Apocrisiarius

An apocrisiarius, the Latinized form of apokrisiarios (Greek: ἀποκρισιάριος), sometimes Anglicized as apocrisiary, was a high diplomatic representative during Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The corresponding (purist) Latin term was responsalis ("he who answers"). The title was used by Byzantine ambassadors, as well as by the representatives of bishops to the secular authorities. The closest modern equivalent is a papal nuncio; the title apocrisiarius is also still employed by the Anglican Church.

Byzantine apocrisiarii

An apocrisiarius was a cleric who served as the representative (also described as legate, a less precise term) of a patriarch or other bishop to the Byzantine imperial court of Constantinople. The office existed since the 5th century, but was institutionalized by law only under Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565). Several of the more important ecclesiastical sees maintained permanent apocrisiarii in the imperial capital. The most important of these were the papal apocrisiarii (circa 452 till 743). The title was also used for the representative of a metropolitan archbishop at the court of his "territorial" patriarch in either Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, or Jerusalem and for secular officials carrying correspondence of the Byzantine emperor.

Frankish apocrisiarii

From the reign of Charlemagne (r. 768–814), the court of the Frankish king/emperor had clerical members styled apocrisiarii. However, they were only royal archchaplains decorated with the title of the ancient papal envoys, since they did not perform any diplomatic duties.

Anglican Church

In the modern Anglican Communion, representatives of the Archbishop of Canterbury to various churches are styled apocrisiarioi.

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

(Gr. ἀπόκρισις, an answer; cf. Lat. responsalis, from responsum). This term indicates in general the ecclesiastical envoys of Christian antiquity, whether permanent or sent temporarily on missions to high ecclesiastical authorities or royal courts. In the East the patriarchs had their apocrisiarii at the imperial court, and the metropolitans theirs at the courts of the patriarchs. The popes also frequently deputed clerics of the Roman Church as envoys, either for the adjustment of important questions affecting the Church of Rome, or to settle points of discipline in local dioceses, or to safeguard the interests of the Church in religious controversies. In the letters of St. Gregory the Great (590-604) very frequent mention is made of such envoys (responsales). In view of the great importance attaching to the relations between the popes and the imperial court of Constantinople, especially after the fall of the Western Empire (476), and during the great dogmatic controversies in the Greek Church, these papal representatives at Constantinople took on gradually the character of permanent legates and were accounted the most important and responsible among the papal envoys. The first of these apocrisiarii seems to have been Julianus, Bishop of Cos, accredited by St. Leo the Great to the court of Emperor Marcian (450-457) for a considerable period of time during the Monophysite heresies. From then until 743, when all relations between Rome and Constantinople were severed during the iconoclastic troubles, there were always, apart from a few brief intervals, apocrisiarii in Constantinople. On account of the importance of the office, only capable and trustworthy members of the Roman Clergy were selected for such missions. Thus Gregory I, while Deacon of the Roman Church, served in Byzantium for several years as Apocrisiarius. At the court of the exarch at Ravenna the Pope also had a permanent apocrisiarius. In turn, at least during the reign of Gregory I, the archbishop of that city had a special responsalis at the papal court. From the reign of Charlemagne (d. 814) we find apocrisiarii at the court of the Frankish kings, but they are only royal archchaplains decorated with the title of the ancient papal envoys.

THOMASSINUS, Vetus et nova eccl. disciplina circa beneficia (ed. London, 1706, I, 569 sqq.) Pt. I, Bk. II, cvii-cxi; BINGHAM, Origines sive antiquitates ecclesiasticæ (ed. Halle, 1725) II, 77 sqq.; III, xiii, art. 6; LUXARDO, Das päpstliche Vordekretalen-Gesandtschaftsrecht (Innsbruck, 1878).

Bibliography

Sources

• Kazhdan, Alexander Petrovich, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York, New York and Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.
• Parry, Ken; Hinnells, John R. (1999). The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-18966-1.

Further reading

• Ekonomou, Andrew J. (2007). Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern Influences on Rome and the Papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590-752. Lanham, Maryland and Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.). ISBN 978-0-7391-1978-5.
• Larousse, Pierre; Augé, Claude (1906). Petit Larousse Illustré: Nouveau Dictionnaire Encyclopédique. Paris, France: Librairie Larousse.

External links

• Catholic Encyclopaedia - Apocrisiarius