DEFENSOR ECCLESIAE. – At first, this was a legal representative of the Church, tasked with assisting it in legal proceedings.
Indeed, canon 97 of the Codex canonum Ecclesiasticorum Africanorum (Eleventh Council of Carthage, 13 June 497; Mansi, III, p. 802) had entrusted two bishops with the duty of requesting the Emperor to appoint *évxovoi* charged with defending the Church in a public capacity. In response to this request, Emperor Honorius issued a constitution on 15 November 497 (Codex Theodosianus, XVI, 2, 38), stipulating that the special privileges obtained by the Church were to be enforced by advocates. These advocates, though not explicitly designated as *defensores*, were laymen chosen from among professionals. However, this form of *defensor* did not endure long, for soon thereafter (Novella XXXV of Valentinian III, 432) mention is made of *defensores* who were no longer laymen but members of the clergy, and traces of clerical *defensores* are also found in Justinian’s compilation. It is certain that by the beginning of the sixth century, *defensores* were minor clerics, tonsured but without holy orders, though on occasion they rose to the ranks of the clergy (Gregory of Tours, *Vitae Patrum*, 6, 6: PL 51, 103 mentions an Illuans *defensor*, who later became a presbyter) and even to the episcopate. These were exceptions. According to a later text (an addition to chapter 10 of the *Descriptio Lateranensis Ecclesiae*; cf. ed. R. Valentini-G. Zucchetti, *Codex topographicus urbis Romae*, III, Rome 1946, p. 352), the *defensores* in Rome were clerics who were never to be promoted to any other orders.
A decade after the Council of Carthage, a letter of Pope Zosimus (417–18) attests to the presence of *defensores* in Rome (Zosimus, *Ep.* 9, cap. 3: PL 20, col. 673). Both here and in Africa, the *defensor* had a distinctly social function: he was the protector of the poor and oppressed, handling and defending ecclesiastical property. This primitive character gradually developed, and the *defensor* eventually entered the diplomatic and political sphere in which the Church operated during the early Middle Ages.
In this sense, it appears to be the meaning intended by the author of the *Acta sancti Sebastiani*, when he records that Pope Caius bestowed the title of *defensor ecclesiae* upon his hero (Acta s. Sebastiani, cap. 19, n. 68) (see, however, the study by Martroye cited in the bibliography).
By the end of the fifth century, under Felix II (483–92), a certain Tutus was elected *defensor* for a fixed term and sent on a mission to Constantinople, bearing the bull of deposition against Acacius. Tutus proved unworthy of the trust placed in him by the Pope, allying himself with the schismatics; he was stripped of his office and excommunicated by a Roman synod (485?; cf. s. Felix II, *Ep.* 12, I; ed. A. Thiel, *Epistolae Romanorum Pontificum*, I, Braunsberg 1868, p. 258; Hefele-Leclercq, II, pp. 925–26).
From this point onward, diplomatic activity became one of the most important functions of the *defensor ecclesiae*.
Under Gelasius I (492–96), *defensores* first appear as high-ranking administrative officials, a role that became clear and precise half a century later under Pelagius I (556–60). A letter of this pope enumerates some of the duties of the *defensor ecclesiae* (hearing cases, drafting agreements, legal acts, and public disputes). He was to provide for all the material needs of the Church, *quaecumque vel ecclesiastica instituta vel supplicantium necessitas poscit* (Pelagius II, *Epistolae et decreta*, VIII: PL 72, col. 745).
In the registry of Gregory the Great (596–604), the principal source for the history of this institution, the office of the *defensor ecclesiae* is presented with clearly defined contours. Their role as administrators of the Church’s patrimony—and not infrequently as papal legates with broad powers—placed them in a position of particular influence.
They are found throughout the Church’s territories, sometimes functioning as governors of lands belonging to the patrimony of St. Peter. The pope appointed and supervised them personally, giving minute instructions on all matters: public order and discipline, relations between the clergy and bishops, care for monks, religious, widows, abandoned girls, and foundlings. Even the price of provisions was negotiated with them.
Beneath the high-ranking *defensores* responsible for the patrimony was a host of lesser *defensores* or subordinates who shared in the prerogatives and powers of the principal *defensores*.
The pontificate of Gregory the Great marked the period of greatest splendor for the *defensor*. At the time of his election, the *defensor* received a special diploma of appointment, in which his duties were outlined.
Gregory established that within the corporation of *defensores*, certain of them should form a special college under the title of *regio* (Gregory I, *Registrum epistolarum*, I, VIII, ep. 16 March 598; ed. P. Ewald-L. M. Hartmann, in *MGH, Epistulae*, II, Berlin 1899, p. 18). The *Ordo Romanus I* (late seventh century, but reflecting the customs of the Roman Curia in the time of St. Gregory) mentions *defensores* who, mounted, precede the pope in procession from the Lateran to the stational church (cf. M. Andrieu, *Les Ordines Romani du haut moyen âge*, II: *Les textes* (Ordines I–XIII), Louvain 1948; *Ordo Rom.*, I, nn. 7, 9, 18, 25). In the *secretarium*, they remained near the pontiff while he vested (M. Andrieu, op. cit., I, n. 32) and occupied a special place in sacred functions (M. Andrieu, op. cit., I, n. 81). The *primicerius defensorum* frequently appears among the dignitaries of the papal court (M. Andrieu, op. cit., I, nn. 32, 68, 69, 74, 79, 81, 113).
The status of the *defensores* in the eighth century is not entirely clear; however, from certain testimonies, their role in papal functions, and a painting (mid-eighth century) in Santa Maria Antiqua depicting a *Theodotus primicerius defensorum* (J. Wilpert, *Erlebnisse und Ergebnisse*, Freiburg 1909, pp. 107–108), one may perhaps infer that the grandeur of the *defensores* in the time of St. Gregory had not entirely faded. They continued, with varying fortunes, until the institution disappeared at the end of the twelfth century.
In Gaul, the powers of the *defensores* had to adapt to the principles of governance prevailing in the Carolingian kingdom. A capitulary of 790 (MGH, *Regesta Franciae*, I, p. 201) ordered that the higher clergy, for the honor of the Church and the reverence due to priests, should have their own “advocates.” Charlemagne prescribed the same for abbots, abbesses, monasteries, and the like. Yet in these provisions, it is clear that the *defensor ecclesiae* abandoned its original juridical meaning to assume the specific sense of an advocate, a usage that persisted thereafter.
The *defensor ecclesiae* should not be confused with the *defensor pauperum*, which had nearly contemporary origins, since the Sixth Council of Carthage in 401 (Mansi, II, 778) resolved to request the emperors to appoint special *évxovoi* who, under episcopal supervision, would defend the poor *adversus potentias divitum*. The *defensor pauperum*, however, shared certain duties with the *defensor ecclesiae*, as may be inferred from a decree of appointment found in the letters of St. Gregory the Great (*Epistolae*, V, 26 and IX, 97; ed. L. M. Hartmann, MGH).