IX. in 1052. The origin and duration of
this connexion are, however, obscure; it appears to have ceased before
1187. The last record of a papal chancellor in the middle ages dates
from 1212, from which time onward, for reasons much disputed, the head
of the papal chancery bore the title vice-chancellor (Hinschius i. 439),
until the office of chancellor was restored by the constitution
_Sapientius_ of Pius X. in 1908.

The title of arch-chancellor (_Erz-Kanzler_) was borne by three great
ecclesiastical dignitaries of the Holy Roman Empire. The archbishop of
Mainz was arch-chancellor for Germany. The archbishop of Cologne held
the dignity for Italy, and the archbishop of Trier for Gaul and the
kingdom of Arles. The second and third of these dignities became purely
formal with the decline of the Empire in the 13th century. But the
arch-chancellorship of Germany remained to some extent a reality till
the Empire was finally dissolved in 1806. The office continued to be
attached to the archbishopric of Mainz, which was an electorate. Karl
von Dalberg, the last holder of the office, and the first prince primate
of the Confederation of the Rhine, continued to act in show at least as
chancellor of that body, and was after a fashion the predecessor of the
_Bundes Kanzler_, or chancellor of the North German Confederation. The
duties imposed on the imperial chancery by the very complicated
constitution of the Empire were, however, discharged by a
vice-chancellor who was attached to the court of the emperor. The abbot
of Fulda was chancellor to the empress.

The house of Austria in their hereditary dominions, and in those of
their possessions which they treated as hereditary, even where the
sovereignty was in theory elective, made a large and peculiar use of the
title chancellor. The officers so called were of course distinct from
the arch-chancellor and vice-chancellor of the Empire, although the
imperial crown became in practice hereditary in the house of Habsburg.
In the family states their administration was, to use a phrase familiar
to the French, "polysynodic." As it was when fully developed, and as it
remained until the March revolution of 1848, it was conducted through
boards presided over by a chancellor. There were three aulic
chancellorships for the internal affairs of their dominions, "a united
aulic chancellorship for all parts of the empire (i.e. of Austria, not
the Holy Roman) not belonging to Hungary or Transylvani