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Bull (Instrument edict ordinance)

an instrument, edict, ordinance, or decree of the Pope, equivalent to the proclamations, edicts, letters patent, or ukases of secular princes. Bulls are written on the wrong side of parchment, to which a leaden seal is affixed, and are granted for the consecration of bishops, the promotion to benefices, and the celebration of jubilees, etc. The publication of papal bulls is termed fulmination; and it is done by three commissioners, to whom they are usually addressed. Bulls are generally designated by the first words of their text; thus, the B. Unigenitus, or In Cena Domini, etc.

GOLDEN BULL is the term particularly applied to a statute or enactment of the Emperor Charles IV., published in 1356, in two diets held in succession at Nuremberg and Metz, for the purpose of fixing the laws in the election of the Emperor, and of regulating the number and privileges of the electors (Churfürsten). The original copy of this instrument is preserved at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and has a seal of gold appendant; the appellation "golden bull" is derived.

BULLARD