[VICE-, after F. vice-légat or It. vicelegato (Sp. and Pg. vicelegado).] One who acts as the representative or deputy of a (Papal) legate.
1549. Sir T. Hoby, Trav., 17, in Camden Misc. (1902). The Pope is lord of yt. Vicelegate there for him was Annibale Borio.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, I. III. 83. To meet the eldest son of any Prince, or the Ambassadors of the Dukes of Savoy,… the Cardinals … send their Vice-Legats with some small number of Coaches.
1683. Apol. Prot. France, iv. 31. The conference the Queen had, as she passed by Avignon with the Vice-Legat, which gave him wonderful satisfaction, pleased them not so well.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4497/1. The Legat and Vice-Legat are excluded from having any part in the new State.
1765. Ann. Reg., 143. At Avignon … the vice legate … dispatched couriers to the neighbouring cities.
1835. Penny Cycl., III. 173/1. The popes governed the city [of Avignon] … by a cardinal-legate, or rather, as the legate was always non-resident, by a vice-legate.
Hence Vice-legateship.
1691. Lond. Gaz., No. 2685/1. The Vice-Legatship of Avignon is given to the Bishop of Fieschi.
1818. Gentl. Mag., Aug., 127/1. In the exercise of the several governments assigned him in the Ecclesiastical State, he [Cardinal Durazzi] has in every one of them acquired great praise, as likewise in the Vice-legateship of Bolonia in the time that Cardinal Caraffa was legate.
