[1] Rescripts may take various forms, from a formal document of an established type, such as a Papal bull, to the forwarding of the demand with a simple mention by way of decision, something like "rejected" or "awarded", either to the party concerned or to the competent executive office to be carried out.
[3] By analogy the term rescript is also applied to similar procedures in other contexts, such as the Ottoman, Chinese and Japanese imperial courts, or even prior to the Roman empire.
While the most common author of a rescript was nominally the emperor, the term referred generally to replies written by various officials from the local or provincial level to bishops in the religious hierarchy.
[4] During the high Roman Empire the emperor had an officer, the magister libellorum, to deal with petitions (Latin: libelli) from citizens and draft replies.
[4] Due to the legal nature of many of those petitions and since the emperor served as a final court of appeal, the office was regularly held by jurists.