On the other hand, more general letters, especially those of dogmatic importance, were also called at times tomi; indiculi; commonitoria; epistolae tractoriæ, or simply tractatoriæ.
[1] If the matter were important, the popes issued the letters not by their sole authority, but with the advice of the Roman presbyters or of a synod.
[1] Following the example of the Roman emperors, the popes soon established archives (scrinium) in which copies of their letters were placed as memorials for further use, and as proofs of authenticity.
The first to collect the epistles of the popes in a systematic and comprehensive manner was the monk Dionysius Exiguus, at the beginning of the sixth century.
According to the teaching of the canonists, above all of Gratian, every papal letter of general character was authoritative for the entire Church without further notification.
For papal bulls, legal instruments almost entirely for important matters, the seal was stamped in wax or lead, seldom in gold, enclosed in a case, and fastened to the document by a cord.
Others are to be found in the formularies, many of which appeared unofficially in the Middle Ages, similar in kind to the ancient official Liber Diurnus of the papal chancery in use as late as the time of Gregory VII.
From the thirteenth century on to January 1909, it sufficed, in order to give a papal document legal force, to post it up at Rome on the doors of St. Peter's, of the Lateran, the Apostolic Chancery and in the Piazza del Campo di Fiori, but since 1909 they acquired force only by publication in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.
A motu proprio is a document prepared at the personal initiative of the pope, without previous petition to him, and issued with a partial avoidance of the otherwise customary forms of the chancery.
[1] The document Sapienti Consilio of Pope Pius X decreed that all papal laws were to be promulgated through publication in an official bulletin called the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the first issues of which, at intervals of about twice a month, appeared in 1909.
From 1865 to 1908, papal documents had been published in a similar series under the title Acta Sanctae Sedis, which was declared official in 1904.
Before 1865, papal documents were not systematically published in documentary fashion and were promulgated by other means such as being affixed to the doors of basilicas in Rome.
The documents issued by a bishop are divided according to their form into: pastoral letters, synodal and diocesan statutes, mandates or ordinances or decrees.
The diocesan statutes, regularly speaking, are those episcopal ordinances which, because they refer to more weighty matters, are prepared with the obligatory or facultative co-operation of the cathedral chapter.