for and
against the Indians and establishing a trading post at Mont Royal (see
MONTREAL). He was the third white man to descend, and the second to
descend successfully, the Lachine Rapids. De Monts, now governor of
Paris, was too busy to occupy himself in the waning fortunes of the
colony, and left them entirely to his associate. An influential
protector was needed; and Champlain prevailed upon Charles de Bourbon,
comte de Soissons, to interest himself to obtain from the king the
appointment of lieutenant-general in New France. The comte de Soissons
died almost immediately, and was succeeded in the office by Henri de
Bourbon, prince de Conde, and he, like his predecessors and successors,
retained Champlain as lieutenant-governor. "In Champlain alone was the
life of New France. By instinct and temperament he was more impelled to
the adventurous toils of exploration than to the duller task of building
colonies. The profits of trade had value in his eyes only as means to
these ends, and settlements were important chiefly as a base of
discovery. Two great objects eclipsed all others,--to find a route to
the Indies, and to bring the heathen tribes into the embraces of the
Church, since, while he cared little for their bodies, his solicitude
for their souls knew no bounds" (Parkman).
In 1613 Champlain again crossed the Atlantic and endeavoured to confirm
Nicolas de Vignau's alleged discovery of a short route to the ocean by
the Ottawa river, a great lake at its source, and another river flowing
north therefrom. That year he got as far as Allumette Island in the
Ottawa, but two years later, with a "Great War Party" of Indians, he
crossed Lake Nipissing and the eastern ends of Lakes Huron and Ontario,
and made a fierce but unsuccessful attack on an Onondaga fortified town
a few miles south of Lake Oneida. This was the end of his wanderings. He
now devoted himself to the growth and strengthening of Quebec. Every
year he went to France with this end in view. He was one of the hundred
associates of the Company of New France, created by Richelieu to reform
abuses and take over all his country's interests in the new world. These
ill-defended possessions England now prepared to seize. Three ships were
sent out under letters of marque commanded by David, Lewis and Thomas
Kirke, and Quebec, already on the verge of starvation, was compelled to
surrender (1629). Champlain was taken to England a prisoner, but when
Canada was restored to the French he returned (1633) to his post, where
he died on the 25th of December 1635. He had married in 1610, Helene
Boulle, then but twelve years old. She did not leave France for Canada,
however, until ten years later. After his death she became a nun.
Champlain's complete works in 6 vols. were published under the
patronage of the university of Laval in 1870. There is a careful
translation of _Champlain's Voyages_, by Professor and Mrs E.G. Bourne
in the "Trailmaker" series edited by Prof. J.B. McMaster. See F.
Parkman, _Pioneers of France in the New World_ (1865); J. Winsor,
_Cartier to Frontenac_ (1894); N.E. Dionne, _Champlain_ (1905).
(N. E. D.)
CHAMPLAIN, a lake lying between the states of New York and Vermont,
U.S.A., and penetrating for a few miles into Canada. It extends about
130 m. from N. to S., varies from 1/4 m. to 1 m. in width for 40 m. from
its S. terminus, and then widens until it reaches a maximum width of
about 11 m. near Ausable Point. Its area is about 500 sq. m. Its surface
is 96 ft. above the sea. In the north part it is generally from 200 to
300 ft. deep; opposite Essex, N.Y., near its middle, the depth
increases to 400 ft.; but farther south it is much less; throughout the
greater part of the lake there is a depth of water of more than 100 ft.
Since the lake is caused by the ponding of water in a broad irregular
valley, the shore line is nearly everywhere much broken, and in the
northern portion are several islands, both large and small, most of
which belong to Vermont. These islands divide the lake's northern end
into two large arms which extend into Canada. From the western arm the
Richelieu river flows out, carrying the water of Champlain to the St
Lawrence. The waters abound in salmon, salmon-trout, sturgeon and other
fish, and are navigated from end to end by large steamboats and vessels
of considerable tonnage. The lake was formerly the seat of extensive
traffic, especially in lumber, but navigation has greatly decreased; the
tonnage entering and clearing at the lake was twice as great in the
early '70's as it was thirty years later. The principal ports are
Burlington, Vt., and Plattsburg, N.Y. Lake Champlain lies in a valley
from 1 to 30 m. wide, between the Green Mountains on the east and the
Adirondack Mountains on the west, and the scenery is most picturesque.
On the east side is a rather gradual ascent for 20 m. or more from shore
to summit, while on the west side the ascent is by a succession of
hills, in some places from the water's edge. North of Crown Point low
mountains rise 1000 to 1600 ft. above the lake, and behind these are the
higher peaks of the Adirondacks, reaching an elevation of more than 5000
ft. Lake George is a tributary on the south, several small streams flow
in from each side; the Champlain Canal, 63 m. in length, connects the
lake with the Hudson river; and through the Richelieu it has a natural
outlet to the north into the St Lawrence.
Lake Champlain was named from Samuel de Champlain, who discovered it in
July 1609. The valley is a natural pathway between the United States and
Canada, and during the various wars which the English have waged in
America it had great strategic importance. In 1731 the French built a
fort at Crown Point; in 1756, another at Ticonderoga; and both were
important strategic points in the French and Indian War as well as in
the American War of Independence. On the 11th of October 1776, the first
battle between an American and a British fleet, the battle of Valcour
Island, was fought on the lake. Benedict Arnold, the American commander,
with a decidedly inferior force, withstood the British under Thomas
Pringle for about seven hours, and then during the night escaped through
the enemy's line. Although overtaken the next day he again, after a
fight of a few hours, made a successful retreat.
At the beginning of the War of 1812 the American naval force on the
lake, though very small, was superior to that of the British, but on the
3rd of June 1813 the British captured two American sloops in the narrow
channel at the northern end and gained supremacy. Both sides now began
to build and equip vessels for a decisive contest; by May 1814 the
Americans had regained supremacy, and four months later a British land
force of 11,000 men under Sir George Prevost (1767-1816) and a naval
force of 16 vessels of about 2402 tons with 937 men and 92 guns under
Captain George Downie (d. 1814) confronted an American land force of
1500 men under Brigadier-General Alexander Macomb (1782-1841), strongly
entrenched at Plattsburg, and an American naval force (anchored in
Plattsburg Bay) of 14 vessels of about 2244 tons with 882 men and 86
guns under Commodore Thomas Macdonough (1783-1825). In the open lake the
British naval force should have been the superior, but at anchor in the
bay the Americans had a decided advantage. Expecting the British land
force to drive the American fleet from its anchorage, Captain Downie, on
the 11th of September 1814, began the battle of Lake Champlain. It had
continued only fifteen minutes when he was killed; the land force failed
to co-operate, and after a severe fight at close range for 2-1/2 hours,
during which the British lost about 300 men, the Americans 200 and the
vessels of both sides were greatly shattered, the British retreated both
by land and by water, abandoning their plan of invading New York.
See C.E. Peet, "Glacial and Post-Glacial History of the Hudson and
Champlain Valleys," in vol. xii. of the _Journal of Geology_
(Chicago, 1904); P.S. Palmer, _History of Lake Champlain_ (Albany.
1866); and Capt. A.T. Mahan, _Sea Power in its Relations to the War of
1812_ (2 vols., Boston, 1905).
CHAMPMESLE, MARIE (1642-1698), French actress, was born in Rouen of a
good family. Her father's name was Desmares. She made her first
appearance on the stage at Rouen with Charles Chevillet (1645-1701), who
called himself sieur de Champmesle, and they were married in 1666. By
1669 they were playing in Paris at the Theatre du Marais, her first
appearance there being as Venus in Boyer's _Fete de Venus_. The next
year, as Hermione in Racine's _Andromaque_, she had a great success at
the Hotel de Bourgogne. Her intimacy with Racine dates from then. Some
of his finest tragedies were written for her, but her repertoire was not
confined to them, and many an indifferent play--like Thomas Corneille's
_Ariane_ and _Comte d'Essex_--owed its success to "her natural manner of
acting, and her pathetic rendering of the hapless heroine." _Phedre_ was
the climax of her triumphs, and when she and her husband deserted the
Hotel de Bourgogne (see BEJART _ad fin._), it was selected to open the
Comedie Francaise on the 26th of August 1680. Here, with Mme Guerin as
the leading comedy actress, she played the great tragic love parts for
more than thirty years, dying on the 15th of May 1698. La Fontaine
dedicated to her his novel _Belphegor_, and Boileau immortalized her in
verse. Her husband distinguished himself both as actor and playwright,
and his _Parisien_ (1682) gave Mme Guerin one of her greatest successes.
Her brother, the actor NICOLAS DESMARES (c. 1650-1714), began as a
member of a subsidized company at Copenhagen, but by her influence he
came to Paris and was received in 1685 _sans debut_--the first time such
an honour had been accorded--at the Comedie Francaise, where he became
famous for peasant parts. His daughter, to whom Christian V. and his
queen stood sponsors, CHRISTINE ANTOINETTE CHARLOTTE DESMARES
(1682-1753), was a fine actress in both tragedy and soubrette parts. She
made her debut at the Comedie Francaise in 1699, in La Grange Chancel's
_Oreste et Pylade_, and was at once received as _societaire_. She
retired in 1721.
CHAMPOLLION, JEAN FRANCOIS (1790-1832), French Egyptologist, called LE
JEUNE to distinguish him from Champollion-Figeac (q.v.), his elder
brother, was born at Figeac, in the department of Lot, on the 23rd of
December 1790. He was educated by his brother, and was then appointed
government pupil at the Lyceum, which had recently been founded. His
first work (1804) was an attempt to show by means of their names that
the giants of the Bible and of Greek mythology were personifications of
natural phenomena. At the age of sixteen (1807) he read before the
academy of Grenoble a paper in which he maintained that the Coptic was
the ancient language of Egypt. He soon after removed to Paris, where he
enjoyed the friendship of Langles, De Sacy and Millin. In 1809 he was
made professor of history in the Lyceum of Grenoble, and there published
his earlier works. Champollion's first decipherment of hieroglyphics
dates from 1821. In 1824 he was sent by Charles X. to visit the
collections of Egyptian antiquities in the museums of Turin, Leghorn,
Rome and Naples; and on his return he was appointed director of the
Egyptian museum at the Louvre. In 1828 he was commissioned to undertake
the conduct of a scientific expedition to Egypt in company with
Rosellini, who had received a similar appointment from Leopold II.,
grand duke of Tuscany. He remained there about a year. In March 1831 he
received the chair of Egyptian antiquities, which had been created
specially for him, in the College de France. He was engaged with
Rosellini in publishing the results of Egyptian researches at the
expense of the Tuscan and French governments, when he was seized with a
paralytic disorder, and died at Paris in 1832. Champollion, whose claims
were hotly disputed for many years after his death, is now universally
acknowledged to have been the founder of Egyptology.
He wrote _L'Egypte sous les Phraons_ (2 vols. 8vo, 1814); _Sur
l'ecriture hieratique_ (1821); _Sur l'ecriture demotique_; _Precis du
systeme hieroglyphique_, &c. (1824); _Pantheon egyptien, ou collection
des personnages mythologiques de l'ancienne Egypte_ (incomplete);
_Monumens de l'Egypte et de la Nubie consideres par rapport a
l'histoire, la religion, &c._; _Grammaire egyptienne_ (1836), and
_Dictionnaire egyptienne_(1841), edited by his brother; _Analyse
methodique du texte demotique de Rosette_; _Apercu des resultats
historiques de la decouverte de l'alphabet hieroglyphique_ (1827);
_Memoires sur les signes employes par les Egyptiens dans leurs trois
systemes graphiques a la notation des principales divisions du temps_;
_Lettres ecrites d'Egypte et de Nubie_ (1833); and also seveial
letters on Egyptian subjects, addressed at different periods to the
duc de Blacas and others.
See H. Hartleben, _Champollion, sein Leben und sein Werk_ (2 vols.,
1906); also EGYPT: _Language and Writing_ (_ad init._).
CHAMPOLLION-FIGEAC, JACQUES JOSEPH (1778-1867), French archaeologist,
elder brother of Jean Francois Champollion, was born at Figeac in the
department of Lot, on the 5th of October 1778. He became professor of
Greek and librarian at Grenoble, but was compelled to retire in 1816 on
account of the part he had taken during the Hundred Days. He afterwards
became keeper of manuscripts at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and
professor of palaeography at the Ecole des Chartes. In 1849 he became
librarian of the palace of Fontainebleau. He edited several of his
brother's works, and was also author of original works on philological
and historical subjects, among which may be mentioned _Nouvelles
recherches sur les patois ou idiomes vulgaires de la France_ (1809),
_Annales de Lagides_ (1819) and _Chartes latines sur papyrus du VIe
siecle de l'ere chretienne_. His son AIME (1812-1894) became his
father's assistant at the Bibliotheque Nationale, and besides a number
of works on historical subjects wrote a biographical and bibliographical
study of his family in _Les Deux Champollion_ (Grenoble, 1887).
CHANCE (through the O. Fr. _cheance_, from the Late Lat. _cadentia_,
things happening, from _cadere_, to fall out, happen; cf. "case"), an
accident or event, a phenomenon which has no apparent or discoverable
cause; hence an event which has not been expected, a piece of good or
bad fortune. From the popular idea that anything of which no assignable
cause is known has therefore no cause, chance (Gr. [Greek: tuche]) was
regarded as having a substantial objective existence, being itself the
source of such uncaused phenomena. For the philosophic theories relating
to this subject see ACCIDENTALISM.
"Chance," in the theory of probability, is used in two ways. In the
stricter, or mathematical usage, it is synonymous with probability; i.e.
if a particular event may occur in n ways in an aggregate of p events,
then the "chance" of the particular event occurring is given by the
fraction _n/p_. In the second usage, the "chance" is regarded as the
ratio of the number of ways which a particular event may occur to the
number of ways in which it may not occur; mathematically expressed, this
chance is _n/(p-n)_ (see PROBABILITY). In the English law relating to
gaming and wagering a distinction is drawn between games of chance and
games of skill (see GAMING AND WAGERING).
CHANCEL (through O. Fr. from Lat. plur. _cancelli_, dim. of _cancer_,
grating, lattice, probably connected with an Indo-European root _Kar_-,
to bend; cf. circus, curve, &c.), in the earliest and strictest sense
that part of a church near the altar occupied by the deacons and
sub-deacons assisting the officiating priest, this space having
originally been separated from the rest of the church by _cancelli_ or
lattice work. The word _cancelli_ is used in classical Latin of a
screen, bar or the like, set to mark off an enclosed space in a building
or in an open place. It is thus used of the bar in a court of justice
(Cicero, _Verres_, ii. 3 seq.). It is particularly used of the lattice
or screen in the ancient basilica, which separated the _bema_, or raised
tribunal, from the rest of the building. The use of the name in
ecclesiastical buildings is thus natural, for the altar stood in the
place occupied by the _bema_ in the apse of the basilica. From the
screen the term was early transferred to the space _inter cancellos_,
i.e. the _locus altaris cancellis septus_. This railed-off space is now
generally known among Roman Catholics as the "sanctuary," the word
chancel being little used. In the Church of England, however, the word
chancel survived the Reformation, and is applied, both in the
ecclesiastical and the architectural sense, to that part of the church
occupied by the principal altar or communion table and by the clergy and
singers officiating at the chief services; it thus includes presbytery,
chancel proper and choir (q.v.), and in this sense, in the case of
cathedrals and other large churches, is often used synonymously with
choir. In this more inclusive sense the early basilican churches had no
chancels, which were a comparatively late development; the _cancelli_,
e.g. of such a church as San Clemente at Rome are equivalent not to the
"chancel screen" of a medieval church but to the "altar rails" that
divide off the sanctuary. In churches of the type that grew to its
perfection in the middle ages the chancels are clearly differentiated
from the nave by structural features: by the raising of the floor level,
by the presence of a "chancel arch," and by a chancel or rood screen
(see ROOD). The chancel screen might be no more than a low barrier, some
4 ft. high, or a light structure of wood or wrought iron; sometimes,
however, they were massive stone screens, which in certain cases were
continued on either side between the piers of the choir and (on the
European continent) round the east end of the sanctuary, as in the
cathedrals of Paris, Bourges, Limoges, Amiens and Chartres. These
screens served the purpose, in collegiate and conventual churches, of
cutting off the space reserved for the services conducted for and by the
members of the chapter or community. For popular services a second high
altar was usually set up to the west of the screen, as formerly at
Westminster Abbey. In parish churches the screen was set, partly to
differentiate the space occupied by the clergy from that reserved for
the laity, partly to support the representation of the crucifixion known
as the Rood. In these churches, too, the chancel is very usually
structurally differentiated by being narrower and, sometimes, less high
than the nave.
In the Church of England, the duty of repairing the chancel falls upon
the parson by custom, while the repair of the body of the church falls
on the parishioners. In particular cases, as in certain London churches,
the parishioners also have to repair the chancel. Where there are both a
rector and a vicar the repairs are shared between them, and this is also
the case where the rector is a lay impropriator. By the rubric of the
English Prayer Book "the chancels shall remain as they have done in
times past," i.e. distinguished from the body of the church by some
partition sufficient to separate the two without interfering with the
view of the congregation. At the Reformation, and for some time after,
this distinction was regarded by the dominant Puritan party as a mark of
sacerdotalism, and services were commonly said in other parts of the
church, the chancels being closed and disused. The rubric, however,
directs that "'Morning and Evening Prayer' shall be used in the
accustomed place in the church, chapel or chancel, except it shall be
otherwise determined by the Ordinary." Chancel screens, with or without
gates, are lawful, but chancellors of dioceses have refused to grant a
faculty to erect gates, as unnecessary or inexpedient.
CHANCELLOR (M. Eng. and Anglo-Fr. _canceler_, _chanceler_, Fr.
_chancelier_, Lat. _cancellarius_), an official title used by most of
the peoples whose civilization has arisen directly or indirectly out of
the Roman empire. At different times and in different countries it has
stood and stands for very various duties, and has been, and is, borne by
officers of various degrees of dignity. The original chancellors were
the _cancelarii_ of Roman courts of justice, ushers who sat at the
_cancelli_ or lattice work screens of a "basilica" or law court, which
separated the judge and counsel from the audience (see CHANCEL). In the
later Eastern empire the _cancellarii_ were promoted at first to
notarial duties. The barbarian kingdoms which arose on the ruin of the
empire in the West copied more or less intelligently the Roman model in
all their judicial and financial administration. Under the Frankish
kings of the Merovingian dynasty the _cancellarii_ were subordinates of
the great officer of state called the _referendarius_, who was the
predecessor of the more modern chancellor. The office became established
under the form _archi-cancellarius_, or chief of the _cancellarii_.
Stubbs says that the Carolingian chancellor was the royal notary and the
arch-chancellor keeper of the royal seal. His functions would naturally
be discharged by a cleric in times when book learning was mainly
confined to the clergy. From the reign of Louis the Pious the post was
held by a bishop. By an equally natural process he became the chief
secretary of the king and of the queen, who also had her chancellor.
Such an office possessed an obvious capacity for developing on the
judicial as well as the administrative side. Appeals and petitions of
aggrieved persons would pass through the chancellor's hands, as well as
the political correspondence of the king. Nor was the king the only man
who had need of a chancellor. Great officers and corporations also had
occasion to employ an agent to do secretarial, notarial and judicial
work for them, and called him by the convenient name of chancellor. The
history of the office in its many adaptations to public and private
service is the history of its development on judicial, administrative,
political, secretarial and notarial lines.
The chancellor in England.
The model of the Carolingian court was followed by the medieval states
of Western Europe. In England the office of chancellor dates back to the
reign of Edward the Confessor, the first English king to use the Norman
practice of sealing instead of signing documents; and from the Norman
Conquest onwards the succession of chancellors is continuous. The
chancellor was originally, and long continued to be, an ecclesiastic,
who combined the functions of the most dignified of the royal chaplains,
the king's secretary in secular matters, and keeper of the royal seal.
From the first, then, though at the outset overshadowed by that of the
justiciar, the office of chancellor was one of great influence and
importance. As chaplain the chancellor was keeper of the king's
conscience; as secretary he enjoyed the royal confidence in secular
affairs; as keeper of the seal he was necessary to all formal
expressions of the royal will. By him and his staff of chaplains the
whole secretarial work of the royal household was conducted, the
accounts were kept under the justiciar and treasurer, writs were drawn
up and sealed, and the royal correspondence was carried on. He was, in
fact, as Stubbs puts it, a sort of secretary of state for all
departments. "This is he," wrote John of Salisbury (d. 1180), "who
cancels (_cancellat_) the evil laws of the realm, and makes equitable
(_aequa_) the commands of a pious prince," a curious anticipation of the
chancellor's later equitable jurisdiction. Under Henry II., indeed, the
chancellor was already largely employed in judicial work, either in
attendance on the king or in provincial visitations; though the peculiar
jurisdiction of the chancery was of later growth. By this time, however,
the chancellor was "great alike in Curia and Exchequer"; he was
_secundus a rege_, i.e. took precedence immediately after the justiciar,
and nothing was done either in the Curia or the exchequer without his
consent. So great was his office that William FitzStephen, the
biographer of Becket, tells us that it was not purchasable (_emenda non
est_), a statement which requires modification, since it was in fact
more than once sold under Henry I., Stephen, Richard and John (Stubbs,
_Const. Hist._ i. pp. 384-497; Gneist, _Const. Hist. of England_, p.
219), an evil precedent which was, however, not long followed.
The judicial duties of the chancellor grew out of the fact that all
petitions addressed to the king passed through his hands. The number and
variety of these became so great that in 1280, under Edward I., an
ordinance was issued directing the chancellor and the justices to deal
with the greater number of them; those which involved the use of the
great seal being specially referred to the chancellor. The chancellor
and justices were to determine which of them were "so great, and of
grace, that the chancellor and others would not despatch them without
the king," and these the chancellor and other chief ministers were to
carry in person to the king (Stubbs ii. 263, note, and p. 268). At this
period the chancellor, though employed in equity, had ministerial
functions only; but when, in the reign of Edward III., the chancellor
ceased to follow the court, his tribunal acquired a more definite
character, and petitions for grace and favour began to be addressed
primarily to him, instead of being merely examined and passed on by him
to the king; and in the twenty-second year of this reign matters which
were of grace were definitely committed to the chancellor for decision.
This is the starting-point of the equitable jurisdiction of the
chancellor, whence developed that immense body of rules, supplementing
the deficiencies or modifying the harshness of the common law, which is
known as Equity (q.v.).
The chancellor in parliament.
The position of the chancellor as speaker or prolocutor of the House of
Lords dates from the time when the ministers of the royal Curia formed
_ex officio_ a part of the _commune concilium_ and parliament. The
chancellor originally attended with the other officials, and he
continued to attend _ex officio_ after they had ceased to do so. If he
chanced to be a bishop, he was summoned regularly _qua_ bishop;
otherwise he attended without summons. When not a peer the chancellor
had no place in parliament except as chancellor, and the act of 31 Henry
VIII. cap. 10 (1539) laid down that, if not a peer, he had "no interest
to give any assent or dissent in the House." Yet Sir Robert Bourchier
(d. 1349), the first lay chancellor, had protested in 1341 against the
first statute of 15 Edward III. (on trial by peers, &c.), on the ground
that it had not received his assent and was contrary to the laws of the
realm. From the time, however, of William, Lord Cowper (first lord high
chancellor of Great Britain in 1705, created Baron Cowper in 1706), all
chancellors have been made peers on their elevation to the woolsack.
Sometimes the custody of the great seal has been transferred from the
chancellor to a special official, the lord keeper of the great seal (see
LORD KEEPER); this was notably the case under Queen Elizabeth (cf. the
French _garde des sceaux_, below). Sometimes it is put into commission,
being affixed by lords commissioners of the great seal. By the Catholic
Emancipation Act of 1829 it was enacted that none of these offices could
be held by a Roman Catholic (see further under LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR).
The office of lord chancellor of Ireland, and that of chancellor of
Scotland (who ceased to be appointed after the Act of Union of 1707)
followed the same lines of development.
Chancellor of the exchequer.
The title of chancellor, without the predicates "high" or "lord," is
also applied in the United Kingdom to a number of other officials and
functionaries of varying rank and importance. Of these the most
important is the chancellor of the exchequer, an office which originated
in the separation of the chancery from the exchequer in the reign of
Henry III. (1216-1272). His duties consisted originally in the custody
and employment of the seal of the exchequer, in the keeping of a
counter-roll to check the roll kept by the treasurer, and in the
discharge of certain judicial functions in the exchequer of account. So
long as the treasury board was in active working, the chancellorship of
the exchequer was an office of small importance, and even during a great
part of the 19th century was not necessarily a cabinet office, unless
held in conjunction with that of first lord of the treasury. At the
present time the chancellor of the exchequer is minister of finance, and
therefore always of cabinet rank (see EXCHEQUER).
Chancellor of the duchy.
The chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster is the representative of the
crown in the management of its lands and the control of its courts in
the duchy of Lancaster, the property of which is scattered over several
counties. These lands and privileges, though their inheritance has
always been vested in the king and his heirs, have always been kept
distinct from the hereditary revenues of the sovereign, whose palatine
rights as duke of Lancaster were distinct from his rights as king. The
Judicature Act of 1873 left only the chancery court of the duchy, but
the chancellor can appoint and dismiss the county court judges within
the limits of the duchy; he is responsible also for the land revenues of
the duchy, which are the private property of the sovereign, and keeps
the seal of the duchy. His appointment is by letters patent, and his
salary is derived from the revenue of the duchy. As the judicial and
estate work is done by subordinate officials, the office is practically
a sinecure and is usually given to a minister whose assistance is
necessary to a government, but who for one reason or another cannot
undertake the duties of an important department. John Bright described
him as the maid-of-all-work of the cabinet.
Ecclesiastical chancellors.
The chancellor of a diocese is the official who presides over the
bishop's court and exercises jurisdiction in his name. This use of the
word is comparatively modern, and, though employed in acts of
parliament, is not mentioned in the commission, having apparently been
adopted on the analogy of the like title in the state. The chancellor
was originally the keeper of the archbishop or bishop's seals; but the
office, as now understood, includes two other offices distinguished in
the commission by the titles of vicar-general and official principal
(see ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION). The chancellor of a diocese must be
distinguished from the chancellor of a cathedral, whose office is the
same as that of the ancient _scholasticus_ (see CATHEDRAL).
Academic, &c.
The chancellor of an order of knighthood discharges notarial duties and
keeps the seal. The chancellor of a university is an official of
medieval origin. The appointment was originally made by the popes, and
the office from the first was one of great dignity and originally of
great power. The chancellor was, as he remains, the head of the
university; he had the general superintendence of its studies and of its
discipline, could make and unmake laws, try and punish offences, appoint
to professorial chairs and admit students to the various degrees (see Du
Cange, s. "_Cancellarii Academiarum_"). In England the chancellorship of
the universities is now a more or less ornamental office and is
conferred on noblemen or statesmen of distinction, whose principal
function is to look after the general interests of the university,
especially in its relations with the government. The chancellor is
represented in the university by a vice-chancellor, who performs the
administrative and judicial functions of the office. In the United
States the heads of certain educational establishments have the title of
chancellor. In Scotland the foreman of a jury is called its chancellor.
In the United States the chancellors are judges of the chancery courts
of the states, e.g. Delaware and New Jersey, where these courts are
still maintained as distinct from the courts of common law. In other
states, e.g. New York since 1847, the title has been abolished, and
there is no federal chancellor.
In diplomacy generally the chancellor of an embassy or legation is an
official attached to the suite of an ambassador or minister. He performs
the functions of a secretary, archivist, notary and the like, and is at
the head of the chancery, or chancellery (Fr. _chancellerie_), of the
mission. The functions of this office are the transcribing and
registering of official despatches and other documents, and generally
the transaction of all the minor business, e.g. marriages, passports and
the like, connected with the duties of a diplomatic agent towards his
nationals in a foreign country. The dignified connotation of the title
chancellor has given to this office a prestige which in itself it does
not deserve; and "chancery" or "chancellery" is commonly used as though
it were synonymous with embassy, while diplomatic style is sometimes
called _style de chancellerie_, though as a matter of fact the
chanceries have nothing to do with it.
_France._--The country in which the office of chancellor followed most
closely the same lines as in England is France. He had become a great
officer under the Carolingians, and he grew still greater under the
Capetian sovereigns. The great chancellor, _summus cancellarius_ or
_archi-cancellarius_, was a dignitary who had indeed little real power.
The post was commonly filled by the archbishop of Reims, or the bishop
of Paris. The _cancellarius_, who formed part of the royal court and
administration, was officially known as the _sub-cancellarius_ in
relation to the _summus cancellarius_, but as _proto-cancellarius_ in
regard to his subordinate _cancellarii_. He was a very great officer, an
ecclesiastic who was the chief of the king's chaplains or king's clerks,
who administered all ecclesiastical affairs; he had judicial powers, and
from the 12th century had the general control of foreign affairs. The
chancellor in fact became so great that the Capetian kings, who did not
forget the mayor of the palace, grew afraid of him. Few of the early
ecclesiastical chancellors failed to come into collision with the king,
or parted with him on good terms. Philip Augustus suspended the
chancellorship throughout the whole of his reign, and appointed a keeper
of the seals (_garde des sceaux_). The office was revived under Louis
VIII., but the ecclesiastical chancellorship was finally suppressed in
1227. The king of the 13th century employed only keepers of the seal.
Under the reign of Philip IV. le Bel lay chancellors were first
appointed. From the reign of Charles V. to that of Louis XI. the French
_chancelier_ was elected by the royal council. In the 16th century he
became irremovable, a distinction more honourable than effective, for
though the king could not dismiss him from office he could, and on some
occasions did, deprive him of the right to exercise his functions, and
entrusted them to a keeper of the seal. The _chancelier_ from the 13th
century downwards was the head of the law, and performed the duties
which are now entrusted to the minister of justice. His office was
abolished when in 1790 the whole judicial system of France was swept
away by the Revolution. The smaller _chanceliers_ of the provincial
parlements and royal courts disappeared at the same time. But when
Napoleon was organizing the empire he created an arch-chancellor, an
office which was imitated rather from the _Erz-Kanzler_ of the Holy
Roman Empire than from the old French _chancelier_. At the Restoration
the office of chancellor of France was restored, the chancellor being
president of the House of Peers, but it was finally abolished at the
revolution of 1848. The administration of the Legion of Honour is
presided over by a _grand chancelier_, who is a grand cross of the
order, and who advises the head of the state in matters concerning the
affairs of the order. The title of _chancelier_ continues also to be
used in France for the large class of officials who discharge notarial
duties in some public offices, in embassies and consulates. They draw up
diplomas and prepare all formal documents, and have charge of the
registration and preservation of the archives.
_Spain._--In Spain the office of chancellor, _canciller_, was introduced
by Alphonso VII. (1126-1157), who adopted it from the court of his
cousins of the Capetian dynasty of France. The _canciller_ did not in
Spain go beyond being the king's notary. The chancellor of the privy
seal, _canciller del sello de la puridad_ (literally the secret seal),
was the king's secretary, and sealed all papers other than diplomas and
charters. The office was abolished in 1496, and its functions were
transferred to the royal secretaries. The _cancelario_ was the
chancellor of a university. The _canciller_ succeeded the _maesescuela_
or _scholasticus_ of a church or monastery. _Canciller mayor de
Castilla_ is an honorary title of the archbishops of Toledo. The _gran
canciller de las Indias_, high chancellor of the Indies, held the seal
used for the American dominions of Spain, and presided at the council in
the absence of the president. The office disappeared with the loss of
Spain's empire in America.
_Italy, Germany, &c._--In central and northern Europe, and in Italy, the
office had different fortunes. In southern Italy, where Naples and
Sicily were feudally organized, the chancellors of the Norman kings, who
followed Anglo-Norman precedents very closely, and, at least in Sicily,
employed Englishmen, were such officers as were known in the West. The
similarity is somewhat concealed by the fact that these sovereigns also
adopted names and offices from the imperial court at Constantinople.
Their chancellor was officially known as Protonotary and Logothete, and
their example was followed by the German princes of the Hohenstaufen
family, who acquired the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. The papal or
apostolic chancery is dealt with in the article on the Curia Romana
(q.v.). It may be pointed out here, however, that the close connexion of
the papacy with the Holy Roman Empire is illustrated by the fact that
the archbishop of Cologne, who by right of his see was the emperor's
arch-chancellor (_Erz-Kanzler_) for Italy, was confirmed as papal
arch-chancellor by a bull of Leo IX. in 1052. The origin and duration of
this connexion are, however, obscure; it appears to have ceased before
1187. The last record of a papal chancellor in the middle ages dates
from 1212, from which time onward, for reasons much disputed, the head
of the papal chancery bore the title vice-chancellor (Hinschius i. 439),
until the office of chancellor was restored by the constitution
_Sapientius_ of Pius X. in 1908.
The title of arch-chancellor (_Erz-Kanzler_) was borne by three great
ecclesiastical dignitaries of the Holy Roman Empire. The archbishop of
Mainz was arch-chancellor for Germany. The archbishop of Cologne held
the dignity for Italy, and the archbishop of Trier for Gaul and the
kingdom of Arles. The second and third of these dignities became purely
formal with the decline of the Empire in the 13th century. But the
arch-chancellorship of Germany remained to some extent a reality till
the Empire was finally dissolved in 1806. The office continued to be
attached to the archbishopric of Mainz, which was an electorate. Karl
von Dalberg, the last holder of the office, and the first prince primate
of the Confederation of the Rhine, continued to act in show at least as
chancellor of that body, and was after a fashion the predecessor of the
_Bundes Kanzler_, or chancellor of the North German Confederation. The
duties imposed on the imperial chancery by the very complicated
constitution of the Empire were, however, discharged by a
vice-chancellor who was attached to the court of the emperor. The abbot
of Fulda was chancellor to the empress.
The house of Austria in their hereditary dominions, and in those of
their possessions which they treated as hereditary, even where the
sovereignty was in theory elective, made a large and peculiar use of the
title chancellor. The officers so called were of course distinct from
the arch-chancellor and vice-chancellor of the Empire, although the
imperial crown became in practice hereditary in the house of Habsburg.
In the family states their administration was, to use a phrase familiar
to the French, "polysynodic." As it was when fully developed, and as it
remained until the March revolution of 1848, it was conducted through
boards presided over by a chancellor. There were three aulic
chancellorships for the internal affairs of their dominions, "a united
aulic chancellorship for all parts of the empire (i.e. of Austria, not
the Holy Roman) not belonging to Hungary or Transylvania, and a separate
chancellorship for each of those last-mentioned provinces" (Hartig,
_Genesis of the Revolution in Austria_). There were also a house, a
court, and a state chancellor for the business of the imperial household
and foreign affairs, who were not, however, the presidents of a board.
These "aulic" (i.e. court) officers were in fact secretaries of the
sovereign, and administrative or political rather than judicial in
character, though the boards over which they presided controlled
judicial as well as administrative affairs. In the case of such
statesmen as Kaunitz and Metternich, who were house, court, and state
chancellors as well as "united aulic" chancellors, the combination of
offices made them in practice prime ministers, or rather
lieutenants-general, of the sovereign. The system was subject to
modifications, and in the end it broke down under its own complications.
We are not dealing here with the confusing history of the Austrian
administration, and these details are only quoted to show how it
happened that in Austria the title chancellor came to mean a political
officer and minister. There is obviously a vast difference between such
an official as Kaunitz, who as house, court, and state chancellor was
minister of foreign affairs, and as "united aulic" chancellor had a
general superiority over the whole machinery of government, and the lord
high chancellor in England, the _chancelier_ in France, or the
_canciller mayor_ in Castile, though the title was the same. The
development of the office in Austria must be understood in order to
explain the position and functions of the imperial chancellor (_Reichs
Kanzler_) of the modern German empire. Although the present empire is
sometimes rhetorically and absurdly spoken of as a revival of the
medieval Empire, it is in reality an adaptation of the Austrian empire,
which was a continuation under a new name of the hereditary Habsburg
monarchy. The _Reichs Kanzler_ is the immediate successor of the _Bundes
Kanzler_, or chancellor of the North German Confederation (_Bund_). But
the _Bundes Kanzler_, who bore no sort of resemblance except in mere
name to the _Erz-Kanzler_ of the old Empire, was in a position not
perhaps actually like that of Prince Kaunitz, but capable of becoming
much the same thing. When the German empire was established in 1871
Prince Bismarck, who was _Bundes Kanzler_ and became _Reichs Kanzler_,
took care that his position should be as like as possible to that of
Prince Kaunitz or Prince Metternich. The constitution of the German
empire is separately dealt with, but it may be pointed out here that
the _Reichs Kanzler_ is the federal minister of the empire, the chief of
the federal officials, and a great political officer, who directs the
foreign affairs, and superintends the internal affairs, of the empire.
In these German states the title of chancellor is also given as in
France to government and diplomatic officials who do notarial duties and
have charge of archives. The title of chancellor has naturally been
widely used in the German and Scandinavian states, and in Russia since
the reign of Peter the Great. It has there as elsewhere wavered between
being a political and a judicial office. Frederick the Great of Prussia
created a _Gross Kanzler_ for judicial duties in 1746. But there was in
Prussia a state chancellorship on the Austrian model. It was allowed to
lapse on the death of Hardenberg in 1822. The Prussian chancellor after
his time was one of the four court ministries (_Hofamter_) of the
Prussian monarchy.
AUTHORITIES.--Du Cange, _Glossarium_, s.v. "Cancellarius"; W. Stubbs,
_Const. Hist. of England_ (1874-1878); Rudolph Gneist, _Hist. of the
English Constitution_ (Eng. trans., London, 1891); L.O. Pike, _Const.
Hist. of the House of Lords_ (London, 1894); Sir William R. Anson,
_The Law and Custom of the Constitution_, vol. ii. part i. (Oxford,
1907); A. Luchaire, _Manuel des institutions francaises_ (Paris,
1892); K.F. Stumpf, _Die Reichs Kanzler_ (3 vols., Innsbruck,
1865-1873); G. Sceliger, _Erzkanzler und Reichskanzleien_ (ib. 1889);
P. Hinschius, _Kirchenrecht_ (Berlin, 1869); Sir R.J. Phillimore,
_Eccles. Law_ (London, 1895); P. Pradier-Fodere, _Cours de droit
diplomatique_, ii. 542 (Paris, 1899).
CHANCELLORSVILLE, a village of Spottsylvania county, Virginia, U.S.A.,
situated almost midway between Washington and Richmond. It was the
central point of one of the greatest battles of the Civil War, fought on
the 2nd and 3rd of May 1863, between the Union Army of the Potomac under
Major-General Hooker, and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia
under General Lee. (See AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, and WILDERNESS.) General
"Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded in this battle.
CHANCE-MEDLEY (from the A.-Fr. _chance-medlee_, a mixed chance, and not
from _chaude-medlee_, a hot affray), an accident of a mixed character,
an old term in English law for a form of homicide arising out of a
sudden affray or quarrel. The homicide has not the characteristic of
"malice prepense" which would raise the death to murder, nor the
completely accidental nature which would reduce it to homicide by
misadventure. It was practically identical, therefore, with
manslaughter.
CHANCERY, in English law, the court of the lord chancellor of England,
consolidated in 1873 along with the other superior courts in the Supreme
Court of Judicature. Its origin is noticed under the head of Chancellor.
It has been customary to say that the court of chancery consists of two
distinct tribunals--one a court of common law, the other a court of
equity. From the former have issued all the original writs passing under
the great seal, all commissions of sewers, lunacy, and the like--some of
these writs being originally kept in a _hanaper_ or hamper (whence the
"hanaper office"), and others in a little sack or bag (whence the
"petty-bag office"). The court had likewise power to hold pleas upon
_scire facias_ (q.v.) for repeal of letters patent, &c. "So little,"
says Blackstone, "is commonly done on the common law side of the court
that I have met with no traces of any writ of error being actually
brought since the fourteenth year of Queen Elizabeth."
The equitable jurisdiction of the court of chancery was founded on the
supposed superiority of conscience and equity over the strict law. The
appearance of equity in England is in harmony with the general course of
legal history in progressive societies. What is remarkable is that,
instead of being incorporated with or superseding the common law, it
gave rise to a wholly independent set of tribunals. The English dislike
of the civil law, and the tendency to follow precedent which has never
ceased to characterize English lawyers, account for this unfortunate
separation. The claims of equity in its earlier stages are well
expressed in the little treatise called _Doctor and Student_, published
in the reign of Henry VIII.:--"Conscience never resisteth the law nor
addeth to it, but only when the law is directly in itself against the
_law of God_, or _law of reason_." So also King James, speaking in the
Star Chamber, says: "Where the rigour of the law in many cases will undo
a subject, then the chancery tempers the law with equity, and so mixes
mercy with justice, as it preserves a man from destruction." This theory
of the essential opposition between law and equity, and of the natural
superiority of the latter, remained long after equity had ceased to
found itself on natural justice, and had become as fixed and rigid as
the common law itself. The jealousy of the common lawyers came to a head
in the time of Lord Ellesmere, when Coke disputed the right of the
chancery to give relief against a judgment of the court of queen's bench
obtained by gross fraud and imposition. James I., after consultation,
decided in favour of the court of equity. The substitution of lay for
clerical chancellors is regarded by G. Spence (_Equitable Jurisdiction
of the Court of Chancery_, 2 vols., 1846-1849) as having at first been
unfortunate, inasmuch as the laymen were ignorant of the principles on
which their predecessors had acted. Lord Nottingham (1621-1682) is
usually credited with the first attempt to reduce the decisions of the
court to order, and his work was continued by Lord Hardwicke
(1690-1764). By the time of Lord Eldon equity had become fixed, and the
judges, like their brethren in the common law courts, strictly followed
the precedents. Henceforward chancery and common law courts have
exhibited the anomaly of two co-ordinate sets of tribunals, empowered to
deal with the same matters, and compelled to proceed in many cases on
wholly different principles. The court of chancery could in most cases
prevent a person from taking advantage of a common law right, not
approved of by its own system. But if a suitor chose to go to a court of
common law, he might claim such unjust rights, and it required the
special intervention of the court of equity to prevent his enforcing
them. In many cases also a special application had to be made to
chancery for facilities which were absolutely necessary to the
successful conduct of a case at common law. Another source of difficulty
and annoyance was the uncertainty in many cases whether the chancery or
common law courts were the proper tribunal, so that a suitor often found
at the close of an expensive and protracted suit that he had mistaken
his court and must go elsewhere for relief. Attempts more or less
successful were made to lessen those evils by giving the powers to both
sets of courts; but down to the consolidation effected by the Judicature
Act, the English judicial system justified the sarcasm of Lord Westbury,
that one tribunal was set up to do injustice and another to stop it.
The equitable jurisdiction of chancery was commonly divided into
_exclusive_, _concurrent_ and _auxiliary_. Chancery had exclusive
jurisdiction when there were no forms of action by which relief could be
obtained at law, in respect of rights which ought to be enforced. Trusts
were the most conspicuous example of this class. It also included the
rights of married women, infants and lunatics. Chancery had concurrent
jurisdiction when the common law did not give _adequate_ relief, e.g. in
cases of fraud, accident, mistake, specific performance of contracts,
&c. It had auxiliary jurisdiction when the administrative machinery of
the law courts was unable to procure the necessary evidence.
The Judicature Act 1873 enacted (S 24) that in every civil cause or
matter commenced in the High Court of Justice, law and equity should be
administered by the High Court of Justice and the court of appeal
respectively, according to the rules therein contained, which provide
for giving effect in all cases to "equitable rights and other matters of
equity." The 25th section declared the law hereafter to be administered
in England on certain points, and ordained that "generally in all
matters not hereinbefore particularly mentioned in which there is any
conflict or variance between the rules of equity and the rules of the
common law with reference to the same matter, the rules of equity shall
prevail." The 34th section specifically assigned to the chancery
division the following causes and matters:--The administration of the
estates of deceased persons; the dissolution of partnerships, or the
taking of partnership, or other accounts; the redemption or foreclosure
of mortgages; the raising of portions, or other charges on land; the
sale and distribution of the proceeds of property subject to any lien
or charge; the execution of trusts, charitable or private; the
rectification, or setting aside, or cancellation of deeds or other
written instruments; the specific performance of contracts between
vendors and purchasers of real estates, including contracts for leases;
the partition or sale of real estates; the wardship of infants and the
care of infants' estates.
The chancery division originally consisted of the lord chancellor as
president and the master of the rolls, and the three vice-chancellors.
The master of the rolls was also a member of the court of appeal, but
Sir George Jessel, who held that office when the new system came into
force, regularly sat as a judge of first instance until 1881, when, by
the act of that year (sec. 2), the master of the rolls became a member
of the court of appeal only, and provision was made for the appointment
of a judge to supply the vacancy thus occasioned (sec. 3). Sir James
Bacon (1798-1895) was the last survivor of the vice-chancellors. He
retained his seat on the bench until the year 1886, when he retired
after more than seventeen years' judicial service. For some reason the
solicitors, when they had the choice, preferred to bring their actions
in the chancery division. The practice introduced by the Judicature Act
of trying actions with oral evidence instead of affidavits, and the
comparative inexperience of the chancery judges and counsel in that mode
of trial, tended to lengthen the time required for the disposal of the
business. Demand was consequently made for more judges in the chancery
division. By an act of 1877 the appointment of an additional judge in
that division was authorized, and Sir Edward Fry (afterwards better
known as a lord justice) was appointed. In August 1899 the crown
consented to the appointment of a new judge of the High Court in the
chancery division on an address from both Houses of Parliament, pursuant
to the 87th section of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876. The chancery
division, therefore, consists of the lord chancellor and six puisne
judges. The latter are styled and addressed in the same manner as was
customary in the old common law courts.[1] Formerly there were only four
judges of this division (being the successors of the master of the rolls
and the three vice-chancellors) to whom chambers were attached. The
fifth judge heard only causes with witnesses transferred to him from the
overflowing of the lists of his four brethren. In each set of chambers
there were three chief clerks, with a staff of assistant clerks under
them. The chief clerks had no original jurisdiction, but heard
applications only on behalf of the judge to whose chambers they
belonged, and theoretically every suitor had the right to have his
application heard by the judge himself in chambers. But the appointment
of a sixth judge enabled the lord chancellor to carry out a reform
recommended by a departmental committee which reported in 1885. The
great difficulty in the chancery division always was to secure the
continuous hearing of actions with witnesses, as nearly one-half of the
judge's time was taken up with cases adjourned to him from chambers and
other administrative business and non-witness actions and motions. The
interruption of a witness action for two or three days, particularly in
a country case, occasioned great expense, and had other inconveniences.
It was a simple remedy to link the judges in pairs with one list of
causes and one set of chambers assigned to each pair. This reform was
effected by the alteration of a few words in certain rules of court.
There are therefore, only three sets of chambers, each containing four
chief clerks, or, as they are now styled, masters of the Supreme Court,
and one of the linked judges, by arrangement between themselves,
continuously tries the witness actions in their common list, while the
other attends in chambers, and also hears the motions, petitions,
adjourned summonses and non-witness cases.
Although styled masters it does not appear that the chief clerks have
any larger or different jurisdiction than they had before. They are
still the representatives of and responsible to the judges to whom the
chambers are attached. The judge may either hear an application in
chambers, or may direct any matter which he thinks of sufficient
importance to be argued before him in court, or a party may move in
court to discharge an order made in chambers with a view to an appeal,
but this is not required if the judge certifies that the matter was
sufficiently discussed before him in chambers.
Under the existing rules of court many orders can now be made on summons
in chambers which used formerly to require a suit or petition in court
(see Order LV. as to foreclosure, administration, payment out of money
in court and generally). The judge is also enabled to decide any
particular question arising in the administration of the estate of a
deceased person or execution of the trusts of a settlement without
directing administration of the whole estate or execution of the trusts
generally by the court (Order LV. rule 10), and where an application for
accounts is made by a dissatisfied beneficiary or creditor to order the
accounts to be delivered out of court, and the application to stand over
till it can be seen what questions (if any) arise upon the accounts
requiring the intervention of the court (Order LV. 2, 10a). Delay and
consequent worry and expense are thus saved to the parties, and, at the
same time, a great deal of routine administration is got rid of and a
larger portion of the judicial term can be devoted to hearing actions
and deciding any question of importance in court. The work of the
chambers staff of the judges has probably been increased; but, on the
other hand, it has been lightened by the removal of the winding-up
business. The chancery division has also inherited from the court of
chancery a staff of registrars and taxing masters.
In the United States "chancery" is generally used as the synonym of
"equity." Chancery practice is practice in cases of equity. Chancery
courts are equity courts (see EQUITY). For the diplomatic sense of
chancery (chancellery) see CHANCELLOR.