CHANCEL, is properly that part of the choir of a church, between the altar or communion-table, and the balustrade or rail that incloses it; where the minister is placed at the celebration of the communion. The word comes from the Latin cancellus, which in the lower Latin is used in the same sense, from cancelli, "lattices or cross bars," wherewith the chancels were anciently inclosed, as they now are with rails. The right of a seat and a sepulchre in the chancels, is one of the privileges of founders.