Also 3–6 bulle, 6 bul. [ad. L. bulla, denoting various globular objects.]
1. A seal attached to an official document; esp. the leaden seal attached to the Pope’s edicts.
1340. Ayenb., 62. Me ualseþ þe kinges sel oþer þe popes bulle.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., cxci. 167. The pope sente a general sentence vnder his bulles of lede vnto the archebisshop.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., I. III. (Arb.), 74. The byshop of Rome … graunted to the Kynge of Spayne by thauctoritie of his leaden bulles.
1643. Prynne, Open. Gt. Seal, 4. Now the French Kings long before his dayes, used to seale their charters with golden Bulls.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 132. These Letters are not said to be expedited till that Bull is annex’d to them.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v.
2. A papal or episcopal edict or mandate.
1297. R. Glouc., 494. The king vorbed ek in this lond al the popes playdinge Of bullen.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. Prol. 66. And brouȝt vp a Bulle with bisshopes seles.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Grete Sentence, xvi. Sel. Wks. III. 308. Þei magnyfien þe popis bulle more þan þe gospel.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 108/1. And after … toke away hys bullys and wrytynges.
1561. Daus, trans. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573), 209. The Popes Bulles … may well be called Buls, since they be more vayne then bubbles or bladders in the water.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 5. How often hath he sent foorth his roring buls against hir Maiestie.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 492. Then might ye see … Indulgences, Dispenses, Pardons, Bulls, The sport of Winds.
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), I. iii. 134–5. Pius V. … now [1570] published his celebrated bull, excommunicating and deposing Elizabeth.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, II. 63. The bull Unigenitus, which had been … an infraction of French liberties.
3. Applied to a non-ecclesiastical edict. The Golden Bull (Lat. Aurea Bulla), a decree issued by the emperor Charles IV. in 1356 to regulate the election and coronation of an emperor.
1696. Phillips.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Bull, The Golden Bull … on the backside of it there are several knots of black and yellow silk; to which hangs a bull, or seal of gold.
1789–96. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 222.
4. Comb. † bull-driver (see quot.); † bull-founder, one that issues bulls or edicts (perhaps with reference to founding or casting the leaden seals); † bullman, issuer of bulls, said of the Pope; † bull-office, the office for issuing Papal bulls.
1649. Selden, Laws Eng., II. vi. (1739), 33. These *Bull-drivers or Summoners to the Romish Court were no late upstarts.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 1173/2. If these *Bull founders doe charge me with any other thing besides in this article.
1588. Holy Bull & Crusade Rome, 29. All the holines of this Romish *Bulman consisteth onely in externall ceremonies.
1736. J. Serces, Popery Enemy to Script., 112. Before Henry VIII, England paid more into the *Bull-office than all the Roman Catholic Countries put together.
