Pope’s emissary embraced by cardinal and sent down (9)
I believe the answer is:
relegated
'sent down' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'pope's emissary embraced by cardinal' is the wordplay.
'pope's emissary' becomes 'legate' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'embraced by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'cardinal' becomes 'red' (I've seen this in other clues).
'legate' put within 'red' is 'RELEGATED'.
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for relegated that I've seen before include "sent down" , "Downgraded" , "banished" , "Kicked downstairs" , "Put down" .)