Diplomacy of the Roman Catholic church

As Byzantium crumbled, the West revived. Indeed, even in its period of greatest weakness, the Roman Catholic church conducted an active diplomacy, especially at Constantinople and in its 13th-century struggle against the Holy Roman emperors. Popes served as arbiters, and papal legates served as peacemakers. The prestige of the church was such that at every court papal emissaries took precedence over secular envoys, a tradition that continues in countries where Roman Catholicism is the official religion. The Roman emphasis on the sanctity of legates became part of canon law, and church lawyers developed increasingly elaborate rules governing the status, privileges, and conduct of papal envoys, rules that were adapted later for secular use. Still later, rules devised for late medieval church councils provided guidelines for modern international conferences.

From the 6th century, both legates and (lesser-ranking) nuncii (messengers) carried letters of credence to assure the rulers to whom they were accredited of the extent of their authority as agents of the pope, a practice later adopted for lay envoys. A nuncius (English: nuncio) was a messenger who represented and acted legally for the pope; nuncii could negotiate draft agreements but could not commit the pope without referral. In time, the terms legate and nuncius came to be used for the diplomatic representatives of secular rulers as well as the pope. By the 12th century the secular use of nuncii as diplomatic agents was commonplace.

When diplomacy was confined to nearby states and meetings of rulers were easily arranged, a visiting messenger such as the nuncius sufficed. However, as trade revived, negotiations at a distance became increasingly common. Envoys no longer could refer the details of negotiations to their masters on a timely basis. They therefore needed the discretionary authority to decide matters on their own. To meet this need, in the 12th century the concept of a procurator with plena potens (full powers) was revived from Roman civil law. This plenipotentiary could negotiate and conclude an agreement, but, unlike a nuncius, he could not represent his principal ceremonially. As a result, one emissary was often given both offices.

Venice

At the end of the 12th century, the term ambassador appeared, initially in Italy. Derived from the medieval Latin ambactiare, meaning “to go on a mission,” the term was used to describe various envoys, some of whom were not agents of sovereigns. Common in both Italy and France in the 13th century, it first appeared in English in 1374 in Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer. By the late 15th century, the envoys of secular rulers were commonly called ambassadors, though the papacy continued to send legates and nuncii. Each ambassador carried a letter of credence, though he could not commit his principal unless granted plenipotentiary authority.

The Crusades and the revival of trade increased Europe's contact with the eastern Mediterranean and West Asia. Venice's location afforded that leading Italian city-state early ties with Constantinople, from which it absorbed major elements of the Byzantine diplomatic system. On the basis of Byzantine precedents, Venice gave its envoys written instructions, a practice otherwise unknown in the West, and established a systematic archive. (The Venetian archives contain a registry of all diplomatic documents from 883.) Venice later developed an extensive diplomacy on the Byzantine model, which emphasized the reporting of conditions in the host country. Initially, returning Venetian envoys presented their relazione (final report) orally, but, beginning in the 15th century, such reports were presented in writing. Other Italian city-states, followed by France and Spain, copied Venetian diplomatic methods and style.

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