APOCRISIARIUS, or Apocrisiarius, in Antiquity, an Officer appointed to carry or deliver the Messages, Orders, and Answers of a Prince——He afterwards became his Chancellor, and kept the Seal. In the later Latin we sometimes meet with Asecretarius, Secretary, for Apocrisiary.
Zosimus defines the Apocrisiarius, Secretary for foreign Affairs; being the same with what Vopiscus in the Life of Aurelian calls Notarius Secretorum.
The Title and Quality of Apocrisiary became at length appropriated, as it were, to the Pope’s Deputy or Agent, who resided at Constantinople to receive the Pope’s Orders, and the Emperor’s Answer. St. Gregory was Apocrisiary of Pope Pelagius, at the time when he composed his Morals on Job.
The Apocrisiary did the Office of the modern Nuncio’s. See NUNCIO.
Sometimes, however, he had the Rank and Quality of the Pope’s Legate. See LEGATE.
The Heresy of the Monothelites, and afterwards that of the Iconoclasts, broke off the Custom of having a Papal Apocrisiary at Constantinople.
The Word is formed from the Greek ἀπόκρισις (apókrisis), Response; hence he is usually called in Latin, Responsalis, Answerer.
