[1] According to Pope Gregory VII, writing in the Dictatus papae, a papal legate "presides over all bishops in a council, even if he is inferior in rank, and he can pronounce sentence of deposition against them".
[2] During the Middle Ages, a legatine council was the usual means by which a papal legate imposed his directives.
[3] Another was a series of councils held by Cuno of Praeneste in 1114 and 1115, held respectively at Beauvais, Rheims and Chalon, which excommunicated Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, although Pope Paschal II eventually refused to ratify Cuno's actions.
[4] Early in the history of the Crusader states, a number of legatine councils were held in the Kingdom of Jerusalem that not only appointed and deposed ecclesiastics, but also regulated the church government.
One of the recorded two attending legates, George of Ostia, notes that the languages of communication were Latin and "theodisce" (Germanic) "for the better comprehension of all".