Legate

See Minister, 3.

The title of an ambassador or envoy from the pope to the court of a catholic sovereign or nation. There have been three kinds: Legates a latere, being such as the pope commissions to take his place in councils, and so called because they have always been chosen from cardinals attending the pope, who are his confidants, and always a latere, or at his side. Legates de latere, or legati dati, those intrusted with apostolical legation; they acted under a special commission. Legates by oflice, or legati nati, those that were legates by virtue of their offices, as, in England, the Archbishop of Canterbury in former times.

canor law, legates are extraordinary ambassadors whom the pope sends into Catholic countries to represent him, and to exercise his jurisdiction there. It is under this ‘singular name that these ministers are distinguished from those of other powers, and from nuncios, who are the ordinary ambassadors of the POPE: There are three kinds of k gates; the first, egats a latere; they are so called for the same reason that the magistrates of ancient Rowe were called misst de latere, who were selected from the court, -or, as it were, from the side of the emperor. The legates are trustees from the sacred college, and the pope confers on them the plenitude of his power. The second class are the legatt mtsst, or those to whom a legation is committed although they are not cardinals. ‘The third class, legats nati, are archbishops to whose see is attached the quality ef a legate.