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CONCORDIA

annates and all the benefice reservations which did not appear in the Corpus Juris. Eugenius IV. repudiated the Basel decrees, and the negotiations terminated in what was called the “concordat of the princes,” which was accepted by Eugenius IV. on his death-bed (bulls of February 5 and 7, 1447). In February 1448 Nicholas V. concluded the arrangement, which took the name of the concordat of Vienna. This concordat, however, was not received as law of the Empire. In Germany the concessions made to the pope and the reservations maintained by him in the matter of taxes and benefices were deemed excessive, and the prolonged discontent which resulted was one of the causes of the success of the Lutheran Reformation.

In France the opposition to the papal exactions had been still more marked. In 1438 the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges adopted and put into practice the Basel decrees, and in spite of the incessant protests of the Holy See the Pragmatic was observed throughout the 15th century, even after its nominal abolition by Louis XI. in 1461. The situation was modified by the concordat of Bologna, which was personally negotiated by Leo X. and Francis I. of France at Bologna in December 1515, inserted in the bull Primitiva (August 18, 1516), and promulgated as law of the realm in 1517, but not without rousing keen opposition. All bishoprics, abbeys and priories were in the royal nomination, the canonical institution belonging to the pope. The pope preserved the right to nominate to vacant benefices in curia and to certain benefices of the chapters, but all the others were in the nomination of the bishops or other inferior collators. However, the exercise of the pope’s right of provision still left considerable scope for papal intervention, and the pope retained the annates.

In the 17th century we have only to mention the concordat between Urban VIII. and the emperor Ferdinand II. for Bohemia in 1640. In the 18th century concordats are numerous: there are two for Spain, in 1737 and 1753; two for the duchy of Milan, in 1757 and 1784; one for Poland, in 1736; five for Sardinia and Piedmont, in 1727, 1741, 1742, 1750 and 1770; and one for the kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1741.

After the political and territorial upheavals which marked the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, all these concordats either fell to the ground or had to be recast. In the 19th century we find a long series of concordats, of which a good number are still in force. The first in date and importance is that of 1801, concluded for France between Napoleon, First Consul, and Pius VII. after laborious negotiations. Save in the provisions relating to ecclesiastical benefices, all the property of which had been confiscated, it reproduced the concordat of 1516. The pope condoned those who had acquired church property; and by way of compensation the government engaged to give the bishops and curés suitable salaries. The concordat was solemnly promulgated on Easter Day 1802, but the government had added to it unilateral provisions of Gallican tendencies, which were known as the Organic Articles. After having been the law of the Church of France for a century, it was denounced by the French government in 1905. It remains, however, partly in force for Belgium and Alsace-Lorraine, which formed part of French territory in 1801.

We conclude with a brief chronological survey of the concordats during the 19th century, some now abrogated or replaced, others maintained. It must be observed that the denunciation of a concordat by a nation does not necessarily entail the separation of the church and the state in that country or the rupture of diplomatic relations with Rome.

1803. For the Italian republic, between Napoleon and Pius VII., analogous to the French concordat; abrogated.

1813. It is impossible to designate as a concordat the concessions which were wrested by violence from Pius VII. when ill and in seclusion at Fontainebleau, and which he at once retracted.

1817. For Bavaria; still in force.

1817. New French concordat, in which Louis XVIII. endeavoured to revive the concordat of 1516; but it was not put to the vote in the chambers, and never came into force.

1817. For Piedmont, completed in 1836 and 1841; was suppressed, like all other Italian concordats, by the formation of the kingdom of Italy.

1818. For the Two Sicilies, completed in 1834; lasted until the invasion of the kingdom of Naples by Piedmont.

1821. For Prussia; still in force.

1821. For the Rhine provinces not incorporated in Prussia, with the special object of regulating episcopal elections; concerned Württemberg, Baden, Hesse, Saxony, Nassau, Frankfort, the Hanseatic towns, Oldenburg and Waldeck. This first concordat was immediately suspended, and was not ratified until 1827; it is partially maintained. It had to be replaced by new concordats concluded with Württemberg in 1857 and the grand-duchy of Baden in 1859; but these conventions, not having been ratified by those countries, never came into force.

1824. For the kingdom of Hanover; maintained.

1827. For Belgium and Holland; abandoned by a common accord.

1828 and 1845. For Switzerland, for the reorganization of the bishoprics of Basel and Soleure; in force.

1847. For Russia, never applied by Russia. It was followed by several partial conventions.

1851. For Tuscany; lasted until the formation of the kingdom of Italy.

1851. For Spain, completed in 1859 and 1888; in force.

A convention on the religious orders was concluded in 1904, but had not received the assent of the Senate in 1908.

1855. For Austria; denounced in 1870. Several of its provisions are maintained by unilateral Austrian laws. The emperor of Austria continues to nominate to bishoprics by virtue of rights anterior to this concordat.

1857. For Portugal, completed in 1886 for the Portuguese possessions in the Indies; in force.

1886. For Montenegro; in force.

The numerous concordats concluded towards the middle of the 19th century with several of the South American republics either have not come into force or have been denounced and replaced by a more or less pacific modus vivendi.

For texts see Vincenzio Nussi, Quinquaginta conventiones de rebus ecclesiasticis (Rome, 1869; Mainz, 1870); Branden, Concordata inter S. Sedem et inclytam nationem Germaniae, &c. (undated). On the nature and obligation of concordats see Mgr. Giobbio, I Concordati (Monza, 1900); idem, Lezioni di diplomazia ecclesiastica (Rome, 1899–1903); Cardinal Cavagnis, Institutiones juris publici ecclesiastici (Rome, 1906). For the French concordats see A. Baudrillard, Quatre cents ans de concordat (Paris, 1905); Boulay de la Meurthe, Documents sur la négociation du concordat et sur les autres rapports de la France avec le Saint-Siège (Paris, 1891–1905); Cardinal Mathieu, Le Concordat de 1801 (Paris, 1903); E. Sevestre, Le Concordat de 1801, l’histoire, le texte, la destinée (Paris, 1905). On the relations between the church and the state in various countries see Vering, Kirchenrecht, §§ 30-53.  (A. Bo.*) 


CONCORDIA, a Roman goddess, the personification of peace and goodwill. Several temples in her honour were erected at Rome, the most ancient being one on the Capitol, dedicated to her by Camillus (367 B.C.), subsequently restored by Livia, the wife of Augustus, and consecrated by Tiberius (A.D. 10). Other temples were frequently built to commemorate the restoration of civil harmony. Offerings were made to Concordia on the birthdays of emperors, and Concordia Augusta was worshipped as the promoter of harmony in the imperial household. Concordia was represented as a matron holding in her right hand a patera or an olive branch, and in her left a cornu copiae or a sceptre. Her symbols were two hands joined together, and two serpents entwined about a herald’s staff.


CONCORDIA (mod. Concordia Sagittaria), an ancient town of Venetia, in Italy, 16 ft. above sea-level, 31 m. W. of Aquileia, at the junction of roads to Altinum and Patavium, to Opitergium (and thence either to Vicetia and Verona, or Feltria and Tridentum), to Noricum by the valley of the Tilaventus (Tagliamento), and to Aquileia. It was a mere village until the time of Augustus, who made it a colony. Under the later empire it was one of the most important towns of Italy; it had a strong garrison and a factory of missiles for the army. The cemetery of the garrison has been excavated since 1873, and a large number of important