RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Bridg-ett Briessmann
merely the place and date are given; the bull gives the date according to both the ancient Roman and the Christian calendars and the year of the pope's reign. The most solemn form is used for bulls issued in the consistory (bullce consistoriales) . They are signed by the pope and the cardinals, and are sent out not in the original but in an authorized copy (transcriptum). Of other bulls (non consistoriales) the pope signs only the minute (minuta), and the completed document is signed by the various papal officers who helped in its preparation. The briefs are signed only by the secretary of briefs. Briefs are drawn up in accordance with the special rules of the department in the apostolic secretariate or dataria (see Curia); bulls in the chancery. Leo XIII simplified the procedure in 1878 by ordering that bulls other than consistorial should be written in ordinary script on parchment and sealed only with a red stamp containing the pictures of Peter and Paul and the name of the reigning pope.
The more important briefs and bulls are contained in collections known as bullaria. The oldest collections contained mostly only a small number. To these belong: Bulla diversorum pontificorum a Joanne XXII ad Julium HI a bibliotheca Ludovici Qomes (Rome, 1550), containing only some fifty documents; another from Boniface VIII to Paul IV (1559), with about a hundred and sixty; and one from Gregory VII to Gregory XIII (1579), with 723 documents. The Magnum bullarium Romanum, covering the period from Leo I to the year 1585, was published in 1586, and since has been continued in revised and completed editions. The latest as well as most convenient and complete edition is the Bullarium magnum Romanum, published at Turin by order of Pius IX and under the auspices of Cardinal Gaude (1857-72, 24 vols., covering the years 440-1740). For delimiting bulls {bullce circumscriptionis), see Concordats and Delimiting Bulls. E. Friedberg.
Bibliography: M. Marini, Diplomatica pontificia, Rome, 1841; H. Breslau, Handbuch der Urkundenlehre, i, 67 sqq., Leipsic, 1888; G. Phillips, Kirchenrecht, iii, 640 sqq., Regensburg, 1889; E. Friedberg, Lehrbuch des katholischen und evangelischen Kirchenrechts, Leipsic, 1895.
BRIEGER, bri'ger, JOHANN FRIEDRICH THEO- DOR: German Protestant; b. at Greifswald June 4, 1842; educated at the universities of Greifswald, Erlangen, and Tubingen from 1861 to 1864 (Ph.D., Leipsic, 1870). He became privat-docent at Halle m 1870, and was appointed associate professor of church history in the same university three years later. In 1876 he was called to Marburg as full professor of the same subject, and since 1886 has been professor of church history at Leipsic. In addition to numerous contributions to theological periodicals, he has written Gasparo Contarini und das Regensburger Concordienwerk des Jahres 1541 (Gotha, 1870); De formulae Ratisbonensis origine atque indole (Halle, 1870); Constantin der Grosse ah Religionspolitiker (Gotha, 1880); Die angebliehe Marburger Kirchenordnung von 1527 (1881); Luther und sein Werk (Marburg, 1883); Aleander Mid Luther, 1521 (Gotha, 1884); Die Torgauer Artikel (Leipsic, 1888); Die theologischen Promotio-
nen auf der Universitat Leipzig 1428-1539 (1890); Der Glaube Luthers in seiner Freiheit von menschlichen Autoritdten (1892); Die fortschreitende Entfremdung von der Kirche im Licht der Geschichte (1894); Das Wesen des Ablasses am Ausgange des Mittelatiers (1897); and Zur Geschichte des Augsburger Reichstages von 15S0 (1903). He was also one of the founders of the Zeitschrift filr Kirchengeschichte in 1876, and has been its editor to the present time.
BRIESSMANN, bris'man, JOHANN: Reformer; b. at Cottbus (on the Spree, 43 m. s.s.w. of Frankfort), Brandenburg, Dec. 31, 1483; d. at Konigsberg Oct. 1, 1549. He belonged to a prominent family, and as a Franciscan he studied after 1518 at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and after 1520 at Wittenberg, where he was promoted in 1521 as licentiate and in 1522 as doctor of theology. Influenced by Luther's appearance at the Leipsic disputation with Eck (1519), but more especially by Luther's great reformatory writings of the year 1520, he soon found himself one in the Evangelical faith with his beloved friend. When the Franciscans had to leave Wittenberg, Briessmann went to Cottbus, but on the initiative of Luther he was able to return in 1522. He addressed a reformatory epistle to the congregation at Cottbus, Unterricht und Ermahnung (Cottbus, 1523), and at the instance of Luther wrote a powerful refutation of the attacks of the Franciscan Schatzgeyer upon Luther's De votis monasticis (Wittenberg?, 1523), stating in his declaration to Spalatin that he could not refuse the wish of Luther, " since he felt himself in agreement not so much with a Luther as with the Evangelical truth."
On the recommendation of Luther, he was called in 1523 as preacher to Konigsberg by Albert, the grand master of the Teutonic order (see Albert of Prussia). A Konigsberg chronicler thus describes his life and work: he preached the word with gentleness but with all serious- Preacher ness; many became pious Christians in Kbnigs- and better men; " on account of his berg, godly, honorable, moral life he was 1523-27. beloved by many and his sermons were gladly heard." About the time when he entered upon his pastoral duties he published his Flosculi de homine interiore et exterwre de fide et operibus (ed. P. Tschackert, Gotha, 1887), containing 110 verses in which, following Luther's work "Concerning Christian Liberty," he defends the Evangelical doctrine against Rome and the fanatics. His influence upon Bishop George of Polentz (q.v.) is ssen in the latter's sermon delivered on Christmas day, 1523, in which he publicly expressed his belief in the Evangelical teaching of justification by faith alone. As the bishop did not preach himself, he appointed as his substitute " the learned Dr. Johann Briessmann, a man well versed in the holy scripture." In 1524 the bishop issued his first reformatory mandate, enjoining the ministers to use only the German language in their ministerial acts, and to read Luther's writings, especially his translation of the Bible. Of lasting effect were also certain writings of Briessmann,
Briessmann Brinckerinck