LEGATE (from the Latin, Legiltus). This word had various signi fieations among the Romans. The legates were the chief assistants of the proconsuls and propreters in the administration of the provinces. The number of legates differed according to the quality of the governor whom they accompanied ; their duties consisted in hearing inferior causes and managing all the smaller affairs of the government. They appear to have been chosen and appointed by the governor, though at the first institution of the office it would seem they were selected by the senate, as advisers to the governor, from the wisest and most prudent of their own body. The word legatus also signified a military officer who was next in rank to the general or commander-in-chief in any expedition or undertaking, and in his absence had the chief command. (Ciesar, De Bell. Civ.; ii., 17.) The word legatus is often used to denote a person sent by the Roman state to some other state or sove reign power on matters that concerned the public interest ; in this sense the word corresponds pretty nearly to our ambassador or envoy, except that the motives for sending a legatus, or legate, seem to have been occasional only, and the legates do not appear ever to have been permanent resident functionaries in a foreign community. Under the emperors those who were sent by them to administer the provinces of which the government was reserved to the emperors, were called legates.
Under the republic the senators who had occasion to visit the provinces on their own. business used to obtain what was called a ' legatio libera,' that is, the title and consideration of a legatus, or public functionary, with the solo object of thereby furthering their private interests. These legationes are said to have been called liberre, or free, because those who held them had full liberty to enter or leave the city, whereas all other public functionaries whose duties were exercised beyond the limits of the city could not enter Rome till they had laid aside their functions ; or because a senator could not go beyond a certain distance from Rome unless he obtained permission in the f rex of a legstio. Cicero, who on one ocatelon inveighs vehemently
against the legatlo Dem, could defend it when it suited his purpose; and in a letter to Attlee., (L 1) he expresses his intention to visit Cirelpixte Gaul in this capacity for the purpose of furthering his election as trawl.
At the present day a legate aignillea an ambassador, or nuncio, of the pop.. They are of the highest class of ambassadors; but are not recognised In Great Britain. (Aunsessoon ; Nostem.) There are several kinds of papal legates, legatus a latere, legal us *alas, ate. Legates a latere are sent on the highest missions to the princiral foreign courts, and as governors of provinces of the Roman dominion, thence called legations. Legatus natue is • person who held. the office of legate as incident and annexed to some other office, and is, as we should say, a legate ex officio. As this office or title exempted the holder from the authority of the legates a latere, it was earnestly sought after by the bishops. The archbishop of Canterbury was formerly a legatos nettle, and in 1100, Guido, archbishop of Vienne, having been sent to England as legate by the pope, was not allowed by Henry I. to exercise his office. There are now three or four German Wherries permanently invested with the privileges of the °Mos I.ecates of a lower rank than cardinals are called