Magistrates was first published by Fuss in 1812, long after the age of Gibbon. This Lydian John was born A. D. 490, under Zeno, and held high judicial offices under Anastasius, Justin, and Justinian, and wrote under the last of these Empe of the Courts of Law-(the extent of the antiquity is rendered doubtful by the vagueness of the expression, and by the moody, disappointed spirit in which Lydus wrote,)—was to transact fact of the selection of the Chancellors from says Agathias, are called by the Romans after the order of the Augustales,* may justify the the cancelli of which they have charge.* the belief that the office was at first exclu- The duty of the Chancellor, probably at an sively held by freedmen-but any one, ac- earlier period, is more precisely mentioned by quainted with the organization of the Imperial Joannes Lydus, whose treatise on the Roman Court of Rome at the time when Chancellors were first appointed, is aware that nearly all the high dignities about the person of the Emperor and the Public Officers of Justice were in the hands of freedmen. Hence it cannot be inferred from this that the Chancellorship possessed rors. He says that the more ancient procedure little influence or respectability. We have strong reasons for believing that from an early period the Chancellors had some judicial powers, or at any rate performed administrative acts connected with judicial proceedings. There is a Re-no business beyond the walls of the temple of script of the Emperors Arcadius, Honorius and Theodosius,† dated 27, Dec. A. D. 402, ordering the Assessors. Chancellors, and Domestics to remain fifty days in their Provinces after the expiration of their office to answer any suits; and prescribing fourfold restitution in case of their departure before that time. They were also forhidden to exercise the office twice in the same province. The domestic was prohibited from taking part in the public proceedings of the judge.§ There is no such prohibition in regard to the Chancellors. The Chancellors are associated with the Assessors in the language of the Code, || aud their appointment is forbidden to the Judges by a Rescript of Honorius and Theodosius in A. D., 423.¶ We find the Chancellors mentioned by Agathias as a regular portion of the retinue of a governor. He says that when Narses proceeded to Ravenna, A. D. 552, he took with him only his domestics, his body-guard, and the necessary ministers of his magistracy, whose duty it was to take care of the records, to preserve order, and to prevent the irregular intrusion of those who sought access to him. These officers, justice: but after the formal delivery of the decision, it was read by the Assessors learned in the law, (the scabini or échevins of the Middle Ages,)† and handed to the Schedarius or Recinus, (the Clerk or Secretary,) to be delivered to the proper officers for the subscription of the magistrate. These officers who received it from the Schedarius were the Chancellors.§ * Agath. Hist. i. c. 19. Ναρσης δε επι Ραβένναν των μανους επήγετο τους αμφ' αυτόν θεραπευτας τε και δορυφόρους, και όσοι της αρχής αυτώ υπήρεται ετυγχανον οντες, οις ότι τα αρχεία επεφρόντιστο της τε άλλης ευκοσμίας περί, και όπως μη χυδην Ρωμαιοις εκ των κιγκλιδων επονομάζειν, γαι της εν τούτοις Eripedeias. Joannes Lydus De Magistrat. lib. iii. c. 37. p. 230, gives still more distinctly the origin of the name. το πριν καθ ομαλου εν τοις δικαστηρίοις, ωσπερ ετι και νυν εν τους επιχωρίοις εστιν, ερυμα και ως αν τις είποι διαφραγμα ξυλουργες, από σχιδακων μακρων αντιπλαγιαζομενων εφ αυτούς και διοπτρας οξυτελεις καθαπερ δικτυου τινος αποτελούντων, επι μεςον διέτεινε του δικαστηρίου, χωρίζον τον αρχοντα των υπ.. απασι τοις βουλομενοις ως αυτόν εισιτητεα ειη. τούτους δε εθος καγκελλον αυτό οι Ρωμαίοι καλουσιν υποκοριστικώς αντι του δικτυδιον, οτι πρωτοτυπως κασσης αυτοι τα δίκτυα λεγουσιν, υποκοριστικώς δε καγκελλους. + Savigny. Hist. du Droit Rom. &c. c. iv. § 74. tome. i. p. 172-3. We must dissent, however, with all deference from even the high authority of Savigny, of whom we neverthink but with admiration, when he asserts this to have been a na * The authorities for this will be cited at length subse- tional institution of the Franks and Lombards, as we find it quently. among the early Romans, the Greeks of the Empire, and + Cod. I, LI, § vII. "Consiliarios judicum, et cancel wherever the Roman Law penetrated. These functionalarios, et eos, qui domesticorum funguntur officio, post ries in the Roman Law Cod. i. li. Dig. i. xxii. Authent. depositam administrationem quinquaginta dies in provin-xxxiii, are called Assessores, Juris Studiosi (cf Servien ciis residere præcipimus. Pro confesso autem tenebitur, qui accusatus hujusmodi personam subtraxerit, eaque in quadruplum restitui jubemus, quæ docebuntur ablata ut duplum spoliatus accipiat, et duplum noster fiscus acquirat. +Cod. I, LI. 5. Cod. I, LI, 4: Yet even this was permitted by the same Rescript where any especial necessity required. || V. Cod. I, LI. 3. Cit supra. * Cod. I, LI. 8. Yet this enactment appears by the complaints of Lydus cited below to have been violated or neglected in the reign of Justinian. tes ad legem-Serjeants,) and Comites. Under the latter name, (whence comes the modern County) the office may be traced in Savigny through all its changes to the Count, Viscount, Lord-Lieutenant and Sheriff. It was illegal for the Assessor to sign in the place of the Judex. Cod. I, LI, 2. Joannes Lydus. De Magistrat. lib. iii. c. 11, p. 25. εθος αρχαιον ην μηδεν εξωθεν πράττεσθαι του της δικης ιερού. ο καλείται σηκρητον οιονει αταραχών και σιγη σεμνον και οποίον ουκετι κατ ουδένα τρόπον, όπως μη τι προς ύβρεως η βλάβης των συντελών αμαρτηθείη, μετά δε την εν θεσμόν των ψήφων αποφασιν νομος και τους συνεδρεύοντας τη αρχη ανδρας νομικώ τατους, αναγινώσκοντας πρώτον τας ψήφους και υποτάττοντα το λεγόμενο σχεδαριω το παρ Ιταλοις καλούμενου ρεκτον, (αντί The Latin designation appears to have fallen into disuse in the Greek Empire, and the office to have merged in that of the Great Logothetewe would merely remark at present the equivalence of the affixes in the titles of the Lord High Chancellor and oμɛyas Xoyobεrns. We turn now to another side of this obscure but interesting inquiry. The duties of the Chancellor may have un-land, being to write the Imperial Epistles to dergone a rapid expansion since the reign of Kings, Sultans, and inferior Potentates.* Carinus, when Vopiscus mentions him, and Gibbon calls him a "door-keeper." From the above passages his intervention in judicial proceedings is strongly intimated, but the dignity and importance of his judicial functions is still more strikingly, though still vaguely, indicated by another passage in Lydus, where he complains of the confusion of offices which prevailed under Justinian, in consequence of which he himself lost the laThere were at an early period ecclesiastical as bours and rewards of a long and illustrious career. well as lay Chancellors. The Emperor HeracLydus says that the former custom had been to lius limited the number of those attached to the appoint to a Chancellorship only those who were Church of St. Sophia to Twelve. These were distinguished members of the Augustal College* evidently different from the door-keepers, for one and notaries, and to allow only two to each hundred door-keepers ostiarii are allowed by the Court whose fee was a golden piece per diem. III. Novel of Justinian, but no Chancellors are He complains that at the time when he was wri- mentioned; and seventy-five door-keepers and ting, such confusion and irregularity prevailed, twelve Chancellors are assigned to that Church that almost every public officer had become a by Heraclius. The numbers of nearly all the Chancellor, and that even the Farmers of the other officers are considerably larger in the BasRevenue assumed the title and attributes of Chan-ilic of Heraclius than in the Novel of his predecellors for the sake of more efficacious extortion.‡cessor. Had the Chancellor been introduced into In later times, as Nicetas remarks§ the Chan- the ecclesiastical organization, or grown out of a cellor of the Latins was considered identical portion of the door-keepers between the reigns of with the great Logothete of the Greeks, whose Justinian and Heraclius, in the manner so familduties corresponded very closely with the politi- iar to the Greek Court? Great changes and cal duties of the Lord High Chancellor of Eng- fluctuations both in offices and dignities certainly took place at Constantinople during the long lapse of the Eastern Empire. του αντιβολήν) διδόναι προς υπογραφήν της αρχής τοις εις τουτο τεταγμένοις. καγκελλαρίους αυτούς εν τοις δικαστηρίοις επιφημι ζουσι, περί ων προς πέρας έρω. *We will not stop to inquire into the exact functions of the Augustales, but this passage shows that Dr. Smith in his Archeological Dictionary is wrong in denying them civil duties. “The Chancellor," says an ancient memorial quoted by Madox, "has five shillings a day, and so much in simnells, (a sort of sweet biscuit,) wine, and other small things." Hist. Excheq. p. 131, cited Pict. Hist. Engl. B. III, chap. III, § VII. We think this is mentioned also by Lord Campbell. 7 καγκελλάριοι γαρ αυτοι και λογοθεται και της θείας και γενικής τραπέζης διοικηται, της αρχαίας συνήθειας έχουσης μηδενα εις το του λεγομενου καγκελλαρίου λειτούργημα η μόνους τους ευδοκιμούντας εκ των Αυγουστάλων και ταχυγραφων # All It is by no means difficult to discover the circumstances which gave rise to the name and appointment of ecclesiastical Chancellors. We have already remarked the still existing employment of the word Chancel and its derivation. This had been done before us by DuCange. of our readers, who are acquainted with the construction of European Cathedrals or even Churches, know the particular portion of the edifice to which the name is given, though they may not have been struck with the peculiar propriety of its application. Το show its appositeness, we must enter slightly into the consideration of its character. We shall use the description of a distinguished writer on Architecture. "In front of the apsis or tribunal," says Mr. Narrien,§ “was the Sanctuary or Chancel, a part surrounded by a balustrade in which was the Grand Altar, and into which only the ministers who officiated had *Codinus De Off. C. P. lib. I, c. V, p. 32. † Gretser. Comm. in Codin. lib. I, c. I, p. 112. παριέναι, έπει και δυο μονους καγκελλαρίους το δικαστήριον εγνωρίζεν, οις και χρυσινος εις καθ' ημέραν από του δημοσίου αφώριστο. επι τούτου των διατμηατος (the cancelli mentioned in the passage cited in a previous note) ίσταντο δύο καγκελλάριος εκ του πραγματος επιφημιζόμενοι, δι ων, έπει μηδεις εθαρρει αλλ ουδε συνεχωρείτο προσψαύσαι τω βήματι, οι τε προς υπογραφήν χαρται τη αρχη προσέφεροντο * τε των αναγκαίων έγίγνετο μήνυσις. αλλ ηδη προτερον εις πλήθος του εξιώμητος υβρισθέντος, το μεν δημοσιον ανήρτησα την επίδοσιν, πάντες δε σχεδόν οι οπωσουν . . . . . καγκελλάριοι καθ ημάς χρηματίζουσι και ουκ αυτοι μόνον αλλα και οι εν ταις επαρχίαις χαλκολογούντες το καγκελλαριων περιαπτουσιν εαυτοίς αξιωμα, όπως αυτοις τα των ευημενων αδεώς просаунта. τοιαύτα μεν τα περί της συγχύσεως και τούδε του Xsparos. Joannes Lydus. lib. iii. c. 36-37, p. 229-30. Architecture ap. Encycl. Metrop. p. 321. He is des Nicetas Choniata, p. 263, et vide Fabroti Glossarium.'cribing the plan of the earliest Churches. περικειμένοι "Sed antequam ex bematis cancellis excedamus, observandum inde totam hanc ædis sacræ partem cancellis clausam vulgo apud nos cancellum appellari, le chancel. triarche prit le califre, el l'enmena el cuer et el chanciel, Hugo Plagon in versione Gallicia W. Tyrii. ms: li papour bien voir apertement le sacrement. DuCangii Descriptio S. Sophia, ή 72. permission to enter; this was elevated a few two churches under the Iconoclast Emperors, the higher necessities and greater independence of the Papacy might lead to even a freer and more complete development. This side of the question, however, we are unable to pursue; we are obliged to limit our investigation to the Greek Church. steps above the pavement, and, according to Eusebius, it was divided from the rest of the Church by a lattice-work of wood." An exquisite illustration of this is furnished by the superb and delicate fretwork of stone before the Sanctuary of the Seven Altars in Durham Abbey. In the Church of St. Sophia the barrier was of wood gilded and ornamented with figures according to Grelot, but according to Paulus Silentiarus, St. Cyprian and Anastasius,† either of silver or plated with silver. The object of the cancelli was to separate the laity from the clergy, especially during the celebration of mass.‡ By the acts of several Councils the people were forbidden to enter within the sacred Chancel. In addition, however, to this lattice-work there were rich curtains to close the approach to the Sanctuary. § Hence we naturally find velarii and cancellarii in charge of the lattices and curtains in the Church as well as in the State. The later ecclesiastical organization of St. Sophia is briefly given by Codinus. The age in which he wrote and lived is considered wholly uncertain by Gretser and Goar, but it is perfectly evident to Lambecius that he survived the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. He specifies forty-five clerical dignitaries, whom he distributes into nine pentads. In the second we find the Logothete, with distinct and precise judicial functions. We have already seen that the Great Logothete was the same officer who had been called the Chancellor, in the times when Latin was still the official language of the State, and before Leo the Philosopher had proThese offices would naturally increase in dig- mulgated the Basilica meditated by his father, to nity and importance with the wealth and influ- relieve the fading acquaintance with the tongue ence of the Church, and with the growth of the formerly spoken by the conquerors of the world. hierarchical aristocracy. The Text of the Code Is it too much to infer that the clerical Chanceland the Novels of Justinian, however, sufficiently lor of earlier times became the clerical Logoevince the magnificence of the ecclesiastical es- thete of a later period? We do not find the tablishment from the times of Constantine. When designation Chancellor at all in Codinus, LoDiocletian remodelled the empire with such con- gothete is a familiar title: we do find Chancelsummate skill, he instituted regular grades of lors by name in the Western Church during the dignity, and furnished the exemplar of the Teu- whole period of the Middle Ages. We may add tonic Peerage. Constantine appears to have too that we find too in the Corpus Juris Græcotransplanted a similar organization into the Romani and in Codinus an ecclesiastical organiChurch also, which was of course further de-zation strikingly analogous to the Cardinal Bishveloped by the spirit and tendencies of that and ops, Cardinal Priests, and Cardinal Deacons of the succeeding ages. The rivalries and jealous- the Roman hierarchy. We discover also a ies of the Patriarchates of Rome and Constan- Papas or Pope with the keys; but he was a civil tinople would amply explain similarities of or- officer.|| ganization and after the schism between the *"il y avait un peu plus bas une séparation de bois doré et enrichi de figures qui étoit ouverte de trois portes que les Grecs appellent agiai thyrai ou portes saintes, parcequ'elles étoient du Sancta Sanctorum," Grelot. apud Banduri De S. Sophia Comm. Before leaving these architectural antiquities we may mention a singular error of Mr. Narrien and other architectural writers of deriving the nave froin navis, a ship. It is from vaos, a temple—that being peculiarly the temple where mass was celebrated, which was lately in the nave. +Cit. DuCarge Desci p. S. Sophiæ. § 70. Paulus Silen. Pt. II: v 265: ‡ DuCange. Descript. S. Sophiæ, §70, § 65, §49, and the authorities collected by him, The Council of Rome under Eugenius II. and that under Leo IV: "nec inter sacros cancellos ordinibus debitos, nisi permittente episcopo, attentent accedere sæculares," the IV. Council of Toledo, the II: Council of Tours. cited by DuCange. Descript. S. Sophiæ, §, 49. DuCange. Descr. S. Soph. § 65, 72. The Council of Narbonne, A. D. 589. There were similar curtains before the Imperial Throne in St. Sophia. Codinus. De Off. c. VI, p. 49. Gretseri et Goari. Comm. p. 688. But having recognized the Chancellor in the Logothete, we must not overlook his colleagues. * Gretseri et Goari Comm. lib. i, c. i, p. 111. Lambecius De Vit and Script: ad Codini Antiq. C. P. p. xiii. το λογοθέτης εις το λογογράφειν, και εις τας δημοσιακας και αρχοντικας υποθέσεις λογογράφειν. We should have remarked on the previous occasion that the great Logothete appears to correspond more nearly with the Grand Justitiary than even the Chancellor. This is especially the case if we may consider the exocatacali of Codinus as analogous to the Cardinals. || Gretser. Comm: lib. i, c. vi, p. 133, translates pittacium by breve. The word brief has however a long historical development of significations. In the office of the Greek Prothonotary it probably bore a very different meaning from that of a writ,' but the latter signification is of easy solution from its sense of a concise statement and record of a judicial case. ‘breve,—hinc breve apostolicum, et Germanicum brief pro epistola.' Gretser ibid. In the English procedure the writ was originally in principle, as it remains, in form, a letter: and both principle and form are, or were till very recently, retained in proceedings against Peers. These were the Prothonotary, a superior officer, who had charge of the pittacium (officina brevium:)* the Caustrisius, of whom we shall have more to say shortly: the Referendary, who communicated with the Court; and the Actuary or Recording Clerk, who took the place of the Chartophylax, of whom we will speak directly. All these officers, it will be noticed, re-appear in the Medieval Courts. which we conjecture to be the original of the Six Clerks in Chancery, who were only three in number before the reign of Richard II.* We promised to return to the Canstrisius. It might be yielding too far to the seductive attractions of a theory to discover in the name of this officer the origin of the name of the Clerk of the Hanaper. His duties are obscure and uncertain. He took charge of the Canistrum. This signiBefore examining further, we would call at- fies literally a little basket, and has been considtention to one of the officers of the first Pentad, ered as the receptacle of the Sacred Vestments the Chartophylax, who, says Codinus,† has-but by others it has been interpreted as the charge of the muniments and records pertaining censer of incense. There is thus no analogy' to the rights of the Church, is the judge of all between his duties and that of the Clerk of the matrimonial cases, and also of all clerical cases Hanaper. But with the episcopal Chancellors as being the right hand of the Patriarch. If we of early times, a portion of the Chancery duties translate this title according to its etymology we might naturally be assigned to their attendant get Custos Rotulorum; if we translate with ref- Canistrii, and thus the name might be perpetuaerence to his duties, we have the same thing, the ted notwithstanding the absence of any identity Master of the Rolls. The Chartophylax must of functions. not be confounded with the Chartularies. From The Canstrisius has been frequently confounJoannes Citrius it appears that the function of ded with the Caniculus or Caniclio (。 Emɩ TOD kaviapplying the official seal to documents was in-λccov.) The name, according to Gretser, is deriviolably attached to his office, and could not be ved from a monastery attached to the Imperial exercised by the Bishop, though in case of absence or sickness it might be done by the Actuary. A still more important analogy is that he had twelve notaries under him to assist him, recalling the Twelve Masters in Chancery, and his own Court, Chartophylacium, which closely approximates to the Rolls|| Chapel in name and in use. Palace of Blachernæ, according to Goar and Alamanni,‡ from the inkstand containing the purple ink with which the Emperor wrote his official signature, and of which the Caniculus had charge. If any thing more than the name was to be subscribed, it was the duty of the Caniculus to write it.§ Goar supposes the office to have been first instituted under Leo the Armenian; In the reign of Richard II. the Masters in but the function was certainly discharged long Chancery were called Clerici de prima forma, before, by some other high officer of State. In and Mr. Spence gives credit to Mr. Hargrave the curious anecdote related by Procopius, ¶ the for tracing their title to the Roman Law. We Quæstor of the Palace under the reign of the disagree with him, however, in considering the Elder Justin had charge of the Purple Ink of Master of the Rolls, as originally one of them. the Emperor. This Quæstor, Proclus by name, Whatever may have been the case in England, inasmuch as Justin could not write, had the first we think that in the Greek Court, the chief of four letters of the Imperial name cut in a thin the Twelve must have corresponded to the pri- board, which was placed over the document to micerius notariorum of the Civil Courts, and be signed; the Imperial pen, charged with Imbeen the primicerius tabulariorum** of the Eccle- perial ink, was put in the Imperial hand, and that siastical establishment. Under the former of hand was guided by his high officers of State these officers we find as early as the times of through the open spaces of the board, and by Justinian, three Chartularies in each Court, this means the Emperor Justin I. was enabled ο χαρτοφύλαξ, κρατων τα εκκλησιαστικά χαρτια δικαιω- to sign his name legibly and satisfactorily. The ματα, κρίτης των όλων υποθέσεων των εκκλησιαστικών, έχων success of Proclus was as signal as that of Lord της γαμικάς υποθέσεις, αλλά και εν ταις λοιπαις των κληρικών High Chancellor Eldon when he enabled George vrofioncmey exdikos was dežia rov apxiepews xp. Codinus De III. to subscribe his signature, despite his lunaOff. i, and see Gretser and Goar. ad. locum. cy.** Whenever the office of the Caniculus may Codin, De Off. c. ii, and Gretser and Goar. Comm. Apud Gretsen et Goari Comm. in Codin, lib. i, c. iv, p. 128. Not the Rolls House, granted by Edward III. A. D., 1328. Spence Eq. Jur. Pt. ii., B. i., c. v. p. 357. Gretseri et Goari Comm., lib. i. c. iv., p. 126 9. See the Edict of Justinian, addressed A. D. 585 to the People of Constantinople, at the end of the Eighth Novel. ** Codinus De Off. c. i., and Gretseri et Goari Comm. VOL. XVI-40 have been formally instituted, it was one of illus- tiuian. All that we as yet would venture to astrious dignity and influence, although its powers sert is, that the germs and outlines of the Engfluctuated with those of the Chancellor, falling lish Chancery, in all its important characteristics, when the latter rose, and rising when they fell.* were familiar to the later Roman Law, and were At times, it was the highest office in the State, developed in a similar form, though perhaps in a and only below the throne. In the reign of An- different spirit at Constantinople. We think that dronicus Galæologus I. Nicephorus Chumnus, the curious coincidences which we have adduwho held the post, married his daughter to the ced are sufficient to justify renewed inquiry with Emperor's son, John, reminding us of Lord the prospect of adequate reward, and to warrant Clarendon. He was relieved from the ordinary the following conclusions. 1. That the Chansalutations of the Emperor, and bore as his badge cellor was called from the lattice work which a judicial wand. He was not an ecclesiastic, separated the seat of justice from the crowd. however, like the Caustrisius. 2. That although humble in origin, he was alWe have thus traced to Roman or Græco- ways a confidential officer and possessed of conRoman origin most of the characteristic func-siderable influence. 3. That he soon began to tions exercised by the Lord High Chancellor of exercise judicial powers, and ultimately grew into England, under the Anglo-Saxon and Norman analogous importance with the Lord High ChanKings. We have found the name attached to a cellor of England. 4. That his name and funeconfidential office as early as the reign of Ca- tions were disseminated by the clerical Chanrinus-we have seen judicial powers connected cellors, so that they might readily re-appear in with the appointment from a remote period- any part of Europe, whenever the legal estaband we have found various other offices and lishments of the State were in the hands of the functions of the Chancery distributed among the endless multitude of dignitaries, lay and clerical, who surrounded the Greek throne, and attached to officers whose names recall strikingly those of the English Chancery. Clergy, and lastly, that nearly all the duties and departments, and most of the Titles of the English Chancery were developed at Constantinople, though they were divided amongst more numerous officers, whose functions expanded, contracted, or changed during the long lapse of a thousand years. The example, however, was afforded to the more Western Courts for imitation or suggestion. We have mentioned these curious incidents and analogies without any intention of tracing a strict lineal affinity between the Chancery and the Greek Court, which might be a hazardous experiment. We shall not even attempt to arThe connection between the Greek and barrange the facts and inferences in such manner as barian Courts was sufficiently close and frequent to construct a theory. They might be profitably at a very early day to account for the imitation, co-ordinated, and with a reasonable expectation and instances of it are frequent. This intercomof valuable results, if we were in possession of munication was constantly kept alive from the all the information to be acquired relative to these days when Clovis assumed the consular insignia, matters; but we are aware of such large and and Odoacer applied to the Emperor Zeno for serious lacunæ in this exposition that we deem it them. A constant link was supplied in later more candid and a better service to historical in- times by the Varangi, who appear to have been quiry, to leave the new and unsuspected data principally English, and whose leaders were which we have brought forward, in their present usually nobles of distinction at home. Harold, disconnected state, than to make a premature the son of Sigurd, the last of the Vikingr, the effort to systematize the inferences which may brother of a king, who fell before the arms of be drawn from them. We will not pretend to Harold of England, three days before the fatal draw the line of distinction between the civil and battle of Hastings, had himself been one of the ecclesiastical offices, nor to determine the degree Varangi.* But the principal bond of connection in which the English Chancery is indebted to was undoubtedly the Papacy and the Church. each. We will not even attempt to separate, for The exclusive right of jurisdiction over the clerwe have not the means of doing so accurately, gy and ecclesiastical cases, claimed by and conthe earlier from the later institutions. It is ceded to the Church at a very early period of the enough for our purpose to know that all were Eastern Empire, naturally led to a judiciary the natural and legitimate developments from within her bosom, which was as naturally imitated the State and Church Establishments of Con- from the existing civil establishment. Hence in stantine, and the Codes of Theodosius and Jus-tracing the Chancery to Rome and Constantino Goar. ap Gretseri et Goari Comm. lib. ii. c. vi. p. 258. + Gretseri et Goari Comm in Codi. lib. ii. c. iii. p. 206-10. Codinus de Off. C. P. c. ii, p. 12. ple, it is not necessary to insist upon the distinction between lay and clerical officers. We have * Thierry's Hist. Norman Conquest, B, iii. page 59 Whittaker's Ed. |