Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/261

 CHAMPOLLION LE JEUNE CHANCELLOR went to Paris, where he read before the acade- my his dissertation Sur Vecriture hieratique et demotique, and his Analyse methodique du texts demotique de Rosette, which Sylvestre de Sacy praised as prodigious efforts of learn- ing and genius. In 1822 he read before the academy of inscriptions his celebrated disquisi- tion, afterward published under the title of Lettre d M. Dacier, which proved his discovery of the hieroglyphical alphabet, both Arago and De Sacy deciding in favor of Champollion's pri- ority of discovery as against Thomas Young, whose English partisans have claimed this hon- or for him. His subsequent expositions of the figurative, idiographical, and alphabetical sys- tems of hieroglyphics was published in 1824 by the French government, under the title of Pre- cis du systeme Jiieroglyphique des anciens Egyp- tiens. In the same year, after examining the collection of the French consul at Turin, sub- sequently acquired by the king of Sardinia, he announced the discovery of the celebrated roy- al or chronological papyrus. He next visited Rome and Leghorn, and his report, made at the instance of the duke de Blacas, on the Egypto- logical collection of Henry Salt, the English consul at the latter city, led to its acquisition by the museum of Paris. He returned to Rome, where he described the Turin collection in his Lettres d Monsieur le due de Blacas (2 vols., Paris, 1824-'6); and successfully applying his system to the interpretation of the monuments at Naples and Florence, he prepared the cata- logues of the royal collection. Pope Leo XII. re- quested him to prepare a new work relating to the obelisks of Rome, but of this only the designs were published, the Latin work on this subject brought out in 1842 being spurious. Soon af- ter the establishment of the Egyptian museum at the Louvre (1826) he became its director and lecturer, and his classification was adopted in other museums of the kind. He exposed the fallacies of Klaproth and other savants, and summed up in 1827 the result of previous in- vestigations in his Apercu des resultats his- toriques de la, decouverte de Valphdbet Jiiero- glyphique. Charles X. gave him the entry to his court by appointing him officer of the royal household, placed a frigate with seven draughts- men and an architect at his disposal for the exploration of Egypt and Nubia (1827-'30), and in 1831, after the accession of Louis Phi- lippe, the chair of Egyptian archaeology was created for him at the college de France. He retired to a country seat to compose his Gram- maire egyptienne (1836-'41), which became a standard work for that science, and his Dic- tionnaire egyptien (1842-'4). The letters to his brother during his Egyptian journey were published in 1835. He proposed to make his personal observations the basis of a compre- hensive work, but lived only to publish the prospectus. After an attack of apoplexy at the close of 1831, he foresaw his speedy end, and employing January and February of 1832 in revising his Egyptian grammar, he handed the work to his brother, saying that he hoped pos- terity would accept it as his visiting card. His death was mourned not only on account of his labors, which, as Chateaubriand said, "will be remembered as long as the immortal monu- ments which they revealed," but also on ac- count of his great virtues. A monument was erected to him at Figeac, with inscriptions prepared by the institute. His bust was placed in the museum of Versailles, and copies of it were executed for the towns of Figeac and Grenoble ; and his memory is perpetuated by an inscription in the royal museum of Turin. His MSS. were purchased by the French govern- ment, and edited under the supervision of his brother (1834-'48). After his death appeared Monuments de VEgypte et de la, Nubie (4 vols. 4to, 1835, with 400 folio plates) ; Memoires sur les signes employes par les anciens Egyptiens d la notation des divisions du temps (1841) ; and fragments of Notices descriptives (1844). CHANCEL, that portion of a church specially occupied by the clergy, and usually separated from the nave and aisles by screens made of carved stone or oak. The screen which sep- arated the chancel from the nave was formerly called the rood screen, because a rood or large crucifix was usually placed on it, accompanied with two figures representing St. John and the Virgin Mary. In the chancel were situated the high altar, the sedilia, or seats for the offi- ciating clergy, and the piscina, in which the water used for washing the hands of the cele- brant was poured. It was usually surrounded with carved seats or stalls, which were occu- pied by the clergy not engaged in the services. These were also used when the office was sung in choir, a lecturn being placed in the centre of the chancel. The stalls were usually enrich- ed with carvings, and had canopies of carved oak placed over them. The chancel in Gothic buildings occupies the place of the apsis in the ancient basilicas, and was called so from the cancelli or rails which were used in the early churches to separate the clergy from the laity. CHANCELLOR, a law officer known to the polity of several countries. The derivation of the title is uncertain. It has been derived by Coke from the right of cancellation of patent* and other royal grants, inherent in this offi- cer, for misrepresentation of facts or on other grounds. But the word chancel would point to a more ancient derivation. The cancellariua of the Roman courts was simply a doorkeeper, or usher, to keep back the people who pressed rudely forward to the cancelli, or railings. The doorkeeper afterward became chief scribe, an official which the Roman church borrowed from the Roman empire, and still retains in the bishop's chancellor. The function of the chancellor of Great Britain is thus described by Blackstone : " When the modern kingdoms of Europe were established upon the ruins of the empire, almost every state preserved its chancellor, with different jurisdictions and dig- nities, according to the different constitutions.