Late Medieval Papal Legation. Between the Councils and the Reformation

Late Medieval Papal Legation is a result of long term study of papal legates in the late medieval period. Even though this crucial institution of the reform papacy of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries kept its standards as designed in the classical canon law, it was transformed according to the current needs of the papacy in later periods. A substantial change came after the conciliar crisis and before the radical transformation of the first half of the sixteenth century. In the second half of the 15th and early 16th centuries, papal legates de latere, as cardinals, travelled all around Europe in support of the recovered papal authority after the conciliar period and before the outbreak of the German Reformation. The volume focuses on the terminology and theory of papal legation, on the sources and expression of legatine authority and on the system in relation to practical matters, and political, diplomatic and ecclesiastical tasks and topics. The study of the legatine office is exceptionally complex and ranges from high diplomacy and spiritual benefits brought for distinct provinces, to the personal interests and involvement of individual cardinals.