Mandate

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. An official or authoritative command; an order or injunction; a commission; a judicial precept. This dream all-powerful Juno; I bear Her mighty mandates, and her words you hear. Dryden.

2. A rescript of the pope, commanding an ordinary collator to put the person therein named in possession of the first vacant benefice in his collation.

3. A contract by which one employs another to manage any business for him. By the Roman law, it must have been gratuitous. Erskine.