a. [f. LEGATE sb.1 + -INE1, Substituted for the earlier LEGANTINE and LEGATIVE.] Of or pertaining to a legate; having the authority of a legate. Legatine constitution (see quot. 1765). Legatine synod: one held under the presidency of a (papal) legate.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. viii. 487/2. [The Papal Legate] studied to make vpp that by his Legatine Glory which hee wanted by his Princes countenance.
1630. trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., Introd. 3. The Bishops … had acknowledged his Legatine authority, in preiudice of the Kings preeminence.
1647. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. viii. 26. This was allowed of by Offa the great in a legatine Synod.
1754. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1761), I. viii. 178. Becket had obtained from the pope a legatine commission over England.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 82. The legatine constitutions were ecclesiastical laws, enacted in national synods, held under the cardinals Otho and Othobon, legates from pope Gregory IX and pope Clement IV.
1879. Miss Yonge, Cameos, IV. iii. 36. Having accepted the legatine commission without the King’s consent.
1883. C. Beard, Reform., ix. 308. The acceptance by the clergy of Wolsey’s legatine authority.
