BULL-Fighting. a sport or exercise much in vogue among the Spaniards and Portuguese, consisting in a kind of combat of a cavalier or torador against a wild bull, either on foot or on horseback, by riding at him with a lance. The Spaniards have bull-fights, i. e. feasts attended with shows, in honour of St John, the Virgin Mary, &c. This sport the Spaniards received from the Moors, among whom it was celebrated with great eclat. Some think that the Moors might have received the custom from the Romans, and they from the Greeks. Dr Plot is of opinion, that the Taurokatholus among the Thessalians, who first instituted this game, and of whom Julius Cæsar learned and brought it to Rome, were the origin both of the Spanish and Portuguese bull-fighting, and of the English bull-running. This practice was prohibited by Pope Pius V. under pain of excommunication incurred ipso facto. But succeeding popes have granted several mitigations in behalf of the toradors.