LEGATE

A person sent or deputed by another to act in his stead, but now confined to those who are deputed by the pope. Of these there are three kinds. 1. Legati a latere , cardinals sent from the side or immediate presence, and invested with most of the functions of the Roman pontiff himself. They can absolve the excommunicated, call synods, grant dispensations in cases reserved to the pope, fill up vacant dignities or benefices, and hear ordinary appeals. Otho and Othobon, sent into England by Gregory IX. and Clement IV. in the reign of Henry III., were of this order. The legatine constitutions, or ecclesiastical laws enacted in national synods convened by these cardinals, may be seen in Johnson’s collections. Cardinal Wolsey was also a legate a latere , and the bulls of Leo X. and Adrian VI., investing him with that high function, are printed by Rymer, from which we learn that he was empowered to visit the monasteries and the whole clergy of England, as well as to dispense with the laws of the Church for a year. Cardinal Pole was also legatus a latere . 2. Legati nat i are such as hold the legatine commi ion ex officio , by virtue of office, and till the latter part of the tenth century they were the legates usually employed by the papal power. Before the Reformation, the archbishop of Canterbury was the legatus nat us of England. It is a relic of the legatine authority which enables the primate of all England to confer degrees independently of the universities. 3. Legati dat i , legates given , or special legates, hold authority from the pope by special commi ion, and are, pro tempore , superior to the other two orders. They began to be employed after the tenth century, and displayed unbounded arrogance. They held councils, promulgated canons, deposed bishops, and i ued interdicts at their discretion. Simple deacons are frequently invested with this office, which at once places them above bishops. It may be added, that the functions of a legate do not commence till he is forty miles distant from Rome. The first legate sent into England was John, precentor of St. Paul’s, and abbot of the monastery of St. Martin. He was deputed by Agutho, bishop of Rome, to Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, in 679. The first legate in Ireland was Gille, or Gillebert, bishop of Limerick early in the twelfth century. The Roman chants were introduced by him into Britain. It was one of the ecclesiastical privileges of England, from the Norman Conquest, that no foreign legate should be obtruded upon the English, unle the king should desire it, upon some extraordinary emergency, as when a case was too difficult for the English prelates to determine. Hence, in the reign of Henry II., when Cardinal Vivian, who was sent legate into Scotland, Ireland, and Norway, arrived in England on his journey thither, the king sent the bishops of Winchester and Ely to ask him by whose authority he ventured into the kingdom without his leave: nor was he suffered to proceed till he had given an oath not to stretch his commi ion beyond his Highne ’s pleasure in any particular.