The Sovereign Voice ITNJ Commemorative Issue | Page 92

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.’]
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
Bull — the word has connotations, yes?
CE, though not formally legitimized until the
twelfth century when designated as a ‘valid’ letter
For your consideration in this brief article, we from the pope carrying a distinctive bulla – a round
shall explore the legal fiction principle ‘Doctrine of metal seal usually made of lead, though on rare and
Discovery,’ providing an initial eye-opening history solemn occasions (Byzantine imperial deeds) it was
and evolutionary root of Bulla Pontificum, the Papal made of gold. Papal Bulls were usually written in
Bull: a highest proclamation document issued by a antiquated characters known as curialis script and
Roman Pontiff (pope). then traditionally sealed with the bulla, known as
a Great Seal of the Papacy. Looking like an ancient
WHAT IS A PAPAL BULL?
coin, the round bulla depicted heads of the founders
of the Church of Rome, apostles Peter and Paul, with
The Papal Bull is a formal statement, decree, their images separated by a cross on one side, with the
charter, edict or order that is legally binding as a issuing pope’s signature on the reverse side.
command or decision entered on the papal court
record (as if entered by a court or judge). Still By the thirteenth century, Papal Bull referred to all
issued today by the pope, each and every Papal important documents issued by the Pontiff; and
Bull is deliberate and conscious, considered by it morphed to a tersely principal papal record in
the Vatican to be absolute original law for all the fifteenth century when an office of the papal
eternity. These include statutory decrees, chancery was named, ‘registrar of the bulls’ (registrum
dogmatic pronouncements, canonizations of bullarum). Old seals still exist from the eleventh
saints, conferring titles to bishops, episcopal century (none in their entirety before 819 CE),
appointments, dispensations, excommunications, with original leaden bulls remaining from the sixth
apostolic constitutions, convocations, etc. century CE. There are some preserved apart from the
document to which they were once attached.
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