A publication or announcement of the pope, proceeding directly
from him, or as is more frequently the case in modern times,
issued by papal officials to whom such authority has been
delegated. The first example apart from the Epistles of Saint
Peter is that of Pope Clement I. Their use increased in
proportion with the development of papal primacy, and questions
of faith or morals were subjects for letters, variously known
with reference to their legal character, as decreta, statuta,
decretalia constituta. More general letters, especially those of
dogmatic importance, were called tomi, indiculi, commonitoria,
epistolae tractoriae, etc. They were early incorporated in
collections of canon law and ranked with canons of synods in
importance and obligation. The early popes insisted that
rescripts issued for individual cases should be observed in
analogous ones, an example followed by the popes of the Middle
Ages, a period during which the number of papal letters
increased enormously. According to the canonists, Gr