chancellor

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various officials of high rank, especially:
2. n. A secretary to a monarch or noble.
3. n. Chiefly British The chief secretary of an embassy.
4. n. The chief minister of state in some European countries.
5. n. The president of certain American universities.
6. n. Chiefly British The honorary or titular head of a university.
7. n. Law The presiding judge of a court of chancery or equity in some states of the United States.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Originally, under the later Roman emperors, a doorkeeper or usher, who stood at the latticed railing inclosing the judgment-seat, to keep off the crowd and to introduce such persons as were entitled to pass inside. Later and naturally he became a sort of intermediary between petitioners and the judges, and arranged about their business. In the Eastern Empire, the Roman-German empire, and the kingdoms established on the ruins of the Roman empire, this intermediary doorkeeper became a notary or scribe on whom devolved the duty of preparing and sealing all important documents, such as charters, letters, and other official writings of the crown; hence he became keeper of the great seal, and in consequence of the influence of his position his office came to be one of the most important. From the Roman empire the ecclesiastical court at Rome introduced the office, and the chancery at the Vatican was repeated throughout the several bishoprics, where each diocese, and frequently each of the great monastic houses, had its chancellor.
2. n. Hence A secretary; a notary.
3. n. In Great Britain:
4. n. The highest judicial officer of the crown, law adviser of the ministry, and keeper of the great seal: more fully designated lord high chancellor. He is a cabinet minister and privy councilor by virtue of his office, and prolocutor of the House of Lords by prescription, and ranks next after the princes of the blood and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The writs for the convocation of Parliament are issued by him. To him belongs the appointment of all justices of the peace, and he is the patron of all livings of the crown under the value of twenty marks in the king's books; he is keeper of the sovereign's conscience, visitor of all hospitals and colleges founded by the king, guardian of all charitable uses, and judge of the High Court of Chancery, now called the Chancery Division of the Supreme Court. There is also a lord high chancellor in Ireland at the head of the equity system of that country, and Scotland had a chancellor until the treaty of union with England in 1707.
5. n. An officer, officially styled chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, who presides in person or by deputy over the courts of law and equity in the duchy of Lancaster. He is usually a cabinet minister, and seldom a lawyer. The finance minister of the British government, more fully styled chancellor of the exchequer. He is invariably a member of the House of Commons, (that division of the legislature having the sole right of laying taxes and originating money bills) and also of the cabinet. The chancellor of the exchequer was formerly a judge ex officio in the equity department of the Court of Exchequer, taking precedence of all the barons; but when the equitable jurisdiction of this court was transferred by 5 Vict. v. to the Court of Chancery his judicial functions became obsolete.
6. n. In the jury system of Scotland, the preses or foreman of a jury, who announces the verdict when it is a verbal one, and who, when it is in writing, hands it in and indorses it, in the name of the jury, along with the clerk of the court.
7. n. In France:
8. n. The chief officer of the crown, charged with the custody of the great seal, the administration of justice, and the duty of presiding over the councils of the king. The office was abolished in 1790, revived in name by Napoleon I., and finally abolished in 1848.
9. n. The chief officer of the palace of a queen or prince
10. n. A secretary, especially of an embassy or a consulate.
11. n. In the new German empire, the president of the Federal Council, who is also charged with the supreme direction, under the emperor, of all imperial affairs.
12. n. The chief officer, next to the honorary head, of a military or honorable order, who guards its seal, administers its property, and preserves its records: as, the chancellor of the Order of the Garter.
13. n. Eccles.:
14. n. An officer learned in canon law, who acts as vicar-general to a bishop, holds his courts, and directs and advises him in all matters of ecclesiastical law, and is the keeper of his seals. More fully styled chancellor of a bishop or of a diocese.
15. n. An officer belonging to a cathedral, who arranges the celebration of religious services, hears lessons, lectures in theology, writes letters of the chapter, applies the seal, keeps the books, etc.
16. n. The titular head of a university, from whom all degrees are supposed to emanate. The chancellor was originally the notary of the chapter of the cathedral. But nobody could preach without the authorization of the bishop; and the pope as the chief of the bishops undertook to regulate this authorization. He made the chancellors of certain cathedrals his deputies for this purpose, and thus they alone could grant the degree of master of theology, the highest of the university, which carried with it the right to preach. The chancellors seldom took an active part in the government of the university. In Great Britain the office is now a merely honorary one, and is usually held by a nobleman or some statesman of eminence. The duties of the chancellor of Oxford or Cambridge are usually discharged by a vice-chancellor. There is an officer with similar functions in several of the colleges of the United States.
17. n. In Delaware, New Jersey, and some others of the United States, a judge of the Court of Chancery or Equity. In Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee there are district chancellors chosen by popular vote.
18. n. In Scripture, a master of the decrees, or president of the council. Ezra iv. 8.

Wiktionary

1. n. A judicial court of chancery, which in England and in the United States is distinctively a court with equity jurisdiction.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A judicial court of chancery, which in England and in the United States is distinctively a court with equity jurisdiction.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the honorary or titular head of a university
2. n. the person who is head of state (in several countries)
3. n. the British cabinet minister responsible for finance