APOSTOLIC NUNCIATURE. - The right of legation (v.) active and passive, that is, to send and receive diplomatic representatives, derives to the Holy See from the juridical perfection of the Church; the diplomatic representatives that it sends to the various civil governments take the name of nuncios and internuncios.
As has been seen in treating of the apocrisiarii (v.), from the time of St. Leo the Great the popes had their representatives at the imperial court of Constantinople, competent, however, not in political matters but only in religious ones. The pontifical envoys to the court of the Franks were also called apocrisiarii, but although, unlike the ancient ones, they dealt predominantly with affairs of a political order, their mission did not have that character of stability and continuity that is proper to today's nunciatures. The differences that exist between nunciatures and the ancient apostolic vicars and legati nati are identical to those noted with regard to today's apostolic delegates (v.); it is furthermore necessary to note that both the apostolic vicars and the legati nati represented the supreme pontiff to the Catholic communities of the respective territory, but not to the civil governments.
According to an opinion that has sufficient basis and data to be accepted, the origin of stable nunciatures must be connected in various nations to the office of the nuncius collector et commissarius decimarum.
Beginning in fact from the 13th century the Roman Curia collected tithes in various countries, and generally the sums owed to it, by means of special envoys dependent on the Apostolic Chamber. At the outset this office was entrusted to officials of the Curia, of Italian nationality or even of the country in which the assignment was to be exercised, but resident in Rome. Later, that is, when the office acquired greater importance, high prelates were also invested with it. In France and in Germany these collectors exercised their activity in one or two ecclesiastical provinces; in England, in the Nordic countries and generally in nations far from Rome, the assignment had a territorial extent equivalent to that of the respective state. In the countries in which the collectors of the first kind were found, in order to resolve difficulties of a political order, also inherent in the work of the collectors, the pontifical court sent legates. In the other countries, on the other hand, where, also because of the distance, the sending of special legates presented greater difficulties, the collectors themselves were invested with diplomatic functions, resided at the sovereign's court and served as intermediaries between him and the Holy See. The use of ambassadors, meanwhile introduced among the States, induced the Apostolic See to utilize the new form of representation, perfecting in some cases the diplomatic attributes of the previous collectories, and in some other case proceeding to the institution of entirely new representations. The rise of permanent nunciatures, though necessary and prepared by the Holy See with all the cautions of prudence, did not occur without the more or less open opposition of the local ecclesiastical hierarchies, especially of the legati nati, who saw in the new institution the end of their power. Already M. A. de Dominis, Richer and Febronius had denied to the Apostolic See the right to send permanent legates or nuncios, since this would constitute an abusive limitation of the rights of bishops. The supporters of Gallicanism had even gone so far as to assert that the pontiffs had no faculty to send their own representatives invested with jurisdiction, even in extraordinary circumstances and for their duration, except with the consent of the Most Christian King. But, still in 1786, the erection of the nunciature of Munich offered the metropolitans of Mainz, Trier, Cologne and Salzburg the occasion to pronounce themselves anew and openly against apostolic nunciatures. Pius VI defended their institution with his supreme authority and with solid doctrine (v. EMS, PUNZAZIONE di). The errors of the Gallicans were however taken up again also in Italy by regalists and liberals, according to whom the institution of nuncios, as well as the authorizing of a legate to exercise individual acts of ecclesiastical government, would have depended on the good pleasure of the governments of the respective States. In addition to what was said at the beginning, it is necessary to point out that, by reason of the universal jurisdiction that belongs to the Pontiff over the whole Church, his representatives, just as they are never sent into territory foreign to the Church, so they are never sent into territory that is excluded from his supreme and spiritual authority. Consequently the Supreme Pontiffs have the right to send their representatives everywhere, even without the authorization of the civil authority, with or without ecclesiastical jurisdiction (can. 265).
Nunciatures did not generally arise from an act or decree of foundation, but from the sending of an extraordinary representative with a determined assignment, who subsequently, before returning to Rome, received other assignments, and who, after his death or the cessation of his mandate, was followed by another envoy, so that the representation passed from extraordinary to ordinary, and from transitory to stable. In other cases, on the other hand, a stable representative was followed by an extraordinary envoy. Hence the impossibility is evident of establishing, at least in general terms, the date of origin of permanent nunciatures; it can nevertheless be recognized that the new institution takes shape around the middle of the 15th century. Some hold that Antonio Jacopo de Veneri, in Spain, under the pontificate of Nicholas V, must be considered one of the first nuncios in the modern sense; the initial stability of such a representation is however debatable. It is instead certain that A. Leonini was in Venice, in 1500, as permanent nuncio with all the attributes of a diplomatic representative of the Pope. The nunciature of Germany is instead traced back to Lorenzo Campeggi, sent by Leo X in 1513 to the Emperor Maximilian. Subsequently the Lutheran movement and the necessity of defending the very life of the Church in the various nations of Europe hastened the transformation of nunciatures from temporary into permanent. The nunciature of Madrid, in addition to many and extraordinary faculties, increased in 1766 by Clement XIII, had united to itself the tribunal of third instance, called the Rosa del Nunzio di Madrid (v. ROTA, SACRA ROMANA). Nevertheless in Oct. 1801 the Spanish government asked Pius VII that the nuncio be considered as a simple ambassador of the Pope as temporal prince. On 9 Jan. 1802 Card. Consalvi replied that His Holiness's temporal sovereignty is purely secondary in comparison with his supreme apostolate. Since, in fact, the foundation of the Church's international juridical personality is not, as for States, territorial sovereignty, but spiritual sovereignty, the Holy See continued to exercise its right of active and passive legation even when, between 1870 and 1929, territorial sovereignty was in fact impeded.
Leo X is held to be the founder of modern pontifical diplomacy, whose work was then continued by Pius IV, with the help of his nephew Card. Charles Borromeo. But the complete organization of the diplomatic representations of the Holy See is the merit of Gregory XIII, who not only notably increased the number of nunciatures (up to 13), but, by means of Tolomeo Gallio, defined their attributions, distinguished their grades, and established their protocol.
At present the apostolic nunciatures are distinguished into nunciatures of the first and of the second class. Their diplomatic personnel, besides the nuncio (v.) or the internuncio (v.) who direct them, is made up of counsellors (only in nunciatures of the first class), auditors and secretaries.
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