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The Sovereign Voice
EXTRACTED ARTICLE
By Reverend Dr. Nancy Ash, DD, PhD
THE PAPAL BULLS’ INFAMOUS LEGACY: “DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY”
[Note from the author: This article is not a broad stroke denunciation of Roman Catholicism — far from it. There are many fine Catholics, good people with big hearts. However, we must be aware that there are dark — very dark — moments in the Vatican’s history when it certainly did not live up to its own high moral standards. The following exposes pure truth in an honest, resolute look at shadowy timelines in world history known as the Papal Bulls and their subsequent 500-year doctrine, a ‘Doctrine of Discovery.’]
Bull — the word has connotations, yes?
For your consideration in this brief article, we
shall explore the legal fiction principle ‘Doctrine of Discovery,’ providing an initial eye-opening history and evolutionary root of Bulla Pontificum, the Papal Bull: a highest proclamation document issued by a Roman Pontiff (pope).
WHAT IS A PAPAL BULL?
The Papal Bull is a formal statement, decree, charter, edict or order that is legally binding as a command or decision entered on the papal court record (as if entered by a court or judge). Still issued today by the pope, each and every Papal Bull is deliberate and conscious, considered by the Vatican to be absolute original law for all eternity. These include statutory decrees, dogmatic pronouncements, canonizations of saints, conferring titles to bishops, episcopal appointments, dispensations, excommunications, apostolic constitutions, convocations, etc.
A Papal Bull was (and is) delivered ‘open’ with
a seal attached to the bottom of a single sheet
of parchment (written on only one side). In
terms of context vs. content, let’s say that a Papal Bull is the presentation, format or context for delivering the content or formal decree from any pope. They’ve been in use since the fourth century CE, though not formally legitimized until the twelfth century when designated as a ‘valid’ letter from the pope carrying a distinctive bulla – a round metal seal usually made of lead, though on rare and solemn occasions (Byzantine imperial deeds) it was made of gold. Papal Bulls were usually written in antiquated characters known as curialis script and then traditionally sealed with the bulla, known as
a Great Seal of the Papacy. Looking like an ancient coin, the round bulla depicted heads of the founders of the Church of Rome, apostles Peter and Paul, with their images separated by a cross on one side, with the issuing pope’s signature on the reverse side.
By the thirteenth century, Papal Bull referred to all important documents issued by the Pontiff; and
it morphed to a tersely principal papal record in
the fifteenth century when an office of the papal chancery was named, ‘registrar of the bulls’ (registrum bullarum). Old seals still exist from the eleventh century (none in their entirety before 819 CE),
with original leaden bulls remaining from the sixth century CE. There are some preserved apart from the document to which they were once attached.
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