procuration

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act or an instance of procuring.
• noun The appointment of an agent.
• noun The agent so appointed.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Care; management.
• noun The management of another's affairs; the being intrusted with such management.
• noun A document by which a person is empowered to transact the affairs of another. See mandate, 4 .
• noun Eccles.: Formerly, provision of the necessary expenses for visitation, due from a church, monastery, or incumbent, etc., to the bishop or archdeacon upon his visitation.
• noun In modern usage, the sum of money paid to a bishop or archdeacon as a commutation for the above provision.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of procuring; procurement.
• noun The management of another's affairs.
• noun The instrument by which a person is empowered to transact the affairs of another; a proxy.
• noun (Ch. of Eng.) A sum of money paid formerly to the bishop or archdeacon, now to the ecclesiastical commissioners, by an incumbent, as a commutation for entertainment at the time of visitation; -- called also proxy.
• noun (Law) money paid for procuring a loan.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The act of procuring; procurement.
• noun The management of another's affairs.
• noun The instrument by which a person is empowered to transact the affairs of another; a proxy.
• noun A sum of money formerly paid to the bishop or archdeacon, now to the ecclesiastical commissioners, by an incumbent, as a commutation for entertainment at the time of visitation; called also proxy.