The Golden Bull

Bull Bull, n. [OE. bulle, fr. L. bulla bubble, stud, knob, LL., a seal or stamp: cf. F. bulle. Cf. {Bull} a writing, {Bowl} a ball, {Boil}, v. i.] 1. A seal. See {Bulla}. [1913 Webster]

2. A letter, edict, or respect, of the pope, written in Gothic characters on rough parchment, sealed with a bulla, and dated ``a die Incarnationis,'' i. e., ``from the day of the Incarnation.'' See Apostolical brief, under {Brief}. [1913 Webster]

A fresh bull of Leo's had declared how inflexible the court of Rome was in the point of abuses. --Atterbury. [1913 Webster]

3. A grotesque blunder in language; an apparent congruity, but real incongruity, of ideas, contained in a form of expression; so called, perhaps, from the apparent incongruity between the dictatorial nature of the pope's bulls and his professions of humility. [1913 Webster]

And whereas the papist boasts himself to be a Roman Catholic, it is a mere contradiction, one of the pope's bulls, as if he should say universal particular; a Catholic schimatic. --Milton. [1913 Webster]

{The Golden Bull}, an edict or imperial constitution made by the emperor Charles IV. (1356), containing what became the fundamental law of the German empire; -- so called from its golden seal. [1913 Webster]

Syn: See {Blunder}. [1913 Webster] ||