The bull's wording decreed that all prelates or other ecclesiastical superiors who under whatsoever pretext or color shall, without authority from the Holy See, pay to laymen any part of their income or of the revenue of the Church, likewise all emperors, kings, dukes, counts, etc. who shall exact or receive such payments, incur eo ipso the sentence of excommunication. James Loughlin, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1903), interpreted this wording as expressing two underlying principles of this Bull: