Otto, by the grace of God and the Apostolic See, Bishop of Constance

To all prelates, rectors, parish priests, vice-parish priests, canons, chaplains, presbyters, and clerics, both secular and regular, throughout our city and diocese, both present and future, eternal health in the Lord. The governor and ruler of all heavenly and earthly things, disposing all things on earth with equal moderation, has willed that there be makers of laws in both spiritual and secular matters, so that men, having cast off vices and insolence, might live more humanely according to the law of nature and recognize themselves, and so that justice might be strengthened, equity might flourish, and the brightness of honesty might become known, such that a harmful appetite, being established under the rule of law, may harm no one and may give each person their own right. Therefore, induced by this consideration, we have collected into one volume or booklet various synodal constitutions of our predecessors, dispersed in different codices, under due modification, adding to these some new ones that are founded upon the law, serve equity, and contain honesty. These, by our ordinary authority, we command to be inviolably observed by you. We desire that all subject to us use these below as synodal statutes in the future, and every dean subject to us is bound to have this same volume or booklet under his seal, or that of his deputy, and to publish it twice a year at least, without any excuse, to his brothers and others whom it concerns in the rural chapter.

A large, colorful woodcut coat of arms for Otto von Sonnenberg, Bishop of Constance. The crest features a red and gold mitre, a crozier, and a sun emblem, flanked by red and green feathers. The shield is divided into four quarters: 1) A silver field with a red cross (the Diocese of Constance); 2) Six horizontal bands of gold and blue (Sonnenberg); 3) A silver field with three black lions walking (Waldburg); 4) A blue field with a sun in splendor in gold (Sonnenberg). The shield is framed by ornate acanthus leaf mantling in red, green, and gold.

In the first place, therefore, we most devoutly accept all and singular things long ago celebrated and ordained in the sacred provincial council of Mainz by the lord of reverent memory, formerly Konrad, then Archbishop and Metropolitan of that place, regarding both the Catholic faith and the veneration and memory of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His most blessed mother, the ever-virgin Mary, and for the reformation of morals, and we command that they be inviolably observed by all our subjects. And we grant similar indulgences, namely of forty days, throughout our city and diocese, from the mercy of God Almighty and by our ordinary authority, to all who are contrite and confessed, who have contributed work and efficacy against the heresies of John Wycliffe, John Hus, and Jerome of Prague, who have been condemned, according to the intention of those same statutes. And we likewise grant this to those who henceforth perform the memory of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ or the veneration of the most glorious Virgin Mary, concerning the penance enjoined upon them.