Concordat

Concordat (Lat. concordatum, 'a thing agreed upon'), though sometimes used of secular treaties, is generally employed to denote an agreement made between the pope, as the head of the Roman Catholic Church, and a secular government, on matters which concern the interests of its Roman Catholic subjects. Such concordats may take either of two forms. The pope may, after consultation with the government in question, issue a bull regulating the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church in the country, the contents of the said bull being afterwards ratified by the government and incorporated in the law of the land. Or again, a formal treaty may be drawn up and signed by plenipotentiaries on both sides. Various theories have been held on the obligation of such contracts. Secular jurists have denied that they impose any real obligation on the state, which may annul them at pleasure. Extreme Ultramontanes, on the other hand, have regarded concordats as privileges which the pope grants for the time without entering into any contract properly so called, while the more moderate of Roman canonists recognise a contract binding both sides. As a matter of fact, no modern government can engage that its stipulations with the pope will be respected by its successors in office. Thus the Austrian concordat was secured by the clerical party in 1855 and swept away by their opponents in 1870. The famous and more enduring concordat by which the church in France was re-established after the Revolution was concluded by Napoleon (as first consul) and Pius VII. in 1801.