APOSTOLI. — In medieval canonical procedural law, this was the name given to the letters that the lower judge had to transmit, within a निर्धारित period, to the appellate judge, in order to inform him that an appeal had been lodged and of the merits of the case (cf. c. 39, X, II, 28; c. 1, II, 12 in Clem.; etc.). The name, however, like the institution itself, derived from Roman law: cf. D. 49, 1, 1; 50, 16, 106; etc.
Various kinds of a. were distinguished: dimissorii, delatorii, reverentiales, refutatorii, testimoniales, conventionales, repositorii, according to the different value attributed to the appeal.
The institution, in fact if not in name, remained in force, somewhat mitigated, until more recent times.
The CIC makes no mention at all of a., but reproduces their substance in a certain way in the institution of prosecutio appellationis (cann. 1833 ff.), indeed adhering to the stricter discipline of Roman law, though in simplified form (v. APPELLO).
Agatangelo da Langasco