Brief

Brief, or BREVE, PAPAL (from Lat. brevis, 'short'). The word breve was originally used in the Low Latin of the middle ages for ecclesiastical documents of various kinds—e.g. for inventories of church goods. It now signifies such papal documents as are issued without some of the solemnities proper to bulls, and which assumed a recognised name and form in the 15th century. They were introduced in order to lighten the work of the papal chancery. The brief is written on a sheet of thin white parchment, of greater breadth than height, in current Latin characters. It has a stamp of red wax bearing the impress of the fisherman's ring—i.e. a figure of St Peter hauling in his net, surmounted by the name of the pope. The name of the pope also appears on the first line of the brief, then follows 'Dilecte fili (or the like), salutem et apostolicam benedictionem,' 'In perpetuum,' &c., being sometimes added as in bulls. It ends with the words 'given at Rome at St Peter's under the ring of the fisherman,' followed by the day of the month (not as in bulls according to the old Roman, but according to the modern mode), the year of the Christian era and of the pontificate. It is subscribed by the secretary of briefs. A comparison with the article BULL will show the difference between the two kinds of documents, which has been considerably lessened by the legislation of Pope Leo XIII.