LEGATES
326
LEGATES
his own works. "We may further consider a legalist as one who has no proper conviction of the evil of sin; who, although he pretends to abide by the law, yet has not a just idea of its spirituality and demands, lie is ignonint of the grand scheme of salvation by free grace: proud of his own fancied righteousness, he submits not to the righteousness of God; he derogates from the honor of Christ by mixing his own works with his ; and, in fact, denies the necessity of the work of the Spirit by supposing that he has ability in himself to perform all those duties which God has required. Such is the character of the legalist, a character diametrically op- posite to that of the true Christian, whose sentiment corresponds with that of the apostle, who justly observes, " By grace are j'e saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. ii, S, 9).— Eden, Thcol. Did. s. v.; Buck, Theol. Did. s. v. ; Buchanan, Dodrine ofjus- tijiciition, Lect. vi, especially p. 153 sq.
Legates and Nuncios of the Roman Catholic Church. AVith reference to the endeavors of that Church to unite all the congregations into one vast system, and to rule over them successfully, preventing all heresy and division, the Council of Sardica (343) expressly stated : '• Quod si is, qui rogat causam suam iterum au- diri, deprecatione sua moverit episcopum Romanum, ut de latere suo jjresbyteros mittat, erit in potestate ejus," etc. {Con. Sardic. c. 7, in c. 3(>, can. ii, qu. vi). The Romish clergy was therefore sent abroad everywhere. In tlie African churches, however, they refused to admit into fellowship those "qui ad transmarina (concilia) putave- rit appellandum" (Codex ecdes. Afric. c. 125), and wrote to Celestine at Rome, " Ut aliqui tanquam a tu;i3 sancti- tatis latere mittantur, nulla invenimus patrum synodo constitutum" (ibid. c. 13o). Thomassin ( Veins ac nova ecdesicB disciplina, p. i, lib. ii, cap. 117) has collected in- stances of delegations having been sent in various cases during the 4th and 5th centuries. But, as vicars of the bishop of Rome, we find in Western Illyria the bishops of Thessalonica after Damasus (a. 3G7) ; in Gaul, the bishops of Aries after Zosimus (a. 417) ; in Spain, the bishops of Seville after Simplicius (a. 467) (Constant, De aiiiiquis canonum colledionibus, No. 23-25; GaUande, De vetuslig canonum colledionibus dissert, i, 23 sq. ; Pe- trus de Marca, De concordia sacerdotii ac imperii, lib. V, cap. 19 sq., 30 sq.). Among the delegates of the bishop of Rome we must also put the Apocrisiarii [see Apockisiarius] sent to the imperial court at Constan- tinople. Leo I, and particularly Gregory I, carefully continued the relations established by their legates, and created more, in order to improve the condition of the churches, and to increase the influence of Rome. Greg- ory appointed bishop Maximus of Syracuse over all the churches of Sicily (•' super cunctas ecclesias Siciliaj te . . . vices sedis apostolicic ministrare decernimus"), with the right of deciding on all except the caii.fcp. majores. This office was, however, vested only in the individual, not in the see (" Quas vices non loco tribuimus, sed perso- naj,'" c. 6, X. De prcesumtionibus, ii, 23, a. 592; c. 3, can. vii, qu. i, 30 [a. 591], c. 39; can.xi,qu.i, and Gonzalez Tellez to c. 1, X. De oplcio legati, i, 30, a. 9). To England Gregory sent Augustine (a. (501), with the mission of im- proving the Church organization of that country, and particularly of upholding the episcopacy (Kpist. 64, a. 601, in c.3,can. xxv,(iu.ii); and Agathon (678) also sent the Roman abbot .JdIiii to that country to organize wor- ship, convoke a council to intpurc into the state of re- ligion, and report thereon at his return (Beda, ///x/. /scrZ. lib. iv, cap. 18). Augustine is said to have himself taken part in settling ecclesiastical affairs during a journey through Gaul, and conferred with the bislioji of Aries as his legate. (Jregory I sent also other special -delegates to (iaul, in order to imi)roveJhe state of the churches there, with the aid of the bishops and Ih'o king (Tho- massin, c. 118). In the course of time the legates were empowered to act by themselves on the orders commu- nicated to them at Rome. The vicariates became con-
nected with some of the ancient bishoprics, by whoso in- cumbents they had long been exercised, and it became difficult to erect new jiermanent ones on account of the opposition of the other dignitaries of the Church ; so that special delegates were only sent when affairs of im- portance rendered such a step necessarj'. Even then it became customary to await the wish, or at least to se- cure the sanction, of the governments into whose states they were sent. There were, then, two kinds of legates, the legati nati, and the legati dati or missi.
1. Legati nati, in cases where the legation was con- nected with a bishopric. The rights of such a legate were at first very large; his jurisdiction had the char- acter o{ jurisdictio ordinaria ; it also appears as ordi- narii ordimirioiiim, and formed a court of last resort for those who voluntarily appealed to it. After the 16th century their prerogatives were gradually restricted, and finally, after the introduction of the legati a latere, the title became merely a nominal one, the metropolitan not being even entitled to having the cross borne before him where there was a legatus a latere (c. 23, X. De privilegiis, v, 33 ; Innocent III, in c. 5, Cone. Lateran, a. 1215).