LEGATE. — This is the title assigned, in various systems, to one who performs the functions of a representative, with or without diplomatic status.
I. ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION
L. were those persons who, usually selected from the senatorial order and numbering ten, accompanied and assisted the governor of the province, exercising a supervisory function over him and carrying out the duties—predominantly judicial and military—assigned to them by the governor himself.In the final period of the Republic, these l., who until then had not been invested with imperium, sometimes assumed a different character: suffice it here to recall that the Lex Gabinia de bello piratico (67 B.C.) had authorized Pompey to appoint twenty-five l. with the power of a propraetor.
Under the Principate, in addition to the meanings described above, l. denoted the imperial-appointed official who exercised the office of lieutenant to the princeps. The latter appointed l. by virtue of his imperium proconsulare, following the precedent of the authority that extraordinary Republican magistrates had been empowered to exercise in certain cases.
Chosen from the senatorial order, the l. were placed in charge of the government of a province or of the command of troops (legati legionis). The first situation occurred in the so-called imperial provinces (as opposed to the senatorial provinces), which were entrusted to the emperor, so that the territory itself was regarded as his property, and in which alone substantial military contingents were stationed. In these provinces the governor bore the title of legatus Augusti pro praetore. Although formally inferior in rank to the governors of the senatorial provinces (for example, he was entitled to a smaller number of lictors), the legatus Augusti in fact exercised more important functions, especially
because he commanded the troops, using the legati legionis for this purpose. The power of the legatus Augusti pro praetore derived directly from the Emperor: it began and ended, respectively, with his arrival in the province and his departure from II. He was assisted by comites, who aided him in the administration of justice, and by procuratores Caesaris (v. PROCURA) in financial administration.
Here is the series of those known: 1) Varro, ca. 24 B.C.; 2) M. Vipsanius Agrippa, Augustus’s son-in-law, from 23 to 13 B.C. governed all Asia as far as the Cimmerian Bosporus with a special mandate, travelling there from Judea accompanied by Herod (14 B.C.); he confirmed the privileges of the Jews (Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XVI, 2, 3-5 and 6, 45); 3) M. Titius, around 10 B.C.; 4) C. Sentius Saturninus, 8-6 B.C., already consul (19 B.C.), subsequently proconsul of Africa (17-9 B.C.); he came to Syria with his three sons as comites; he was a friend of Herod; Tertullian (Adv. Marcion., IV, 19) attributes to him the census of Lk. 2:2; 5) P. Quintilius Varus, ca. 6-3 B.C.; he harshly suppressed the disturbances following Herod’s death (Fl. Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XVII, 9, 3; 10, 1.9; 11, 1); he was l. of Germany in A.D. 6; 6) P. Sulpicius Quirinius, probably (according to T. Mommsen’s conjecture, adopted by many) from 3-2 B.C. and certainly from A.D. 6-7 to ca. A.D. 10; 7) Gaius Caesar, son of Julia (daughter of Augustus) and Agrippa, at the age of eighteen was sent by Augustus to the East with extensive powers: he was there from 1 B.C. to A.D. 4; his rector was M. Lollius and (from A.D. 3) P. S. Quirinio; he died while returning to Rome on 20 February A.D. 4; 8) L. Volusius Saturninus, 4-5; 9) Q. Caccihus Metellus Creticus Silanus, 12-17; 10) Cn. Calpurnius Piso, 17-19, who revolted against Germanicus, sent by Tiberius to the East in 17 with extensive powers; 11) Cn. Sentius Saturninus, 19-21 and thereafter, son of no. 4), with whom he had already been in Syria; 12) L. Aelius Lamia, appointed in 21 and deceased in 33: he never reached Syria; 13) L. Pomponius Flaccus, 32-35; 14) L. Vitellius, 35-39 (Tacitus, Ann., VI, 38), had extensive powers; he intervened in Judea, Rome (v.), came to Jerusalem at Passover in 36 (Fl. Josephus, Antiq. Ind., XV, 11, 4; XVIII, 4, 1-3) and received the people’s requests generously; he deposed the high priest Joseph called Caiaphas and replaced him with Ionathan, son of the high priest Ananos (Hanan); he came into Herod Antipas (v.); when the latter was defeated by Aretas IV, king of the Nabataeans, Vitellius, on Tiberius’s orders, marched with two legions; he went to Jerusalem at Passover in 37 and remained there for three days; he deposed Ionathan and gave the high priesthood to his brother Theophilus; on the fourth day he learned of Tiberius’s death and returned to Antioch; 15) P. Petronius, 39-44, managed to persuade Caligula to abandon the erection of his statue in the Temple of Jerusalem; 16) C. Vibius Marsus, 42-44; 17) C. Cassius Longinus, 45-50; 18) C. Ummidius Quadratus, 50-60; 19) Cn. Domitius Corbulo, 60-63; 20) C. Cestius Gallus, 63-66; 21) C. Licinius Mucianus, 67-69.
Whereas Judea until 70 was under procurators of equestrian rank, after Titus’s victory it had governors of senatorial status, entirely independent of the l. of Syria, who—apparently—were praetorii until Hadrian, and consulares from Hadrian onward.
Here is the series of the known l. of Judea up to Hadrian: 1) Sex. Vettulensis Cerialis, who commanded Legio V during the siege of Jerusalem; 2) Lucilius Bassus, conqueror of the fortresses of Herodeion and Macheronte; 3) L. Flavius Silva, conqueror of Masada; 4) M. Salvidenus, ca. 80; 5) Cn. Pompeius Longinus, 86; 6) Atticus, ca. 107; 7) Q. Pompeius Falco, ca. 107 and following years; 8) Tiberianus, ca. 114; 9) Lusius Quietus, ca. 117; 10) Tineius Rufus, 132; 11) Iulius Severus, 135, who suppressed the Jewish revolt of Bar Kökhébhá'.
BIBLI: E. Schürer, Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, I, 4th ed., Leipzig 1901, pp. 316-37, 446, 643-49; M.-J. Lagrange, Le judaïsme avant J.-C., Paris 1931, pp. 225-36; A. V. PREMOSTRATENSI, Legatus, in Pauly-Wissowa, XII (1923), cols. (1133) 1141-49; E. Honigmann, Syria, ibid., IV A (1932), cols. (1549-1727) 1627-39; L. R. Taylor, M. Titius and the syrian command, in Journal of Roman Studies, 26 (1936), pp. 161-73. Antonino Romeo
III. IN PONTIFICAL DIPLOMACY
In general, pontifical l. (that is, envoys, emissaries) are ecclesiastics sent by the Roman pontiff to represent him. Permanent and stable pontifical representatives to the governments or ecclesiastical hierarchies of the various countries are designated by a particular name: nuncios (v.) or apostolic delegates (v.). The others are divided into three kinds: nati, missi, a latere.1. — The l. nati represent a development of the ancient apostolic vicars. Indeed, these were also called l. (cf. c. 1, D. 94 and c. 4, X, I, 30; K. Ruess, Die rechtliche Stellung der päpstlichen Legaten bis Bonifaz VIII., Paderborn 1912, p. 104). Their powers were not granted to the see, but to the person, so that every new holder of the see required a new grant or a confirmation of the powers inherent in the vicariate. In various cases, however, metropolitans who had been personally invested by the Roman pontiffs with the powers proper to vicars or l., claimed this attribute and these faculties as granted to the see and not to the person, so that the holders of the latter were thereby also to recognize themselves as apostolic vicars or l. for that particular region or province (cf. c. 9, X, I, 30; c. 1, I, 15, in VI). Thus, through the explicit or implicit recognition of the supreme pontiffs, the native legations arose; they differ from the ancient apostolic vicariates only in that, being attached to the see, they do not require a renewal or confirmation of powers for the new holder. L. nati are consequently those who do not need a particular grant in order to obtain and exercise the powers proper to a legation, because their very dignity or see has united the title and prerogatives of apostolic l.
The oldest expression of the Roman Curia for designating these l. is, however, legatus perpetuus; the term legatus natus appears only in the canonistic doctrine of the thirteenth century, and officially in the privilegium of Bonifacio IX for Gran (Strigonia) in 1394.
The extent of the rights of the l. nati remains unspecified in many respects. C. 1, X, I, 30, reporting a Decretal of Alessandro III to the suffragans of Canterbury (the archbishop of that see was considered the type of the l. nati), recognizes that this metropolitan could judge cases brought before him from the dioceses of his suffragans, not only by way of appeal like other metropolitans, but, by virtue of his very status as l., also by simple recourse. According to c. 9, X, I, 30, the l. nati could not absolve one excommunicated for striking a cleric, nor, according to c. 1, I, 15 in VI, could they confer benefices by virtue of the legation alone (cf. also cc. 4 and 5, I, 15, in VI). It must nevertheless be admitted that the attempt to define, through canonical sources, the functions of the l. natus does not permit certain conclusions to be reached. If, moreover, permanent legations are a derivation of the ancient apostolic vicariates, it consequently seems necessary to recognize in them — albeit with the limitations imposed by the passage of time, by the resistance of the suffragans, and by the varying extent assumed in different places by the jurisdiction of those vicariates themselves — powers similar to those proper to the latter.
The exercise of power by the l. nati, as indeed by the primates, constantly encountered the opposition of the bishops concerned, until the Council of Trent (sess. XXIV, De Ref., can. 20) prescribed that ecclesiastical cases should be heard in the first instance before the individual Ordinaries, to the exclusion of the prerogative hitherto recognized in the l. Subsequent changes in ecclesiastical life and organization gradually reduced the office of l. natus, as also that of primate, to a purely honorary distinction devoid of jurisdiction. Can. 270 in fact establishes: « Episcopis qui, ratione sedis, titulo legati apostolici decorantur, nullum exinde competit speciale ius ». The archbishops of Salisburgo, Colonia, Praga, Gnesen and Posen, Gran (Strigonia), bear the title of legatus natus.
2. — L. missi are, more properly, all those sent by the Roman pontiff on a special and temporary mission. The popes sent these representatives of theirs to the Merovingian kings, and still more frequently to the Lombard and Frankish kings. Various legations were sent to the Carolingians in the ninth century, both because of the political disorder prevailing in Italy and because of the conferral of the imperial crown. In the tenth century and the first half of the eleventh, traces of these representations are rarer, both because of the scarcity and confusion of the sources and because, precisely in this period, the l. nati were at the height of their flourishing.
The l. missi were used especially after the middle of the eleventh century, when, in order to curb the evils afflicting the Church — namely simony and clerical incontinence — the l. nati had become insufficient, and the pontiffs Leone IX, Alessandro II, and Gregorio VII found themselves compelled to send ecclesiastics in whom they had confidence, charged with presiding over councils or even deposing bishops. The use of these legations continued very frequently under the pontificate of Innocenzo III and throughout the thirteenth century. Meanwhile, the figure of the l. a latere had arisen from the l. missi. After the establishment of permanent nunciatures, the use of l. missi, though less frequent, has not disappeared, and probably will never disappear entirely, since circumstances may always arise which, by their nature or solemnity, require the sending of representatives other than nuncios and apostolic delegates.
The right of the Roman pontiff to send even temporary representatives endowed with jurisdiction was denied in recent times by the Gallicans, the regalists, and the liberals (v. NUNZIO APOSTOLICO). But Gregorio VII had already had to resist the claims of those who wanted
l. to be Romans only and not ultramontanes, and to rebuke bishops who hindered the l. in the fulfillment of their mission. Pasquale II, writing in 1115 to Enrico II, king of England, asserted the right, which the Normans practically restricted or challenged in England and Sicily, to send representatives on behalf of the Apostolic See; and Giovanni XXII (c. 1, I, 1, in Extrav. comm.) condemned the practice of not admitting l. of the Holy See unless they had been requested and without the consent of princes.
The powers of the l. missi are limited by their mandate; they may imply jurisdiction or may also be without it (can. 265); but even when they are endowed with jurisdiction, this is not ordinary but delegated (can. 197). Even if they are not invested with episcopal dignity, they take precedence over all Ordinaries, except cardinals; and if they are bishops, they may, without the permission of the Ordinaries, bless the people even in the latter’s churches, except for the cathedral, and celebrate there the divine offices, including pontificals, with throne and canopy (can. 269).
3. - L. a latere, according to the Latin expression, are envoys from the household, retinue, or court of the sender. In the documents of pontifical diplomacy, an l. a latere is a cardinal sent by the Roman pontiff to the supreme head of a State on a temporary mission, generally one of extraordinary gravity. The last of these was card. G. B. Caprara, sent to Napoleone I for the execution of the Concordat. Can. 266 CIC, while presupposing the possibility of such extraordinary representations, defines the l. a latere as an alter ego of the Roman pontiff. Today l. a latere are charged with representing the supreme pontiff and presiding in his name over particularly solemn ceremonies. The powers pertaining to them are determined when they are appointed. They also enjoy the privileges belonging to the l. missi.