cancellarius

…9th century, the title of cancellarius was gaining ground and was increasingly applied to the head of the chancery. The 9th century was a period of transition, during which, for a while, the archchaplain, the head of the chapel, became also the head of the clerks who wrote the charters.

The Roman cancellarii, minor legal officials who stood by the cancellus, or bar, separating the tribune from the public, were later employed in the imperial scrinia (writing departments). After the fall of the empire, the succeeding barbarian rulers copied Roman administrative practice; thus it came about that…