Christian Cyclopedia

1. Agreement bet. civil and ecclesiastical authorities, particularly bet. the pope and civil govts., to regulate ecclesiastical matters. Concordats are pub. as civil law on ratification by the state and as canon law on ratification by the ch. The 3 theories regarding the nature of concordats: (1) the legal theory, that the state as superior grants the ch. certain privileges revocable at will; (2) the compact theory, that state and ch. as equals make an agreement abrogated only by mutual consent; (3) the privilege theory, that the ...