The word "legate" comes from the Latinlegare ("to send"). It has several meanings, all related to representatives: Jump to: navigation, search Latin is an Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... A legislature is a governmental deliberative body with the power to adopt laws. ...
In ancient Rome, a legatus or legate was an official assistant to a general or governor of a province.
A papal legate is a messenger from the Holy See to a nation. The highest rank of pafaljfldskmnfapal legate is legate a latere, who had to be in the rank of a cardinal.
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Hence the legate differs from the delegate, taking this term in a strictly juridical sense, since the delegate is one to whom the pope entrusts an affair or many affairs to be treated through delegated jurisdiction and often in questions of litigation, whereas the legate goes with ordinary jurisdiction over a whole country or nation.
Since the jurisdiction of a legate is ordinary, he does not cease to be legate even at the death of the pope who appointed him, and even if he arrived at his post after the death of that pope.
The legate a latere is always a cardinal, and this name arises from the fact that a cardinal, being a member of the senate of the pope, is considered as an intimate, one attached to the very side of the Roman Pontiff.
The history of the office of papal legate is closely involved with that of the papacy itself.
If it were proved that papal legates exercised the prerogatives of the primacy in the early councils, it would be one of the strongest points for the Roman Catholic view of the papal history.
Augustine of Canterbury is sometimes spoken of as legate, but it does not appear that in his case this title was used in any strictly technical sense, although the archbishop of Canterbury afterwards attained the permanent dignity of a legatus natus.
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