BULLA IN COENA DOMINI

BULLA IN COENA DOMINI. — This bull, which enumerates a series of excommunications reserved to the Pope, received its name from being read every year on Holy Thursday (feria V in Coena Domini) in the loggia of the Vatican basilica, in the presence of the Pope, the cardinals, and the papal court. Its origins are uncertain; some authors trace it back to Clement V. Certain chapters are found in the constitution Apostolatus officium issued by Urban V in 1363, in the Quod antidota of Martin V of 1418; in the Olim of Nicholas V of 1451, and in other papal documents.

The earliest version we possess is the Conueverunt of Julius II, from 1511. The definitive version, in 20 chapters, is contained in the Pastoralis of Paul V, dated 8 April 1610.

Fiercely opposed by various sovereigns, especially in Germany and France, resistance to the bull became even greater when, in 1768, Clement XIII excommunicated Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, who had violated the rights of the Holy See and ecclesiastical immunities. The bull was abolished by Clement XIV (1769–74). The principal offenses provided for in it are: heresy and the protection afforded to heretics, appeal from the Pope to a future council, piracy, forgery of letters issued by the Holy See, the promulgation of laws contrary to the freedom of the Church, the occupation of the lands of the Holy See, etc.

BULLARIUM PONTIFICIUM SACRAE CONGREGATIONIS DE PROPAGANDA FIDE. — It consists of five volumes, printed in the following years: the first in 1839, the second and third in 1840, and the fourth and fifth in 1841. Two further volumes of appendices were added to the five volumes, and in 1858 a third, containing the analytical index. The library of Propaganda also preserves a third small volume of appendices.

In the preface to the first volume, the Rev. Paolo Cullen, director of the Propaganda printing press, calls the 1839 edition new in comparison with that of 1745, which consisted of a single volume. Indeed, the Bullarium was preceded by various composite collections, so called because they gathered authentic documents printed at different times. They were intended for the internal use of the Congregation. The first dates from 1638 and the second from 1642; nearly all their documents are printed in the Bullarium. In 1745 there appeared another collection which, besides the title Constitutiones Apostolicae et Brevia ad usum S.C. de Prop. Fide (Roma 1745), also bears the title Bullarium S. C. de Prop. Fide, to which Cullen refers.