a cardinal or bishop, whom the pope sends as his ambassador to sovereign princes. There are three kinds of legates, viz. legates a latere, legates de latere, and legates by office, or legati nati. Of these, the most considerable are the legates a latere; the next are the legates de latere. Legates by office are those who have not any particular legation given them, but who, by virtue of their dignity and rank in the church, become legates. Such are the archbishops of Rheims and Arles; but the authority of these legates is much inferior to that of the legates a latere.

The term legate comes from *legatus*, which Varro derives from *leger*, to choose, and others from *legare*, delegare, to send, to delegate.

Court of the Legate was a court obtained by Cardinal Wolsey from Pope Leo X. in the ninth year of Henry VIII. in which he, as legate of the pope, had power to prove wills, and dispense with offences against the spiritual laws. It was but of short continuance.