wn 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 vi