Concordat
Term used for a treaty between the papacy and a civil state. There have been two significant concordats in French history, in 1516 and 1801.
The Concordat of 1516 was essentially a measure whereby François Ier imposed his power on the French Church. It conferred on the king the effective power to nominate to senior positions in the Church, including bishoprics. Together with other regalian rights, this gave the crown a decisive role in Church affairs until the Revolution.
The Concordat of 1801 was a compromise which guaranteed freedom of worship for Catholics after the persecutions of the 1790s, in return for certain forms of state control over the Church. Catholicism was recognized as ‘the religion of the great majority of French citizens’. Church buildings that had not been sold during the Revolution were placed at the disposition of bishops. Clerical salaries were to be paid by the state. Bishops were to be nominated by the government (though there was effectively a papal veto). The appointment of parish priests was subject to government approval. The Church agreed not to trouble the consciences of those who had acquired ecclesiastical property during the Revolution. The concordat of 1801 remained the basis of Church-State relations in France until the Separation of Church and State in 1905 [see Anticlericalism].
[Ralph Gibson]
