Cancellarii
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cancelli are lattice-work, placed before a window, a door-way, the tribunal of a judge, the chancel of a church, or any other similar place.[1][2]
This led to the occupation of cancellarius, which originally signified a porter who stood at the latticed or grated door of the emperor's palace. According to the Historia Augusta, the emperor Carinus (reigned 283-285) gave great dissatisfaction by promoting one of these cancellarii to city prefect, although the veracity of this account is disputed.[lower-alpha 1]
Other cancellarii were legal scribes or secretaries who sat within the lattice-work which protected the tribunals of the judges from the crowd. The chief scribe in Constantinople was eventually invested with judicial power, and from this office came the modern "chancellor".[1]