The Chancelleries of the Cardinal Legates in the 14th Century

A Communication Tool at the Service of the Papacy

Abstract

From 1305 to 1378, the popes involved in 64 missions 40 cardinals (that is 26,7% of the
members of the Sacred College of that period), either as legate (41%), or as legate and vicar
general on the Papal States (7%), or only as nuncio (35%), excluding the vicars generals who
were neither legate nor nuncio. In a (temporary) synthesis are studied the composition and
the working of the legatine chanceries: the functions and the value of the chancellors, their
relations with the judiciary court of the cardinal’s curia (audientia causarum curie); the
various members of the chancery, notaries, secretaries, abbreviatores, scribes, registratores
and all the familiares working in the „writing offices” of cardinals. On the other hand,
the relations between the legatine chanceries and other chanceries (specially papal and
royal ones) are observed in order to see their reciprocal influence and the effects on the
development of the papal diplomacy. Two tables are proposed in appendix, a chronological
table of all missions of these cardinals from 1305 to 1378 and a synthetic table of the
members of the „writing offices” during legations and nunciatures or nor.