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 concordatia qua 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.

CONCORDAT is also used absolutely, to signify an agreement concluded between the Holy See and any sovereign prince or state, for regulating the manner 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.; and, in modern times, that concluded between Napoleon Bonaparte, then emperor of France, and the Holy See.

The concordat serves instead of the pragmatic sanction, which has been abrogated; or rather, it is the pragmatic sanction softened and reformed.