Cardinal Legates and Nuncios

Chapter 11 Cardinal Legates and Nuncios

Alexander Koller

1 The Concept of “Legate”

In the Roman Catholic Church, the term “legate” is used in a variety of con- texts, but it always refers to the modern diplomatic and juridical concept of “ambassador.” Embassies were in many cases undertaken by high prelates but were only called legazioni if the envoy was a cardinal.1 Apart from the legatus a latere, which is the subject of this chapter, there were also the legatus natus, the national legate and the legatus missus. The institution of the legatus natus dates to the Middle Ages when bishops of important archdioceses managed to enlarge their jurisdiction by papal authorization, recognition, or toleration.2 When the Great Western Schism damaged papal jurisdiction and ecclesiastical order, various cardinals were appointed to restore the ecclesiastical system and Roman obedience in certain territories – with the consent of the secular ruler, hence becoming so-called “national legates.” The difference between national legates and the legati de latere is marginal.3 Furthermore, there was the insti- tute of the legati missi. Such legates were also sent by the pope with certain assignments and faculties, but they were not chosen from within the College of Cardinals.4 Finally, the legati inquisitori and legates of the council were charged to preside over the sessions of a general council on behalf of the Roman pontiff.5

1 Giovanni Battista de Luca, Il Cardinale della S.R. Chiesa pratico (Rome: 1680), 172–73. 2 Within the German Empire, the archbishops of Salzburg, Mainz, Cologne, and Trier obtained the title legatus natus; so did those of Canterbury, Arles, Toledo, and Prague; see Moroni, 37:268–69. See also Olivier Guyotjeannin, “Légat (Moyen Âge),” in Dictionnaire historique de la papauté (Paris: 1994), 1011 and Klaus Mörsdorf, “Gesandtschaftswesen, päpstliches,” in Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (Freiburg i.Br.: 1960), 4:768. 3 Mörsdorf, “Gesandtschaftswesen, päpstliches,” 4:768. In France there were, among others, George d’Amboise, Adrien Gouffier de Boisy, and Antoine Duprat functioning as national legates; Bernard Barbiche and Ségolène de Dainville-Barbiche, “Les légats a latere à l’époque moderne et le personnel des legations,” in L’invention de la diplomatie: Moyen Age, temps modernes, ed. Lucien Bély (Paris: 1998), 285 n. 1. 4 Moroni, 37:268. 5 Barbiche and Dainville-Barbiche, “Les légats a latere à l’époque moderne,” 286 and Pierre Blet, “Légat (époque moderne et contemporaine),” in Dictionnaire historique de la papauté

176 Koller

For the early modern cardinal, the most frequently invested role – apart from the position of legate to one of the provinces of the Papal States (see Irene Fosi’s chapter in this volume) – and also the most important type of legation, was that of legatus a latere. During the Middle Ages, the practice of the pope being represented on special occasions by one or more cardinals in various parts of the Christian West increasingly became a major feature of curial diplomacy. A legation was – and still is – the highest form of papal representa- tion, and its protagonist is therefore deemed to be a papal alter ego.6 Even the official term legatus/legati a or de latere (taken from the side of the pope) ex- presses the close proximity to the Roman pontiff, as if the pope and his envoy formed a physical unit.7 Cardinal legates were therefore subject to special pro- tection. Gratian defined the inviolability of papal emissaries in generic terms in the Decretum, basing it on Roman law tradition. In the event of infringe- ments severe ecclesiastical penalties (such as interdict or excommunication) were imposed. These protective measures applied to cardinals as “parts of the pope’s body” (see Barbara Bombi’s chapter in this volume), but, especially if they were officiating as papal legates. An attack on a legate’s integrity was thus considered a crime of lèse-majesté against the pope, as Honorius iii and Boni- face viii stated in their constitutions.8 As a rule, a legation was set up for prominent political and confessional reasons, often as an emergency measure in order to contain grave crises con- cerning or involving the papacy.9 At the beginning of the 13th century, popes

(Paris: 1994), 1013. For the various titles used by the diplomatic service of the Roman Curia see also Wolfgang Untergehrer, Die päpstlichen nuntii und legati im Reich (1447–1484): Zu Personal und Organisation des kurialen Gesandtenwesens, Ph.D. diss. (Munich: Ludwig Maximilians Universität, 2012), 91–179, https://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/15862/. 6 Strictly speaking, other prelates could also be charged with a legation, but usually the dignity of a legate was connected with the cardinalate. For the High Middle Ages see Claudia Zey, “Die Augen des Papstes: Zu Eigenschaften und Vollmachten päpstlicher Legaten,” in Römi sches Zentrum und kirchliche Peripherie: Das universelle Papsttum als Bezugspunkt der Kirchen von den Reformpäpsten bis zu Innozenz iii., ed. Jochen Johrendt (Berlin: 2008), 77–108; for the late Middle Ages see Werner Maleczek, “Die päpstlichen Legaten im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert,” in Gesandtschafts- und Botenwesen im spätmittelalterlichen Europa, eds. Rainer C. Schwinges and Klaus Wriedt (Ostfildern: 2003), 33–86; Birgit Studt, Papst Martin v. (1417–1431) und die Kirchenreform in Deutschland (Cologne: 2004); for the transition from the Middle Ages to the early modern period: Bernard Barbiche, Bulla, Legatus, Nuntius: Études de diplomatique et de diplomatie pontificale (xiiie–xviie siècle) (Paris: 2007). 7 Moroni, 37:267; Guyotjeannin, “Légat (Moyen Âge),” 1010. 8 Emil Friedberg (ed.), Corpus Iuris Canonici (Leipzig: 1879–81), 1:330, D. 94, c. 2; 2:1091; Karl Ruess, Die rechtliche Stellung der Legaten bis Bonifaz viii. (Paderborn: 1912), 185; Robert C. Figueira, “Legatus apostolicae sedis: The pope’s alter ego according to thirteenth-century can- on law,” Studi medievali 27 (1986), 527–74; Maleczek, “Die päpstlichen Legaten,” 74. 9 Moroni, 37:267 and 269.