Editing Papal legate (section)

== History ==
{{expand section|history in early Church to 1300, and material other than English and Wolsey|date=April 2016}}
[[image:Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Cardinal Thomas Wolsey]], papal legate to England during the reign of [[Henry VIII]]]]

In the [[High Middle Ages]], papal legates were often used to strengthen the links between Rome and the many parts of [[Christendom]]. More often than not, legates were learned men and skilled diplomats who were not from the country they were accredited to. For example, the Italian-born [[Guala Bicchieri]] served as papal legate to England in the early 13th century and played a major role in both the English government and church at the time. By the [[Late Middle Ages]] it had become more common to appoint native clerics to the position of legate within their own country, such as [[Cardinal Wolsey]] acting as legate to the court of [[Henry VIII of England]]. The reason for this switch in policy could be attributed to a change in attitude on the eve of the [[Reformation]]; by this point, foreign men representing the papacy would be more likely to reinforce dissent than bring Christendom closer together.<ref name="Pagden">{{cite book|title=The Idea of Europe: From Antiquity to the European Union|last=Pagden|first=Anthony|location=Cambridge, UK|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|orig-year=2002|volume=13|isbn=978-0521795524}}</ref>{{non sequitur|date=April 2016}}

Papal legates often summoned [[legatine council]]s, which dealt with church government and other ecclesiastical issues.<ref>{{cite book |author=Robinson, I. S. |title=The Papacy 1073–1198: Continuity and Innovation |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1990 |isbn=0-521-31922-6 |page=150}}</ref> According to Pope [[Pope Gregory VII|Gregory VII]], writing in the ''[[Dictatus papae]]'', a papal legate "presides over all bishops in a council, even if he is inferior in rank, and he can pronounce sentence of deposition against them".<ref name="Robinson"/> During the [[Middle Ages]], a legatine council was the usual means that a papal legate imposed his directives.<ref name="Robinson">{{cite book |author=Robinson, I. S. |title=The Papacy 1073–1198: Continuity and Innovation |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1990 |page=150|isbn=0521319226}}</ref>