 Just as the popes rule the Church largely by means of letters, so also the bishops make use of letters for the administration of their dioceses.The documents issued by a bishop are divided according to their form into pastoral letters, synodal and diocesan statutes, mandates or ordinances or decrees, the classification depending upon whether they have been drawn up more as letters, or have been issued by a synod or the diocesan chancery.The pastoral letters are addressed either to all the members of the diocese ("litterae pastorales") or only to the clergy, in this case generally in Latin ("litterae encyclicae").