A bulla was originally a
circular plate or boss of metal, so called from its resemblance in
form to a bubble floating upon water (Lat. bullire, to
boil). In the course of time the term came to be applied to the
leaden seals with which papal and royal documents were
authenticated in the early Middle Ages, and by a further
development, the name, from designating the seal, was eventually
attached to the document itself. This did not happen before the
thirteenth century and the name bull was only a popular
term used almost promiscuously for all kinds of instruments which
issued from the papal chancery. A much more precise acceptance has
prevailed since the fifteenth century, and a bull has long stood
in sharp contrast with certain other forms of papal documents. For
practical purposes a bull may be conveniently defined to be "an
Apostolic letter with a leaden seal," to which one may add
that in its superscription the pope invariably takes the title of
episcopus, servus servorum Dei.
In official language papal documents
have at all times been called by various names, more or less
descriptive of their character. For example, there are
"constitutions," i.e., decisions addressed to all the
faithful and determining some matter of faith or discipline;
"encyclicals," which are letters sent to all the bishops
of Christendom, or at least to all those in one particular
country, and intended to guide them in their relations with their
flocks; "decrees," pronouncements on points affecting
the general welfare of the Church; "decretals"
(epistolae decretales), which are papal replies to some
particular difficulty submitted to the Holy See, but having the
force of precedents to rule on all analogous cases. "Rescript,"
again, is a form applicable to almost any form of Apostolic letter
which has been elicited by some previous appeal, while the nature
of a "privilege" speaks for itself. But all these, down
to the fifteenth century, seem to have been expedited by the papal
chancery in the shape of bulls authenticated with leaden seals,
and it is common enough to apply the term bull even to
those very early papal letters of which we know little more than
the substance, independently of the forms under which they were
issued.
It will probably be most convenient
to divide the subject into periods, noting the more characteristic
features of papal documents in each age.
I. EARLIEST TIMES TO ADRIAN I
(772). -- There can be no doubt that the formation of a
chancery or bureau for drafting and expediting of official papers
was a work of time. Unfortunately, the earliest papal documents
known to us are only preserved in copies or abstracts from which
it is difficult to draw any safe conclusions as to the forms
observed in issuing the originals. For all that, it is practically
certain that no uniform rules can have been followed as to
superscription, formula of salutation, conclusion, or signature.
It was only when some sort of registry was organized, and copies
of earlier official correspondence became available, that a
tradition gradually grew up of certain customary forms that ought
not to be departed from. Except for the unsatisfactory mention of
a body of notaries charged with keeping a record of the Acts of
the Martyrs, c. 235 (Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis, I, pp. c-c1),
we meet with no clear reference to the papal archives until the
time of Julius I (337-353), though in the pontificate of Damascus,
before the end of the same century, there is mention of a building
appropriate to this special purpose. Here, in the scrinium,
or archivium sanctæ Romanæ ecclesiæ, the
documents must have been registered and kept in a definite order,
for extracts and copies still in existence preserve traces of
their numbering. These collections or regesta went back to the
time of Pope Gelasius (492-496) and probably earlier. In the
correspondence of Pope Hormisdas (514-525) there are indications
of some official endorsement recording the date at which letters
addressed to him were received, and for the time of St. Gregory
the Great (590-604) Ewald has been at least partially successful
in reconstructing the books which contained the copies of the
pope's epistles. There can be little doubt that the Pontifical
chancery of which we thus infer the existence was modeled upon
that of the imperial court. The scrinium, the regionary
notaries, the higher officials such as the primicerius and
the secundarius, the arrangement of the Regesta by
indictions, etc., are all probably imitations of the practice of
the later empire. Hence we may infer that the code of recognized
forms soon established itself, analogous to that observed by the
imperial notaries. One formulary of this description is probably
still preserved to us in the book called "Liber Diurnus,"
the bulk of which seems to be inspired by the official
correspondence of Pope Gregory the Great. In the earlier papal
letters, however, there are as yet but few signs of the observance
of traditional forms. Sometimes the document names the pope first,
sometimes the addressee. For the most part the pope bears no title
except Sixtus episcopus or Leo episcopus catholicae
ecclesiæ, sometimes, but more rarely he is called Papa.
Under Gregory the Great, (servant of the servants of God) was
often added after episcopus -- Gregory, it is said, having
selected this designation as a protest against the arrogance of
the Patriarch of Constantinople, John the Faster, who called
himself "Ecumenical Bishop." But though several of St.
Gregory's successors followed him in this preference, it was not
until the ninth century that the phrase came to be used invariably
in documents of moment. Before Pope Adeodatus (elected 672) few
salutations were found, but he used the form "salutatem a Deo
et benedictionem nostram." The now consecrated phrase
"salutatem et apostolicam benedictionem" hardly ever
occurs before the tenth century. The Benedictine authors of
"Nouveau traité de diplomatique" in ascribing a
much earlier date to this formula were misled by a forged bull
purporting to be addressed to the monastery at St. Benignus at
Dijon. Again, in these early letters the pope often addressed his
correspondent, more especially when he was a king or a person of
high dignity, by the plural Vos. As ages went on, this
became rarer, and by the second half of the twelfth century, it
had completely disappeared. On the other hand, it may be noticed
incidentally that persons of all ranks, in writing to the pope,
invariably addressed him as Vos. Sometimes a salutation was
introduced by the pope at the end of his letter just before the
date--for example, "Deus te incolumem custodiat" or
"Bene vale frater carissime." This final salutation was
a matter of importance, and it is held by high authorities
(Bresslau, "Papyrus und Pergament, 21; Ewald in Neues
Archiv," III, 548) that it was added in the pope's own hand,
and that it was the equivalent of his signature. The fact that in
classical times the Romans authenticated their letters not by
signing their names, but by a word of farewell, lends probability
to this view. In the earliest original Bulls preserved to us BENE
VALETE is written at full length in capitals. Moreover, we have at
least some contemporary evidence of the practice before the time
of Pope Adrian. The text of a letter of Pope Gregory the Great is
preserved in a marble inscription at the basilica of St. Paul
Outside the Walls. As the letter directs that the document itself
is to be returned to the papal archives (Scrinium), we may
assume that the copy on stone accurately represents the original.
It is addressed to Felix the subdeacon and concludes with the
formula BENE VALE. Dat. VIII Kalend. Februarius imp. du. n. Phoca
PP. anno secundo, et consultatus eius anno primo, indict. 7. This
suggests that such letters were fully dated and indeed we find
traces of dating even in extant copies as early as the time of
Pope Siricius (384-398). We have also some bullæ or
leaden seals preserved apart from the documents to which they were
once attached. One of these dates back perhaps to the pontificate
of John III (560-573) and another certainly belongs to Deusdedit
(615-618). The earliest specimens simply bear the pope's name on
one side and the word papæ on the other.
II. SECOND PERIOD (772-1048).
-- In the time of Pope Adrian the support of Pepin and Charlemagne
had converted the patrimony of the Holy See into a sort of
principality. This no doubt paved the way for changes in the forms
observed in the chancery. The pope now takes the first place in
the superscription of letters unless they are addressed to
sovereigns. We also find the leaden seal used more uniformly. But
especially we must attribute to the time of Adrian the
introduction of the "double date" endorsed at the foot
of the bull. The first date began with the word Scriptum
and after a chronological entry, which mentioned only the month
and the indiction, added the name of the functionary who drafted
or engrossed the document. The other, beginning with Data
(in later ages Datum), indicated, with a new and more
detailed specification of year and day, the name of the dignitary
who issued the bull after it had received its final stamp of
authenticity by the addition of the seal. The pope still wrote the
words BENE VALETE in capitals with a cross before and after, and
in certain bulls of Pope Sylvester II we find some few words added
in shorthand or "Tyronian notes." In other cases the
BENE VALETE is followed by certain dots and by a big comma, by a S
S (subscripsi), or by a flourish, all of which no doubt
served as a personal authentication. To this period belong the
earliest extant bulls preserved to us in their original shape.
They are all written upon very large sheets of papyrus in a
peculiar handwriting of the Lombard type, called sometimes littera
romana. The annexed copy of a facsimile in Mabillion's "De
re diplomaticâ" reproducing part of a bull of Pope
Nicolaus I (863), with the editor's interlinear decipherment, will
serve to give an idea of the style of writing. As these characters
were even then not easily read outside of Italy it seems to have
been customary in some cases to issue at the same time a copy upon
parchment in ordinary minuscule. A French writer of the tenth
century speaking of a privilege obtained from Pope Benedict VII
(975-984) says that the petitioner going to Rome obtained a decree
duly expedited and ratified by apostolic authority, two copies of
which, one in our own character (nostra littera) on
parchment, the other in the Roman character on papyrus, he
deposited on his return in our archives. (Migne, P. L., CXXXVII,
817) Papyrus seems to have been used almost uniformly as the
material for these official documents until the early years of the
eleventh century, after which it was rapidly superseded by a rough
kind of parchment. Apart from a small fragment of a bull from
Adrian I (22 January, 788) preserved in the national library at
Paris, the earliest original bull that remains to us is one of
Pope Paschal I (11 July, 819). It is still to be found in the
capitular archives of Ravenna, to which church it was originally
addressed. The total number of papyrus bulls at present known to
be in existence is twenty-three, the latest being one issued by
Benedict VIII (1012-24) for the monastery of Hildesheim. All these
documents at one time had leaden seals appended to them, though in
most cases these have disappeared. The seal was attached with
laces of hemp and it still bore only the name of the pontiff and
the word papæ on the other. After the year 885, the
letters of the pope's name were usually stamped round the seal in
a circle with a cross in the middle.
The details specified in the "double
dates" of these early bulls afford a certain amount of
indirect information about the personnel of the papal chancery.
The phrase scriptum per manum is vague and leaves uncertain
whether the person mentioned was the official who drafted or
merely engrossed the bull, but we hear in this connection of
persons described as notarius, scriniarius (archivist),
proto scrinarius sanctæ Romanæ ecclesiæ,
cancellarius, ypocancellarius, and after 1057 of camerarius,
or later still notarius S. palatii. On the other hand, the
datarius, the official mentioned under the heading data,
who presumably delivered the instrument to the parties, after
having superintended the subscriptions and the apposition of the
seal, seems to have been an official of still higher consequence.
In earlier documents he bears the titles primicerius sanctæ
sedis apostolicae, senior et consiliarius, etc., but as early
as the ninth century we have the well-known phrase bibliothecarius
sanctæ sedis apostolicæ, and later cancellarius
and bibliothecarius, as a combined title borne by a
cardinal, or perhaps by more than one cardinal at once. Somewhat
later still (under Innocent III), the cancellarius seemed to have
threatened to develop into a functionary who was dangerously
powerful, and the office was suppressed. A vice-chancellor
remained, but this dignity also was abolished before 1352. But
this of course was much later than the period we have now reached.
III. THIRD PERIOD (1048-1198).
-- The accession of Leo IX, in 1048, seems to have inaugurated a
new era in the procedure of the chancery. A definite tradition had
by this time been created, and though there is still much
development we find uniformity of usage in documents of the same
nature. It is at this point that we begin to have clear
distinctions between two classes of bulls of greater and less
solemnity. The Benedictine authors of "Nouveau traité
de diplomatique" call them great and little bulls. Despite a
protest in modern times from M. Léopold Delisle, who would
prefer to describe the former class as "privileges" and
the latter as "letters," this nomenclature has been
found sufficiently convenient, and it corresponds, at any rate, to
a very marked distinction observable in the papal documents of the
eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. The most
characteristic features of the "great bulls" are the
following:
(1) In the superscription the words
servus servorum Dei are followed by a clause of perpetuity,
e.g., in perpetuam memoriam (abbreviated into IN PP. M) or
ad perpetuam rei memoriam. In contrast to this the little
bulls usually have salutatem et apostolicam benedictionem,
but those words also appear in some great bulls after the clause
of perpetuity.
(2) After the second quarter of the
twelfth century, the great bulls were always subscribed by the
pope and a certain number of cardinals (bishops, priests, and
deacons). The names of the cardinal-bishops are written in the
center, under that of the pope; those of cardinal-priests on the
left, and those of cardinal-deacons on the right, while an
occasional blank shows that space has been left for the name of a
cardinal who accidentally failed to be present. The pope has no
cross before his name; the cardinals have. Earlier than this, even
the great bulls were subscribed by the pope alone, unless they
embodied conciliar or consistorial decrees, in which case the
names of cardinals and bishops were also appended.
(3) At the foot of the document to
the left of the signature of the pope is placed the rota or
wheel. In this the outer portion of the wheel is formed by two
concentric circles and within the space between these circles is
written the pope's signum or motto, generally a brief text
of scripture chosen by the new pontiff at the beginning of his
reign. Thus Leo IX's motto was "Miseracordia domini plena est
terra," Adrian IV's "Oculi mei semper ad dominum."
Before the words of the motto a cross is always marked, and this
is believed to have been traced by the hand of the pope himself.
Not only in the case of the pope, but even in the case of the
cardinals, the signatures appear not to have been their own actual
handwriting. In the center of the rota we have the names of Sts.
Peter and Paul, above and beneath them the name of the reigning
pope.
(4) To the right of the signature
opposite the rota stands monogram which stands for Bene Valete.
From the time of Leo IX, and possibly somewhat earlier, the words
are never written in full, but as a sort of grotesque. It seems
clear that the Bene Valete is no longer to be regarded as
the equivalent of the pope's signature or authentification. It is
simply an interesting survival of an earlier form of salutation.
(5) As regards the body of the
document, the pope's letter, in the case of great bulls always
ends with certain imprecatory and prohibitory clauses, Decernimus
ergo, etc., Siqua igitur, etc. On the other hand,
Cunctis autem, etc., is a formula of blessing. These and
the like clauses are generally absent from the "little
bulls," but when they appear--and this happens sometimes--the
wording used is somewhat different.
(6) In the eleventh century it was
usual to write Amen at the end of the text of a bull and to repeat
it as many time as necessary to fill up the line.
(7) In appending the date, or more
precisely, in adding the clause which begins the datum, the
custom was to enter the place, the name of the datarius, the day
of the month (expressed according to the Roman method) the
indiction, the year of Our Lord's Incarnation, and the regnal year
of the pontiff, who is mentioned by his name. An example from a
bull of Adrian IV will make the matter clear: "Datum Laterani
per manu Rolandi sanctæ Romanæ ecclesiæ
presbyteri cardinalis et cancellarii, XII Kl. Junii, indic. Vo,
anno dominicae incar. MCLVIIo pontificatus vero domini Adriani
papæ quarti anno tertio."
Before this period it was also usual
to insert the first dating clause, "Scriptum," and there
was sometimes an interval of a few days between the "Scriptum"
and the "Datum." The use of the double date, however,
soon came to be neglected even in "great bulls" and
before 1124 it had gone out of fashion. This was probably a result
of the general employment of "little bulls," the more
distinctive features of which may now be specified.
(1) Although great and little bulls
alike begin with the pope's name--Urbanius, let us say, or Leo,
"episcopus, servus servorum Dei"--in the little bulls we
have no clause of perpetuity, but instead of it there follows
immediately "salutatem et apostolicam benedictionem."
(2) The formulae of imprecation,
etc., at the end only occur by exception, and they are in any case
more precise than those of the great bulls.
(3) The little bulls have no rota, no
Bene Valete monogram and no subscription of pope and
cardinals.
The purpose served by this
distinction between the great and little bulls becomes tolerably
clear when we look more narrowly into the nature of their contents
and the procedure followed in expediting them. Excepting those
which are concerned with purposes of great solemnity or public
interest, the majority of the "great bulls" now in
existence are in the nature of confirmations of property or
charters of protection accorded to monasteries and religious
institutions. At an epoch when there was much fabrication of such
documents, those who procured bulls from Rome wished at any cost
to secure that the authenticity of their bulls should be above
suspicion. A papal confirmation, under certain conditions, could
be pleaded as itself constituting sufficient evidence of title in
cases where the original deed had been lost or destroyed. Now the
"great bulls" on account of their many formalities and
the number of hands they passed through, were much more secure
from fraud of all kinds, and the parties interested were probably
willing to defray the additional expenditure that might be
entailed by this form of instrument. On the other hand, by reason
of the same multiplication of formalities, the drafting, signing,
stamping, and delivery of a great bull was necessarily a matter of
considerable time and labor. The little bulls were much more
expeditious. Hence we are confronted by the curious anomaly that
during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, when both
forms of document were in use, the contents of the little bulls
are, from an historical point of view immensely more interesting
and important than those of the bulls in solemn form. Of course
the little bulls may themselves be divided into various
categories. The distinction between litteræ communes
and curiales seems rather to have belonged to a later
period, and to have rather concerned the manner of entry in the
official "Regesta," the communes being copies
into the general collection, the curiales into a special
volume in which documents were preserved which by reason of their
form or their contents stood apart from the rest. We may note,
however, the distinction between tituli and mandamenta.
The tituli were letters of a gracious character--donations,
favors, or confirmations constituting a "title." They
were indeed little bulls and lacked the subscriptions of
cardinals, the rota etc., but on the other hand, they preserved
certain features of solemnity. Brief imprecatory clauses, like
Nulli ergo, Si quis autem, are usually included, the pope's
name at the beginning is written in large letters, and the initial
is an ornamental capital, while the leaden seal is attached with
silken laces of red and yellow. As contrasted with the tituli,
the mandamenta, which were the "orders," or
instructions, of the popes, observe fewer formalities, but are
more business-like and expeditious. They have no imprecatory
clauses, the pope's name is written with an ordinary capital
letter, and the leaden seal is attached with hemp. But it was by
means of these little bulls, or litteræ, and notably
of the mandamenta, that the whole papal administration,
both political and religious, was conducted. In particular, the
decretals, on which the whole science of Canon Law is built up,
invariably took this form.
IV. FOURTH PERIOD (1198-1431).
-- Under Innocent III, there again took place what was practically
a reorganization of the papal chancery. But even apart from this,
we might find sufficient reason for beginning a new epoch at this
date in the fact that the almost complete series of Regesta
preserved in the Vatican archives go back to this pontificate. It
must not, of course, be supposed that all the genuine bulls issued
at Rome were copied into the Regesta before they were transmitted
to their destination. There are many perfectly authentic bulls
which are not found there, but the existence of this series of
documents places the study of papal administration from this time
forward on a new footing. Moreover, with their aid it is possible
to make out an almost complete itinerary of the medieval popes,
and this alone is a matter of considerable importance. In light of
the Regesta were are able to understand more clearly the working
of the papal chancery. There were, it seems, four principals
bureaus or offices. At the office of the "Minutes"
certain clerks (clerici), in those days really clerics, and
known then or later as abbreviatores, drew up in precise
form the draft (litera notata) of the document to be issued
in the pope's name. Then this draft, after being revised by a
higher official (either one of the notaries or the
vice-chancellor) passed to the "Engrossing" office,
where other clerks, called grossatores or scriptores,
transcribed in a large official hand (in grossam literam)
the copy or copies to be sent to the parties. At the
"Registration" office again it was the duty of the
clerks to copy such documents into the books, known as Regesta,
specially kept for the purpose. Why only some were copied and
others not, is still uncertain, though it seems probable that in
any cases this was done at the request of the parties interested,
who were made to pay for the privilege which was regarded as an
additional security. Lastly, at the office of "Bulls,"
the seal, which now bore the heads of the two apostles on one
side, and the name of the pope on the other, was affixed by the
officials called bullatores or bullarii. At the
beginning of the thirteenth century, the great bulls, or
privilegia, as they were then usually called, with their
complex forms and multiple signatures became notably more rare,
and when the papal court was transferred to Avignon in 1309 they
fell practically into disuse save for a few extraordinary
occasions. The lesser bulls (litteræ) were divided,
as we have seen, into tituli and mandamenta, which
became more and more clearly distinguished from each other not
only in their contents and formulæ but in the matter of
writing. Moreover, the rule of authenticating the letter with a
leaden seal began in certain cases to be broken through, in favor
of a seal of wax bearing the impression of the "ring of the
fisherman." The earliest mention of the new practice seems to
occur in a letter of Pope Clement IV to his nephew (7 March,
1265). We do not write [he says] to thee or to our intimates under
a [leaden] bull, but under the signet of the fisherman which the
Roman pontiffs use in their private affairs. (Potthast, Regesta,
no, 19,051) Other examples are forthcoming belonging to the same
century. The earliest impression of this seal now preserved seems
to be one lately discovered in the treasury of the Sancta
Sanctorum at the Lateran, and belonging to the time of Nicholas
III (1277-80). It represents St. Peter fishing with a rod and line
and not as at present drawing his net.
V. FIFTH PERIOD (1431-1878).
-- The introduction of briefs, which occurred at the beginning of
the pontificate of Eugenius IV, was clearly prompted for the same
desire for greater simplicity and expedition which had already
been responsible for the disappearance of the greater bulls and
the general adoption of the less cumbersome mandamenta. A
brief (breve, i.e., "short") was a compendious
papal letter which dispensed with some of the formalities
previously insisted on. It was written on vellum, generally
closed, i.e., folded, and sealed in red wax with the ring of the
fisherman. The pope's name stands first, at the top, normally
written in capital letters thus: PIUS PP III; and instead of the
formal salutation in the third person used in bulls, the brief at
once adopts a direct form of address, e.g., Dilecte
fili--Carissime in Christo fili, the phrase being adapted to
the rank and character of the addressee. The letter begins by way
of preamble with a statement of the case and cause of writing and
this is followed by certain instructions without minatory clauses
or other formulæ. At the end the date is expressed by the
day of the month and year with a mention of the seal--for example
in this form: Datum Romae apud Sanctum Petrum, sub annulo
Piscatoris die V Marii, MDLXXXXI, pont. nostri anno primo. The
year here specified, which is used in dating briefs, is probably
to be understood in any particular case as the year of the
Nativity, beginning 25 December. Still this is not an absolute
rule, and the sweeping statements sometimes made in this matter
are not to be trusted, for it is certain that in some instances
the years meant are ordinary years, beginning with the first of
January. (See Giry, "Manuel de diplomatique," pp. 126,
696, 700.) A similar want of uniformity is observed in the dating
of bulls though, speaking generally, from the middle of the
eleventh century to the end of the eighteenth, bulls are dated by
the years of the incarnation, counted from 25 March. After the
institution of briefs by Pope Eugenius IV, the use of even lesser
bulls, in the form of mandamenta, became notably less
frequent. Still, for many purposes, bulls continued to be
employed--for example in canonizations (in which case special
forms are observed, the pope by exception signing his own name,
under which is added a stamp imitating the rota as well as the
signatures of several cardinals), as also in the nomination of
bishops, promotion to certain benefices, some particular marriage
dispensations, etc. But the choice of the precise form of
instrument was often quite arbitrary. For example, in granting the
dispensation which enabled Henry VIII to marry his brother's
widow, Catherine of Aragon, two forms of dispensation were issued
by Julius II, one a brief, seemingly expedited in great haste, and
the other a bull which was sent on afterwards. Similarly we may
notice that, while the English Catholic hierarchy was restored in
1850 by a brief, Leo XIII in the first year of his reign used a
bull to establish the Catholic episcopate of Scotland. So also the
Society of Jesus, suppressed by a brief in 1773, was restored by a
bull in 1818. A very interesting account of the formalities which
had to be observed in procuring bulls in Rome at the end of the
fifteenth century in contained in the "Practica"
recently published by Schmitz-Kalemberg.
VI. SIXTH PERIOD: SINCE 1878.
-- Ever since the sixteenth century the briefs have been written
in a clear Roman hand upon a sheet of vellum of convenient size,
while even the wax with its guard of silk and the impression of
the fisherman's ring was replaced in 1842 by a stamp which affixed
the same devices in red ink. The bulls, on the other hand, down to
the death of Pope Pius IX retained many medieval features apart
from their great size, leaden seal, and Roman fashion of dating.
In particular, although from about 1050 to the reformation the
writing employed in the papal chancery did not noticeably differ
from the ordinary book-hand familiar throughout Christendom, the
engrossers of papal bulls, even after the sixteenth century, went
on using an archaic and very artificial type of writing known as
scrittura bollatica, with manifold contractions and an
absence of all punctuation, which was practically undecipherable
by ordinary readers. It was in fact the custom in issuing a bull
to accompany it with a transsumption, or copy, in ordinary
handwriting. This condition of things was put an end to by a motu
proprio issued by Leo XIII shortly after his election. Bulls
are now written in the same clear Roman script that is used for
briefs, and in view of the difficulties arising from transmission
by post, the old leaden seal is replaced in many cases by a simple
stamp bearing the same device in red ink. In spite, however, of
these simplifications, and although the pontifical chancery is now
as an establishment much reduced in numbers, the conditions under
which bulls are prepared are still very intricate. There are still
four different "roads" which a bull may follow in its
making. The via di cancellaria, in which the document is
prepared by the abbreviatori of the chancery, is the
ordinary way but it is, and especially was, so beset with
formalities and consequential delays (see Schmitz-Kalemberg,
Practica) that Paul III instituted the via di camera (see
APOSTOLIC CAMERA) to evade them, in the hope of making the
procedure more expeditious. But if the process was more
expeditious, it was not less costly, so St. Pius V, in 1570,
arranged for the gratuitous issue of certain bulls by the via
segreta; and to these was added, in 1735, the via di curia,
intended to meet exceptional cases of less formal and more
personal interest. In the three former processes, the Cardinal
Vice-Chancellor, who is at the same time "Sommista," is
the functionary now theoretically responsible. In the last case it
is the Cardinal "Pro-Datario," and he is assisted in
this charge by the "Cardinal Secretary of Briefs." As
the mention of this last office suggests, the minutanti
employed in the preparation of briefs form a separate department
under the presidency of a Cardinal Secretary and a prelate his
substitute.
SPURIOUS BULLS. -- There
can be no doubt that during a great part of the Middle Ages papal
and other documents were fabricated in a very unscrupulous
fashion. A considerable portion of the early entries in
chartularies of almost every class are not only open to grave
suspicion, but are often plainly spurious. It is probable,
however, that the motive for their forgeries was not criminal.
They were prompted by the desire of protecting monastic property
against tyrannical oppressors who, when title deeds were lost or
illegible, persecuted the holders and extorted large sums as the
price of charters of confirmation. No doubt, less creditable
motives--e.g., an ambitious desire to exalt consideration of their
own house--were also operative, and while lax principles in this
matter prevailed almost universally it is often difficult to
distinguish the purpose for which a papal bull was forged. A
famous early example of such forgery is supplied by two papyrus
bulls which profess to have been addressed to the Abbey of St.
Benignus at Dijon by Popes John V (685) and Sergius I (697), and
which were accepted as genuine by Mabillion and his confrères.
M. Delisle has, however, proved they are fabrications made out of
later bull addressed by John XV in 995 to Abbot William, one side
of which was blank. The document was cut in half by the forger and
furnished him with sufficient papyrus for two not unsuccessful
fabrications. Though deceived in this one instance, Mabillion and
his successors, Dom Toustain and Dom Tassin, have supplied the
most valuable criteria by the aid of which to detect similar
fabrications, and their work has been ably carried on in modern
times by scholars like Jaffé, Wattenbach, Ewald, and many
more. In particular a new test has been furnished by the more
careful study of the cursus, or rhythmical cadence of
sentences, which were most carefully observed in the authentic
bulls of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. It would be
impossible to go into details here, but it may be said that M.
Noæl Valois, who first investigated the matter, seems to
have touched upon the points of primary importance. Apart from
this, forged bulls are now generally detected by blunders in the
dating clauses and other formalities. In the Middle Ages one of
the principal tests of the genuineness of bulls seems to have been
supplied by counting the number of points in the circular outline
of the leaden seal or in the figure of St. Peter depicted on it.
The bullatores apparently followed some definite rule in
engraving their dies. Finally, regarding these same seals, it may
be noted that when a bull was issued by a newly elected pope
before his consecration, only the heads of the Apostles were
stamped on the bulla, without the pope's name. These are
called bullæ dimidiatæ. The use of golden bullæ
(bullæ aureæ), though adopted seemingly from
the thirteenth century (Giry, 634) for occasions of exceptional
solemnity, is too rare to call for special remark. One noteworthy
instance in which a golden seal was used was that of the bull by
which Leo X conferred upon King Henry VIII the title of Fidei
Defensor.
ORTOLAN in Dict.
de théol, cath., II, 1255-63--see
remark, page 49, col. 2; GRISAR in Kirchenlex.,
II, 1482-95; GIRY, Manuel de diplomatique
(Paris, 1894), 661-704--an excellent summary of the whole subject;
PFLUGK-HARTTUNG, Die Bullen der Papste
(Gotha, 1901)--mainly concerned with the period before Innocent
III; MELAMPO in Miscellanea di Storia e
Cultura Ecclesiastica (1905-07), a
valuable series of articles not too technical in character, by a
Custodian of the Vatican Archives; MAS-LATRIE, Les
élementes de diplomatique pontificale in Revue des
questions historiques (Paris, 1886-87),
XXXIX and XLI; DE KAMP, Zum päpstlichen
Urkundenwesen in Mittheilungen des Inst. f. Oesterr.
Geschichtesforschung (Vienna, 1882-83),
III and IV, and in Historiches Jahrbuch,
1883, 1883, IV; DELISLE, Des régitres
d'Innocent III in Bibliothèque de
l'écoles des chartes (Paris,
1853-54), with many other articles; BRESSLAU,
Handbuch der Urkundenlehre (Leipzig, 1889),
I, 120-258; DE ROSSI, Preface to Codices
Palatini Latin Bib. Vat. (Rome, 1886);
BERGER, preface to Les régistres
d'Innocent IV (Paris, 1884); KEHR AND
BRACKMANN, Päpsturkunden in
various numbers of the Göttinger
Nachrichten (Phil. Hist. Cl., 1902-04);
KEHR, Scrinium und Palatium in
the Austrian Mittheilungen,
Ergänzungsband, VI; PITRA,
Analecta Novissima Solesmensia (Tusculum,
1885), I; SCHMITZ-KALEMBERG, Practica
(1904). Among earlier works mention may be
made of MABILLION, De Re Diplomaticâ
(Paris, 1709), and the
Nouveau traité de diplomatique by
the Benedictines of Saint-Maur (Paris, 1765, VI volumes).
EARLY BULLS--BRESSLAU,
Papyrus und Pergament in der päpstlichen Kanzlei in the
Mittheilungen der Instituts für Oest. Geschichtsforschung
(Innsbruck, 1888), IX; OMONT, Bulles pontificales sur papyrus
in Bibl. les l'école des chartes (Paris, 1904), XLV;
EWALD, Zur Diplomatik Silvesters II in Neues Archiv
(Hanover, 1884), IX; KEHR, Scrinium und Palatium in the
Austrian Mittheilungen, Ergänzungsband, (Innsbruck,
1901) VI; KEHR, Verschollene Papyrusbullen in Quellen
und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven (Rome, 1907), X,
216-224; RODOLICO, Note paleografiche e diplomatiche
(Bologna, 1900).
For facsimiles
both of early bulls and their seals, the great collection of
PFLUGK-HARTTUNG, Specimina Selecta Chartarum Pontificum
Romanorum (3 vols., Stuttgart, 1887) is of primary importance
but isolated facsimiles are to be found elsewhere.
On the cursus it
will be sufficient to mention the article of NOĒL VALOIS,
Etudes sur le rythme des bulles pontificales in Bibl de
l'école des chartes (1881), XLII, and DE SANTI, Il
Cursus nella storia litter. e nella liturgia (Rome, 1903).
HERBERT THURSTON
