What Is: a Manciple

One of Chaucer's colorful characters is someone known as a manciple.  He serve as a purchasing agent for a group of attorneys, and although he is illiterate, he's managing to feather his own nest in his position.  So what is a manciple.

A manciple was a purchasing agent for a large institution, such as a college, monastery, or law court, similar to a modern-day procurement officer or quartermaster.  Not only were they in charge of requisitioning food and other items, manciples who worked in private households might also be in charge of making sure that the right items of food were apportioned for meals and that foodstuffs and other items weren't wasted.  In Medieval times, lawyers and judges were often itinerant, traveling from one city to another wherever court sessions were held.  A manciple would have been responsible for securing their accommodations and food.  Because both money and provisions traveled through his hands, such a person could make a bit of money for himself selling provisions on the side or giving and receiving kickbacks from merchants. 

Some institutions still use the term manciple to refer to their procurement officers, including the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge.  The Charterhouse in London also has a manciple.  It is a title in some orders of Freemasonry.