Volume 1

A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood.

Date:: [between 1890 and 1899?]

Credit: A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

990/1096 (page 970)

$bus ecclesiasticis negotiis vestrae sanctitatis ex- primat ac gerat personam,” {Cone, vi. Act 18, Labbe.) Leo ia consequence sent the subdeacon Constantine, who had been one of his legates at the council, and requested the emperor to receive him as his minister, “ut ministrum digne suscipiat.” Thomassin ( Vet. et Noc. Ecd. Discip. i. 2, c. 108, §§ 27, 28) thinks that this was an evasion of tlie request to send a legate with full powers, lest he should be induced by the power of the emperor to commit him- self to acts for which the papal see would be responsible. 3. The popes of Rome have frequently granted special privileges, such as may be called legatine or vicarial, to certain distinguished sees. The first of these was that of Thessalonica. In the year 379 the great preiecture of Illyricum Orientale was assigned to the Eastern emperor. But the see of Rome had probably for a long time claimed patriarchal authority over this division of the empire, and Damasus, the then pope, was unwilling to allow a mere political sev'erance to ati'ect his spiritual authority, and therefore appointed Acholius, bishop of Thessa- lonica, metropolitan of that prefecture, his repre- sentative or vicar for the diocese of Illyricum Orientale (Greenwood, Cathed. Fet. i. 259). From the scantiness of our information as to this trans- action we know little or nothing of the exact nature of the powers conferred on this legate. Leo the Great {Epist. ad Anilium Thess.) con- firms to the archbishop of Thessalonica powers over Illyricum which (he says) had been con- ferred under his predecessors Damasus, Siricius, and Auastasius. See the Responsio Pii VI. ad Metropolitanos Mogunt. etc. super Nuntiaturis Apost. Romae 1790. Vicarial or legatine powers were also conferred on the see of Arles, the “Galilean Rome.” Thus Zosimus(A.D. 418)made Patroclus, bishop of Arles, his vicegerent; Hilary gave the same office to Leontius; Gelasius 1. to Aeonius ; Symmachus to Caesarius ; Vigilius to Auxonius; and at length, the same privilege having been continued to a series of bishops, it was definitely granted and assigned to the see of Arles (Gregorii Epist. iv. 50, 52, 54). See also Gregory’s seventh response to Augustine of Can- terbury, in Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 22. And the same thing took place also with regard to other sees, (Petrus de Marca, de Concordia Sacerdotii et Imperii, lib. v. ; Bohmer, Jus Ecclesiasticum, lib. iii., tit. 37, c. 36 ; Van Espen, Jus Eccle- siasticum ; Thomassin, Nova et Vet. Eccl. Discipl.; Walthei’, Kirchenrecht; Jacobson in Herzog, Real-Encyclop., s. v. Legaten.) [P. 0. and C.] LEGATION {Legatio, irpecr^da). A body of legates entrusted with any commission, e.g. Soc. II. iv. 12 ; Soz. H. B. vi. 11. When the legates were not a mere deputation, but had full power to act on their own authority, it was called a free legation, “legatio libera” {Cod. Eccl. Afric. c. 94, 97 ; see Ducange, Gloss.). The commission given to the legates was called a letter of legation, “ literae legationis.” At the 6th council of Carthage the various legates pre- sented their credentials, which were read to the council, “ offerentibus legationis literis et reci- tatis ” {Cod. Eccl. Afric. c. 90). Sometimes it appears to have been used for the duty en- trusted to a legate. Thus Leo I. {Epist. 26) speaks of a commission given to the empres* Pulcheria to procure the summoning of a fresh council after the Pseudo-Synod of Ephesus as a legation, hac sibi specialiter a beatissimo Petro Apostolo legatione commissd. But the word for the most part is convertible with Legatk. [P. 0.] LEGENDA. This word properly denotes whatever is appointed to be read to the con- gregation during public worship. It has how- ever acquired the restricted sense of the records of the lives and acts of the saints and mai’tyrs, which were appointed to be thus read. Collec- tions of these records date from the 2nd century, and were known as Acta {i. e. the registers containing the official records). Sanctorum, or Acta Martyrum. They contained the niost im- portant sayings and deeds of the saints, both martyrs and confessors. The earliest reputed compiler of the acts of martyrs is St. Clement of Rome, who is said to have employed scribes notariesto collect the acts of martyrs throughout the different districts of the city. The practice appears to have spread into the African church. St. Cyprian {Ep. 37, ad Clerum) writes: “ Denique et dies eorum quibus ex- cedunt, annotate, ut commemorationes eorum inter memorias martyrum celebrare possimus.” Eusebius also {Hist. v. 4) speaks of such a collection, “ Whoever cares to do so, may easily obtain the fullest information on this subject by reading the epistle itself,® which, as I have already said, I have inserted in the collection of the Acts of Martyrs ” [rp twv papTvpiwv (Tvvaywyf)']. He gives at length the account of the martyrdom of Polycarp and his companions (iv. 15. See also vii. 41-42). Hence Eusebius has been often looked upon as the first to compile a martyrology. St. Jerome made a compendium of the acts as compiled by Eusebius. Any further question as to the growth of martyrologies belongs more properly to another place [Martyrology]. It is sufficient here to point out their origin and antiquity. In the persecution of Diocletian many aii- thentic records of this natui’e perished, in con- sequence of a general edict to burn them (Gregor, Turon. de Gloria Martyr.). Gelasius (a.d. 492) rejected as spurious writings of this nature then in circulation, and forbade them to be read in churches. The third council of Carthage (a.d. 397), Can. 47, after ruling that besides the canonical scriptures nothing should be read publicly in the church under the name of Holy Scri})ture, adds that the passions of the martyrs may be re.id on their anniversaries. “ Liceat etiam legi passiones martyrum, quum anniversarii eorum dies cele- brantur.” And it appears from various sermons of St. Augustine (Ser. xlvii. de Sanctis, &c.) that the practice was general in his day. Cassio- dorus, in the 6th centuiy, writing to certain abbats says {Instit. dio. Lett. c. 32), “Passiones martyrum legite constanter.” The practice was to read the “acts” of those saints and martyrs who were to be commemo- rated in the liturgy on the day following, in order that the faithful might join in the comrnemora- • /. e. from the martyrs of Lyons to Eleutherus.$