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. 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. 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.
Syn.
— See Blunder.
BULLA
Bul"la, n.; pl. Bullæ (. Etym: [L. bulla bubble. See Bull an edict.]
1. (Med.)
Defn: A bleb; a vesicle, or an elevation of the cuticle, containing a transparent watery fluid.
2. (Anat.)
Defn: The ovoid prominence below the opening of the ear in the skulls of many animals; as, the tympanic or auditory bulla.
3. A leaden seal for a document; esp. the round leaden seal attached to the papal bulls, which has on one side a representation of St. Peter and St. Paul, and on the other the name of the pope who uses it.
4. (Zoöl.)
Defn: A genus of marine shells. See Bubble shell.