BULLA IN COENA DOMINI. - This bull, which enumerates a series of excommunications reserved to the Pope, took its name from being read every year on Maundy Thursday (feria V in Coena Domini) in the loggia of the Vatican basilica in the presence of the Pope, the cardinals and the pontifical court. Its beginnings are uncertain; there is no lack of authors who trace it back to Clement V. Some 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 pontifical documents.
The first redaction we have is the Conueverunt, of Julius II, of 1511. The definitive one, in 20 chapters, is in the Pastoralis of Paul V, of 8 April 1610.
Bitterly fought by various sovereigns, especially in Germany and in France, the opposition to the bull became even greater when in 1768 Clement XIII excommunicated Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, a violator of the rights of the Holy See and of ecclesiastical immunities. The bull was abolished by Clement XIV (1769-74). The principal crimes provided for in it are: heresy and the protection given to heretics, the appeal from the Pope to a future council, piracy, the falsification of letters issued by the Holy See, the promulgation of laws contrary to the liberty of the Church, the occupation of the lands of the Holy See, etc.
Bibliography
Alberto Scola