BULL, among ecclesiastics, a written letter, dispatched, by order of the pope, from the Roman chancery, and sealed with lead, being written on parchment, by which it is partly distinguished from a brief. See the article BRIEF.
It is a kind of apostolical rescript, or edict, and is chiefly in use in matters of justice or grace. If the former be the intention of the bull, the lead is hung by a hempen cord; if the latter, by a silken thread. It is this pendent lead, or seal, which is, properly speaking, the bull, and which is impressed, on one side, with the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, and on the other with the name of the pope and the year of his pontificate. The bull is written in an old, round, gothic letter, and is divided into five parts, the narrative of the fact, the conception, the clause, the date, and the salutation, in which the pope styles himself servus servorum, i. e. the servant of servants.
These instruments, besides the lead hanging to them, have a cross, with some text of scripture, or religious motto, about it. Bulls are granted for the consecration of bishops, the promotion to benefices, and the celebration of jubilees, &c.