BULLS, PAPAL. Letters issued from the papal chancery, and so named from the bulk or leaden seal which is appended to them. The difference be tween bulls, briefs, and other apatolical rescripts, is noticed under the word BRIEF. Bulls are written on parchment. If they regard matters of justice, the seal is affixed by a hempen cord ; if of grace, by a silken thread. The seal beam on the obverse heads of St. Peter and St. Paul ; on the reverse, the name of the pope, and the date of the year of his pon tificate. In France, in Spain, and in most other kingdoms professing the Roman Catholic faith, bulls are not admitted without previous examination. In Eng land, to procure, to publish, or to use them, is declared high treason by 13 Elia. c. 2. The name bull has also been ap plied to certain constitutions issued by the emperors. In affairs of the greatest importance bullte of gold were employed, whence they were called Golden Bulls.
Eleven tblio volumes, published at Luxemburg, between 1747 and 1758, contain the bulls issued from the pontifi cate of Leo the Great to that of Benedict XIV., from A.D. 461 to A.D. 1757. The
two most celebrated among them are, that In Cana Domini, which is read every year, as these words imply, on the day or the Lord's Supper (Maundy Thursday): it denounces various excommunications against heretics and other opponents of the Romish see : 2, the bull Unigenitus, as it is called from its opening words, "Unigenitus Lei filius," issued by Clement XI. in 1713, condemning 101 propositions in Quesnel's work, or, in other words, supporting the Jesuits against the Jansen. ists in their opinions concerning divine grace.
The most remarkable Imperial Bull is that approved by the Diet of the Ger manic empire in 1356, in which Charles IV. enumerated all the functions, pri vileges, and prerogatives of the electors, and all the formalities observed in the election of an emperor, which were con sidered as fundamental laws till the dis solution of the Germanic body in 1806. We believe that the Latin original is still preserved at Frankfort with the golden seal or bulls, from which it derives its name, appendant to it.