urisdiction of the chancery was of later growth. By this time, however,
the chancellor was "great alike in Curia and Exchequer"; he was
_secundus a rege_, i.e. took precedence immediately after the justiciar,
and nothing was done either in the Curia or the exchequer without his
consent. So great was his office that William FitzStephen, the
biographer of Becket, tells us that it was not purchasable (_emenda non
est_), a statement which requires modification, since it was in fact
more than once sold under Henry I., Stephen, Richard and John (Stubbs,
_Const. Hist._ i. pp. 384-497; Gneist, _Const. Hist. of England_, p.
219), an evil precedent which was, however, not long followed.

The judicial duties of the chancellor grew out of the fact that all
petitions addressed to the king passed through his hands. The number and
variety of these became so great that in 1280, under Edward I., an
ordinance was issued directing the chancellor and the justices to deal
with the greater number of them; those which involved the use of the
great seal being specially referred to the chancellor. The chancellor
and justices were to determine which of them were "so great, and of
grace, that the chancellor and others would not despatch them without
the king," and these the chancellor and other chief ministers were to
carry in person to the king (Stubbs ii. 263, note, and p. 268). At this
period the chancellor, though employed in equity, had ministerial
functions only; but when, in the reign of Edward III., the chancellor
ceased to follow the court, his tribunal acquired a more definite
character, and petitions for grace and favour began to be addressed
primarily to him, instead of being merely examined and passed on by him
to the king; and in the twenty-second year of this reign matters which
were of grace were definitely committed to the chancellor for decision.
This is the starting-point of the equitable jurisdiction of the
chancellor, whence developed that immense body of rules, supplementing
the deficiencies or modifying the harshness of the common law, which is
known as Equity (q.v.).

The chancellor in parliament.

The position of the chancellor as speaker or prolocutor of the House of
Lords dates from the time when the ministers of the royal Curia formed
_ex officio_ a part of the _commune concilium_ and parliament. The
chancellor originally attended with the other officials, and he
continued to attend _ex officio_ after they had ce