NUNCIO
162
NUNCIO
their nunciature, and tlierefore on public occasions
take procodeiice of all (iiplonuitio representatives. In-
ternuncio ami delegates enjoy a similar right of prece-
dence over all other diijloniatic representatives of
equal rank. This privilege of papal envoys was ex-
pressly recognized by the Congress of \'i(>nna in 1815
and is universally observed. Nuncios enjoy the title
of "Excellency" and the same special honours as am-
bassadors. In addition to their diplomatic position
nuncios have an ecclesiastical mission, and possess or-
dinarj- ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The latter point is
especially stated in the "Responsio" of Pius VI to the
Rhenish archl)ishops, and was reaffirmed by Pius IX
in a letter to Archbishop Darboy of Paris in 1863, as
also in a declaration of the Cardinal Secretary of State
Jacobini addressed to Spain, 15 April, 1885. The
ample ecclesiastical faculties, granted in the Middle
Ages to the legates a latere and other papal envoys,
had led to abuses; the Council of Trent, therefore, en-
acted that papal envoys (legati a latere, nuncii, guber-
natores ecclesiastici, aut alii quarumcumque faculta-
tum vigore) were not to impede bishops or to disturb
their ordinary jurisdiction nor to proceed against
ecclesiastical persons until the bishop had first been
applied to and had shown himself negligent (Sess.
XXIV., cap. XX de ref .).
Apart from the special faculties in conferring eccle- siastical benefices and in granting spiritual favours, the nuncios had the power of instituting proceedings and giving decisions in cases of ecclesiastical administra- tion and discipline reserved to the pope. The nuncia- tures had special courts, principally for cases of ap- peal. To-day such a court is attached only to the Nunciature of Spain. In all other points nuncios en- joy essentially the same rights in ecclesiastical mat- ters. They are the representatives of the pope, and is such are the organs through which he exercises his ordinary and immediate supreme jurisdiction. It is their special duty to supervise ecclesiastical adminis- tration, and on this they report to the cardinal sec- retary of state ; they grant dispensations in cases reserved to the pope, carry on the process of informa- tion for the nomination of new bishops, give permis- sion for reading forbidden books, and enjoy the privi- lege of granting minor indulgences. In special cases they are delegated for the settlement of important ec- clesiastical affairs. In virtue of their position certain ecclesiastical honours are due to them as laid down in the ' ' Csremoniale Episcoporum " . Pius X introduced a change in the practice hitherto followed with regard to nuncios, so that now they hold their position longer than formerly, and a nuncio of the first class, after his recall, is not regularly raised to the cardinalate.
PiEPF.R, Zur Ent.^UftungsQesch. der siHndigen Nuntiaturen {Frei- burg, Isyij; BlAtDET. Lf.^ nunciatures apostoliques permanentei jusqu'i'- l>y in .1 /(7(a/ts .4fa(/fmt(f 6'cien(iaru7n Fennic(E (Helsin-
Bki, 1'"" 1' ., Origincs des nonciatures permanentes in Rt-
vu< ■: III 1906), 52-70, 217-238; Idem, Origines de la
nam in Revue des quest, histor., LXXVIII (1905),
10:i - - , iJie Nuntiatur von Neapet im 16. Jahrh. in
Hu-l;,. .,„:..„.. .vl\ (1S93), 70-82; Idem, Zur spanischen Nun- liatur im 10. u. 17. Jahrh. in Rom. Quarlalsch.. VII (1893), 447- 81; Friedensburg, Anfdnge der Nuntiatur xtl Deutschland in Nuntialurber. aus Deut^rhhiml I, part I, xxxviii, sqq.; PlEPER, Die •pdpstl. Legaien u. A'l/':^ - ' /)- ;/f rhland, Franhreich u. Spaiiien sail der Mitie des 1' ' I Mimater, 1897); Maere, Les
oriffines de la nondah. m Rexme d'hisloire eccles.. VII
(1906), 565-84, 80.5-.' , m l\, ■ , '.^^. Los despachos dela Diplo- macia ponlificia en E-^funu. 1 ,:>l;iiJriU, 1896); Badmgarten, Der Papst, die Regierung u. Verwalluny der hi. Kirche in Rom (Mvin- chen, 1904), 447 sqq.
Nuxci.4TrRE Reports, the official reports concern- ing their entire field of work sent by the papal nuncios and legates (or their representatives) to the pope or the cardinal secretary of state. The contents of these dispatches are in accordance with the com- mission received by the legate or nuncio. The re- ports of the nuncios filling permanent nunciatures, on whom rested the protection of .all the interests of the papacy within their special territory, relate to all the more important ecclesiastical or political questions
which had any connexion whatever with their com-
mission. The objects of the reports are: (1) to give
the most exact information possible concerning all
political and ecclesiastical occurrences which might be
of importance to the pope or the cardinal secretary of
state; (2) to give exact inforiiuition concerning the
action the nuncios have taken with resjiect to such
occurrences; (3) to send news concerning the ])rinces
to whose courts they are accredited, and concerning
the persons who are in personal eont;[ct with the
princes, or appear at court on account of )Milil ic;d mat-
ters, or in any way have a share in ec<'l(si;i.stical and
political affairs. In doing this attention is naturally
paid both to the instructions that had been given to
the nuncio before he left for his post, and to the letters
regularly received from the office of the papal secre-
tary of state, from the pope, or from other officials.
Taken in a wider sense, nunciature reports also include
those letters of the nuncios concerning the affairs of
their nunciatures, addressed to cardinals or others hav-
ing high official rank in the Curia. From the first
half of the sixteenth century, when the bureau of the
papal secretary of state was fully developed and the
permanent nunciatures received their ultimate organi-
zation, the reports of the nuncios were sent regularly
(from the middle of the sixteenth century, often
weekly). They were written sometimes in Latin,
sometimes in Italian. If important matters were
treated, especially those concerning which negotia-
tions needed to be carried on in the most secret man-
ner possible, the nuncio employed the cipher given
him before going to this position.
Although the individual dispatches vary greatly in worth, yet, as a whole, the nunciature reports form a very important source from the sixteenth century (es- pecially during the sixteenth and seventeenth centu- ries) both for the history of the Church and for politi- cal history. Only a very small proportion either of the reports made by papal legates in the second half of the fifteenth century or in the early years of the six- teenth century have been preserved. From the sec- ond decade of the sixteenth century a. much greater number survive, and from the middle of this century the reports of individual nuncios frequently exist in unbroken sequence. Most of the manuscript reports are in the Vatican archives, and are classified in six- teen series, according to the nunciatures. The classi- fication does not agree, however, with the present ar- rangement of the nunciatures, the series given being as follows: Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Eng- land, Germany (the imperial nunciature), Cologne, Bavaria, Switzerland, Poland, Savoy, Genoa, Venice, Florence, Naples, and Malta. Individual reports are also in other divisions of the archives. The nuncia- ture reports brought together in the archives of the Vatican show serious gaps, especially for the sixteenth century. The reason is that the diplomatic corre- spondence of the Curia in that era was not systematic- ally brought together and preserved in a papal archive, but was frequently purloined by the copyists, cardi- nal favourites, and their secretaries, just as the letters dispatched from Rome were retained by the nuncios and their heirs, and thus became dispersed to some ex- tent in family archives. For example, the greater part of the nunciature reports pertaining to the reign of Paul III (1534-49) are now in the state archives of Naples, to which they came along with the archives of the Farnese family. Other collections of reports are to be found in various Italian archives. The reports preserved are either the original drafts made by the nuncios themselves, or the original letters drawn up in accordance with these, or copies of the original let- ters. As regards the reports written in cipher, a key can generally be found.
On account of the great historical importance of the reports an effort has been made, since the opening of the Vatican archives for general research, to pub-
