Title XXX: On the Office of a Legate

Latin source headnote: A papal legate can be approached even through a simple complaint.

Alexander III, to all the Suffragans of the Church of Canterbury.

Since you are not unaware that our venerable brother the Archbishop of Canterbury presides over you not only by metropolitan right but also by right of legation, it is sufficiently astonishing that certain of you, as we have heard, presume to assert that the same archbishop ought to hear no cause from your bishoprics by either metropolitan or legatine right unless it is brought to him through appeal. Indeed, although perhaps the same archbishop ought not by metropolitan right to hear causes from your bishoprics unless they are brought to him through appeal, nevertheless, by reason of the legation, he can and ought to hear all causes from those bishoprics that reach his hearing through appeal or the complaint of certain persons, inasmuch as he is proved to exercise our authority in his province. Therefore, we command and enjoin that you leave to his judgment the causes that are brought from your bishoprics to the same archbishop, and that you not attempt to deter or impede any cleric or layman of your jurisdiction from being able, if he wishes, to transfer a cause to the aforesaid archbishop.

Latin source headnote: A legate cannot intrude himself into a cause specially delegated by the Pope.

Celestine III.

You have been zealous to ask us whether another who is a general legate in the province can take cognizance of a cause that we delegate to someone, either before cognizance or afterwards, or thus impede the proceeding of our commission that we transmit to a delegated judge. Wishing, therefore, to cut this doubt from your mind, we answer that, since a special mandate derogates from a general one, a legate neither ought nor can impede a commission specially made to another or to others. Hence, even if a sentence has already been promulgated according to the expressed form of our mandate, the legate himself will not be able to annul it in any manner unless he has received a special mandate concerning this. Nevertheless, if it was rendered reasonably, he will be able to confirm it and put it into execution.

Latin source headnote: Even a legate a latere, by virtue of a general legation, cannot transfer bishops, subject one cathedral church to another, grant another the right of primacy, unite two bishoprics, or divide one; nevertheless, he can absolve persons excommunicated on account of laying hands upon clerics. This is what it says together with the following chapter.

Innocent III, to the Cardinal-Priest of the Title of Saint Lawrence in Lucina, Legate of the Apostolic See.

Unless that special affection that we have had and have toward your person tempered the just—indeed, most just—movement of our mind, you would learn through instructive punishment how greatly you have transgressed against your own person and how greatly you have offended against the Roman Church, your mother. Although she nourished and exalted you, you appear utterly to have spurned her, since, spurning canonical sanctions and general custom, on your own motion you presumed to do what had neither been done nor heard of: without our special mandate, you transferred in fact—because by law you could not—our venerable brother the Bishop of Troia, chancellor of the kingdom of Sicily, from the church of Troia to that of Palermo. [Indeed, etc.; cf. c. 3, On the Use and Authority of the Pallium, I. 8.]

Textual note: The Latin Library transcription's quantumcunquae has been corrected to quantumque, the reading required by the parallel construction and printed by Friedberg.

Latin source headnote: This was summarized above in the preceding chapter.

The same, to the same.

That we are unwilling to hold ratified the transfer of the pontiff from the bishopric of Troia to the metropolis of Palermo made by you was induced in us not by a zeal of bitterness but of rectitude. For, although a general legation in the kingdom of Sicily was committed to you, nevertheless, without our special mandate you ought not to have extended your hands to those things that, as a sign of singular privilege, are reserved only to the Supreme Pontiff. Yet even if certain of those things that were often granted to legates by special concession—namely, the absolution of those who, on account of sacrilegious laying of hands upon clerics, fall under the canon of the promulgated sentence—appear already to be lawful for legates by virtue of the office of legation itself, do you think that, because we committed our authority to you to be executed as legate, you could subject the church of Palermo to Messina, so that you might set the latter over the former by granting to it the privilege of primacy? Do you think that, from the same cause, it is lawful for you to unite two bishoprics or divide one without special license?

Therefore, do not reckon that it was done in hatred of him or to your injury, but so that the privilege of Peter may remain unshaken, since Pope Alexander of happy memory, our predecessor, did something nearly similar by resisting the presumption of a legate whom he had sent into Spain when the legate wished to attempt something similar. [But concerning, etc.; cf. c. 11, On the Times of Ordination, I. 11.]

Latin source headnote: From the point at which a legate has referred a cause to the Pope, he ceases to be its judge.

The same, to the Bishop of Bologna and M., Chaplain, our Subdeacon.

Although the canons of Trani had dissented at the beginning, nevertheless all at last unanimously consented, electing our beloved son G., brother of the Abbot of Cassino, as archbishop. Our venerable brother the Bishop of Porto, at that time legate of the Apostolic See, ordered his election to be examined and caused the examination reduced to writing to be secured with the seals of our beloved sons the archdeacon and Master Petrarcha, and also with his own seal, to be transmitted to the Apostolic See. He also sent us his letters of entreaty for the said brother of the Abbot of Cassino. Three of the canons of the church of Trani, sent by the whole chapter, humbly presented them to us together with the decree of election strengthened by the subscriptions of all the canons, and also the letters of the suffragans and the people, seeking that the canonical election celebrated concerning a suitable person be confirmed by apostolic authority.

But, for greater caution, we received from the aforesaid canons an oath, not exacted by us but offered by them, and diligently examined the fact of the election, as is both customary and lawful. Meanwhile, the messenger of the aforesaid Abbot of Cassino presented us his letters containing a grave complaint against the aforementioned legate: after he had examined the election and transferred it to the examination of our deliberation, when the messengers had already been directed, he again presumed, with excessive malice, to examine the same election. Hence he sought that the fact itself be diligently inquired into by suitable men free from suspicion.

And when the aforesaid bishop later arrived and we learned from him the things that had been done, with the common counsel of our brothers, we adjudged the second examination null and void, as having been made by one who was not its judge after the business had been transferred to our examination. [Nevertheless, because, etc. Given at the Lateran, on the eighth day before the Kalends of July, 1202.]

Latin source headnote: A legate a latere confers a vacant benefice, although it pertains to the presentation of some cleric. This is what it says, and it is a notable case.

The same, to the Abbots of Saint P. and Saint Leo, and R., Archdeacon of Toul.

Our beloved son R., a canon of Metz, humbly intimated to us that, when our venerable brother the Bishop of Palestrina, legate of the Apostolic See, liberally conferred upon him the church of Saint Trudo upon its own pastor's resignation made into the legate's hands, our beloved son B., Archdeacon of Metz, to whom presentation to that church pertained, asserting that it could not be conferred by the legate without his having been consulted, less than reasonably opposing himself to the grant, presumes unduly to molest the canon himself concerning the same church.

Therefore, since the prelate has more right in conferral than the patron in presentation, nor is prejudice done to the prelate if at times a church is granted by a legate of the Apostolic See without his having been consulted, by apostolic writings we command your discretion that, after prior admonition, by ecclesiastical censure and with appeal removed, you compel the said archdeacon to desist from his undue molestation concerning this. [No letters, etc. Given at Anagni, on the tenth day before the Kalends of March, in the sixth year, 1204.]

Latin source headnote: A legate appointed for several places can exercise his jurisdiction in any one of the said places in such a way that he can conclude in one place what was done in another. This is what Panormitanus says.

The same, to the Illustrious King of the French.

He who is ignorant of nothing knows that to the royal sublimity—(And below:)—on your part we received a complaint, namely, that, although the legate was suspect to you for a certain reason, after an appeal was interposed to us he promulgated a sentence of interdict against your land outside the boundaries of the kingdom of the French. They also promised and offered to swear upon your soul that you would stand to law concerning this business before our legates and delegates, and that on account of a business of this kind you had been cited neither by us nor by another on our behalf to obey the law, you seeking that the aforesaid sentence be relaxed upon receipt of security of this kind. But to the things that they had objected against the cardinal, we have answered both them and your magnificence: although he had departed from the boundaries of the kingdom of the French, nevertheless he had not yet left the limits of his legation, since he had received from us the solicitude of legation enjoined upon him not only in the kingdom of the French but in the provinces of Vienne, Lyon, and Besançon.

Latin source headnote: When a legate a latere is present, a lesser legate ought to relinquish execution of his office.

Gregory IX, to the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Wishing—(And below:)—we have decided that the office of legation in your province should be committed to your fraternity, in such a way, nevertheless, that, if it should happen that a legate a latere is sent to those regions, for reverence of the Apostolic See you are entirely to relinquish execution of that office for as long as that legate is there.

Latin source headnote: A legate not a latere but by reason of his person cannot, outside the province decreed to him, absolve persons excommunicated for laying hands upon clerics; nor can he do so even within the province if such excommunicated persons come there from elsewhere. But a legate by reason of dignity absolves no such persons. This is what it says according to the common understanding.

The same.

Legates of the Roman Church who are not sent a latere cannot impart the benefit of absolution to persons excommunicated for violent laying on of hands outside the province committed to them, or within it if those who laid hands in this manner should happen to come there from elsewhere. Nor can those who, under pretext of their churches, claim the dignity of legation for themselves impart it even to subjects situated within their province, unless by special grace something more is granted by the Apostolic See to the former and the latter.

Latin source headnote: A legate's statutes endure even after the legation has ended; nevertheless, the jurisdiction of his delegate ends if citation did not precede.

The same.

We wish it to be doubtful to no one that statutes issued by legates of the Apostolic See in the province committed to them endure as perpetual, although they afterwards departed from it. It is otherwise, however, if they decided to delegate causes to certain persons, since the jurisdiction of the latter expires if their citation did not precede the legates' departure.