LEGATE. – It is the title attributed, in various legal systems, to one who exercises functions of representation, with or without diplomatic character.
I. Roman provincial system
L. are those figures who, usually chosen from the senatorial rank and in the number of ten, accompanied and assisted the governor of the province, exercising over him a function of control and carrying out those duties (prevalently judicial and military) entrusted to them by the governor himself.In the final period of the Republic these l., who until that time had not been invested with imperium, sometimes assumed a different character: suffice it here to recall that the Lex Gabinia de bello piratico (67 BC) had authorized Pompey to appoint twenty-five l. with praetorian power.
Under the principate, in addition to the meanings described above, l. denotes the official, appointed by imperial authority, who exercised the office of lieutenant of the princeps. He appointed twenty-two of his own imperium proconsulare, in imitation of what extraordinary republican magistrates had been empowered to do in certain cases.
Chosen from the senatorial order, the l. were placed in charge of governing a province or commanding the troops (legati legionis). The first instance occurred in the so-called imperial provinces (in contrast to the senatorial ones), which were entrusted to the emperor in such a way that the territory itself was considered his property and in which only considerable military contingents were stationed. In these, the governor assumed the title of legatus Augusti pro praetore. Although formally of lower rank than the governors of senatorial provinces (for example, he had the right to a smaller number of lictors), the legatus Augusti in fact exercised more important functions, especially inasmuch as he commanded the troops, using for this purpose the legati legionis. 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. PROCURATOR) for financial administration.
II. L. OF SYRIA AND OF JUDEA IN THE NEWTESAMENTARY PERIOD. – Augustus made Syria an imperial province. The procurator of Judea, who did not have a legion at his disposal but only auxiliary troops, had to resort in the most difficult cases to the l. of Syria resident in Antioch. The l. of Syria were generally viri consulares, former consuls.
Here is the series of those known: 1) Varro, ca. 24 BC; 2) M. Vipsanius Agrippa, Augustus’ son-in-law, from 23 to 13 BC governed with a special mission all of Asia as far as the Cimmerian Bosporus, where he traveled from Judea accompanied by Herod (14 BC); he confirmed the privileges of the Jews (Flavius Josephus, Antig. Jud., XVI, 2, 3-5 and 6, 45); 3) M. Titius, around 10 BC; 4) C. Sentius Saturninus, 8-6 BC, already consul (19 BC), then proconsul of Africa (17-9 BC); 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 BC; he harshly suppressed disturbances after Herod’s death (Flav. Joseph., Antig. Jud., XVII, 9, 3; 10, 1; 11, 1); he was l. of Germany in AD 6; 6) P. Sulpicius Quirinius, probably (according to the conjecture of T. Mommsen adopted by many) from 3-2 BC and certainly from 6-7 BC to AD 10; 7) Gaius Caesar, son of Julia (Augustus’ daughter) and Agrippa, at the age of 18 was sent by Augustus to the East with extensive powers: he was there from 1 BC to AD 4; his rector was M. Lollius and (from AD 3) P. S. Quirinius; he died while returning to Rome on 20 Feb. AD 4; 8) L. Volusius Saturninus, 4-5; 9) Q. Caecilius Metellus Crictius Silanus, 12-17; 10) Cn. Calpurnius Piso, 17-19, he rebelled against Germanicus sent by Tiberius to the East in AD 17 with extensive powers; 11) Cn. Sentius Saturninus, 19-21 and later, son of the 4th, with whom he had already been in Syria; 12) L. Aelius Lamia, appointed in AD 21 and d. in AD 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, sent Pontius Pilate (v.) back to Rome, came to Jerusalem at Passover 36 (Flav. Joseph., Antiq. Jud., XV, 11, 4; XVIII, 4, 1-3) and liberally granted the people’s requests; he deposed the high priest Joseph called Caiaphas and substituted Jonathan, son of the high priest Ananus (Hanan); he clashed with the tetrarch Herod Antipas (v.); after Antipas was defeated by Aretas IV, king of the Nabataeans, Vitellius, by order of Tiberius, marched with two legions; he went to Jerusalem at Passover 37 and remained there three days: he deposed Jonathan and gave the high priesthood to his brother Theophilus; on the fourth day he learned of Tiberius’ death and returned to Antioch; 15) P. Petronius, 39-42, managed to dissuade Caligula from erecting 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.
While Judea until AD 70 was under procurators of equestrian rank, after Titus’ victory it had governors of senatorial status, entirely independent of the l. of Syria, who—it seems—were praetorian until Hadrian and consular from Hadrian onward.
Here is the series of the l. of Judea known up to Hadrian: 1) Sex. Vettulensis Cerialis, who commanded the Fifth Legion at the siege of Jerusalem; 2) Lucilius Bassus, conqueror of the Herodian and Machaerus fortresses; 3) L. Flavius Silva, conqueror of Masada; 4) M. Salvidienus, ca. AD 80; 5) Cn. Pompeius Longinus, AD 86; 6) Atticus, ca. AD 107; 7) Q. Pompeius Falco, ca. AD 107 ff.; 8) Tiberianus, ca. AD 114; 9) Lusius Quietus, ca. AD 117; 10) Tineius Rufus, AD 132; 11) Iulius Severus, AD 135, who suppressed the Jewish revolt of Bar Kokhba.
Antonino Romeo
III. IN PAPAL DIPLOMACY
In general, those called l. (i.e., envoys, messengers) are ecclesiastics sent by the Roman pontiff to represent him. The stable and permanent representatives of the pontiff auprès governments or ecclesiastical hierarchies of various countries are designated by a special name: nuncios (v.) or apostolic delegates (v.). The others are divided into three kinds: nuntii nati, missi, a latere.1. — The *legati nati* represent a development of the ancient apostolic vicars. These were indeed 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 incumbent of the see required a new grant or confirmation of the powers inherent to the vicariate. In various cases, however, metropolitans who had been personally invested by the Roman pontiff with the powers proper to vicars or *l.* claimed this attribute and these faculties as granted to the see, not to the person, so that the incumbents of that see were thereby recognized 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 explicit or implicit recognition by the supreme pontiffs, *legationes natae* came into being, which therefore do not differ from the ancient apostolic vicariates except in that, being inherent to the see, they do not require renewal or confirmation of powers for the new incumbent. *Legati nati* are consequently those who do not need a special grant to obtain and exercise the powers proper to the legation, because their very dignity or see has united the title and prerogatives of an apostolic *l.*
The oldest expression used by the Roman Curia to designate these *l.* is *legatus perpetuus*; the term *legatus natus* appears only in the canonistic doctrine of the 13th century, and officially in the *privilegium* of Boniface IX for Gran (Strigonia) in 1394.
The extent of the rights of *l. nati* remains in many respects imprecise. C. 1, X, I, 30, referring to a decretal of Alexander III to the suffragans of Canterbury (the archbishop of this see was considered the type of the *nati*), recognizes that this metropolitan could judge the cases submitted to him by the dioceses of his suffragans, not only by way of appeal as other metropolitans, but, by virtue of his very quality as *l.*, even by simple recourse. According to c. 9, X, I, 30, the *nati* could not absolve an excommunicate for blows against a cleric, nor, according to c. 1, I, 15 in VI, confer benefices by virtue of the legation alone (cf. also cc. 4 and 5, I, 15, in VI). It must nevertheless be admitted that an attempt to specify, through canonical sources, the attributions of the *l. natus*, does not allow one to reach certain results. If, moreover, the stable legations are a derivation of the ancient apostolic vicariates, it seems consequently necessary to recognize in them—albeit with the attenuations imposed by the passage of time, the resistance of the suffragans, and the varying extent that in different places the jurisdiction of these vicariates assumed—powers similar to those that were proper to them.
The exercise of power by the *l. nati*, like that of primates, constantly encountered the opposition of the bishops concerned, until the Council of Trent (sess. XXIV, De Ref., can. 20) prescribed that ecclesiastical causes were to be treated in first instance before the individual ordinaries, with the exclusion of the prerogative hitherto recognized for the *l.* Subsequent changes in ecclesiastical life and organization gradually reduced the office of *l. natus*, as well as that of primates, to a purely honorary qualification, devoid of jurisdiction. For it is established by can. 270: «Episcopis qui, ratione sedis, titulo legati apostolici decorantur, nullum exinde competit speciale ius.» The following archbishops have the predicate of *legatus natus*: Salzburg, Cologne, Prague, Gnesen, and Posen, Gran (Strigonia).
2. — *Legati missi* are more properly all the envoys of the Roman pontiff for a special and temporary mission. The popes sent these representatives to the Merovingian kings, and more frequently still to the Lombard and Frankish kings. Various legations were sent in the 9th century to the Carolingians, both because of the political disorder in which Italy was plunged and because of the attribution of the imperial crown. In the 10th century and the first half of the 11th, traces of these representatives are rarer, both because of the scarcity and confusion of the sources and because in this case the *nati* were at their height.
*Legati missi* came into use especially after the middle of the 11th century, when, to stem the evils afflicting the Church—simony and clerical incontinence—the *nati* proved insufficient, and the popes Leo IX, Alexander II, and Gregory VII found themselves compelled to send ecclesiastics of their trust, charged with presiding over councils or even removing bishops. The use of these legations continued most frequent under the pontificate of Innocent III and throughout the 13th century. Meanwhile, from the *l. missi* there arose the figure of the *l. a latere*. After the institution of permanent nunciatures, the use of *l. missi*, although rarer, has not disappeared, and will probably never disappear entirely, since circumstances may always arise that, 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, invested with jurisdiction, was denied in recent times by Gallicans, regalists, and liberals (v. NUNZIO APOSTOLICO). Already Gregory VII had had to resist the claims of those who wished them to be only Roman and not ultramontane, and to reprimand bishops who impeded the *l.* in the performance of their mission. Paschal II, writing to Henry II, king of England, vindicated the right—which the Normans in practice limited or contested in England and Sicily—of the Apostolic See to send representatives, and John XXII (c. 1, I, 1, in Extrav. comm.) condemned the practice of not admitting *l.* of the Holy See unless requested and without the consent of princes.
The powers of the *l. missi* are circumscribed by their mandate; they may imply jurisdiction, or may even lack it (can. 265); but even when invested with jurisdiction, this is not ordinary but delegated (can. 197); even if they are not vested with episcopal dignity they take precedence over all ordinaries, except cardinals, and if they are bishops, they may, without the license of the ordinaries, bless the people even in their churches, except the cathedral, and celebrate therein the divine offices, even pontifical ones, with throne and baldachin (can. 269).
3. — *Legati a latere*, according to the Latin expression, are the envoys of the family or retinue or court of the sender. In the documents of papal diplomacy, the *a latere* is a cardinal, sent by the Roman pontiff to the supreme head of a state for a temporary mission, generally of extraordinary gravity. The last of these was Card. G. B. Caprara, sent to Napoleon I for the execution of the Concordat. Can. 266 of the 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 stead at particularly solemn ceremonies. The powers that pertain to them are established at the time of their appointment. They also enjoy the privileges that belong to *l. missi*.