For nearly eight hundred years, they were issued unilaterally, without obligations on the part of the other party or parties. However, this eventually proved disadvantageous as the Byzantines sought to restrain the efforts of foreign powers to undermine the empire. During the 12th century, the Byzantines began to insert into golden bulls sworn statements of the obligations of their negotiating partners.[citation needed]
Etymology
The term was originally coined for the golden seal (a bulla aurea), attached to the decree, but came to be applied to the entire decree. Such decrees were known as golden bulls in western Europe and chrysobullos logos, or chrysobulls, in the Byzantine Empire (χρυσός, chrysos, being Greek for gold).[1]
^Crowley, Roger (2012). City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1400068203.
^750th Anniversary of the Golden Bull Granted by Bela IV Archived 2005-04-28 at the Wayback Machine
^M. Šašić (1998-11-17). "»Zlatna bula« - temelj razvoja Zagreba kroz stoljeća". Vjesnik (in Croatian). Zagreb. Archived from the original on 2009-01-04.
External links
Andrew II of Hungary's Golden Bull of 1222
The Golden Bull of Charles IV 1356
Columbia Encyclopedia article on the Golden Bull
Detailed Information about the Golden Bull
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Bulla Aurea" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.