in the Canon law, denotes a covenant or agreement concerning some beneficiary matter, as a resignation, permutation, promotion, or the like.

The council of Trent, sess. vi. de reform. cap. 4, speaking of concordats made without the authority and approbation of the pope, calls them concordia quae tantum suae obligant suores, non successeores. And the congregation of cardinals, who have explained this decree, declares also that a concordat cannot be valid so as to bind successors, unless confirmed by the pope.

Concordat is also used, absolutely, among the French, for an agreement concluded at Bologna in 1516, between pope Leo X. and Francis I. of France, for regulating the manner of nominating to benefices.

The concordat serves in lieu of the Pragmatic sanction, which has been abrogated; or, rather, it is the pragmatic sanction softened and reformed. The concordat between the pope and the republic of Venice resembles the former.

There is also a German concordat, made between the emperor Frederic III. and the princes of Germany, in 1448, relating to beneficiary matters, confirmed by pope Nicholas V.