Apostolic Nunciature - Vinculum Information System Guide

Chronological span

The Apostolic Nunciature was created at the beginning of the sixteenth century and, with a long hiatus from 1580-1670 and others of shorter duration from the eighteenth to twentieth century, it remains in existence to this day¹.

Normative documents (main)

Letter of 3 July 1672 determining the re-establishment of the nuncio’s appeals court by the crown²

Competences

General

The Apostolic Nunciature in Lisbon is the official diplomatic representation of the Vatican⁷.

On entails

The competences of the Papacy over the pious legacies led to the documentation on this matter being processed by the Nunciature and being archived at the Vatican’s Apostolic Archive, namely in its collection Archivio della Nunziatura Apostolica in Lisbona⁸. From this collection we highlight the apostolic briefs reducing the number of perpetual masses instituted for the souls in purgatory, dating from the 1670s⁹, due to the competences of the Holy See in this matter (or the bishop through his delegation)¹⁰.

Institutional organisation and the roles of its agents with regard to entails

Institutional organisation

The Nunciature of Lisbon, like the other apostolic nunciatures, is headed by an apostolic nuncio and by an official staff responsible for the bureaucratic (secretaries) and daily functioning (mordomo and cook, among others)¹².

The roles of its agents

This institution did not have any official with specific attributions with respect to entails.

Relations with other institutions with regard to entails

The Nunciatures could keep documentation on entails, namely cases of reduction of masses processed in the Apostolic See, which gave rise to the issuance of apostolic briefs¹³. The latter were issued by the Secretariat of Briefs, created at the end of the fifteenth century¹⁴.

The Apostolic Nuncio in Lisbon had dealings with institutions and departments of the Portuguese royal officialdom¹⁵.