CONCORDAT, in the canon law, a covenant or agree-
ment concerning some beneficiary matter, as a resignation,
permutation, promotion, or the like.
The council of Trent (sess. vi., de reform., cap. 4), speak-
ing of concordats made without the authority and approba-
tion of the pope, calls them concordias quæ tantum suos
obligant auctores, non successores. And the congregation of
cardinals who have explained this decree, declare also
that a concordat cannot be valid so as to bind successors,
unless confirmed by the pope.
In particular, it signifies an agreement between the Holy
See and a sovereign prince or state, for regulating the man-
ner of nominating to benefices and other matters connected
with religion. Such was the concordat concluded at Bologna,
in 1516, between Leo X. and Francis I., for the abolition of
the pragmatic sanction; and, in modern times, that concluded
between Napoleon and Pius VII. in 1801.
The concordat serves instead of the pragmatic sanction;
or rather, it is the pragmatic sanction softened and reformed.