CURSORE. — This term was already used by the Romans to refer to persons entrusted, especially by public authority, with bringing news, documents, etc., to another place. In more recent times, particularly in the first half of the 19th century in Tuscany, officials known as cursores were sometimes called c.
In canon law, a cursor is an official attached to ecclesiastical tribunals, tasked with executing the service of legal documents and judicial decrees. Apart from minor differences in function compared to the apparitor, what has been said regarding the latter (see APPARITORE) applies fully to the cursor as well. For the cursores apostolici, see FAMIGLIA PONTIFICIA.