Concordat of Bologna

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The Concordat of Bologna (1516), marking a stage in the evolution of the Gallican Church,^[1] was an agreement between King Francis I of France and Pope Leo X that Francis negotiated in the wake of his victory at Marignano in September 1515. It stated that the Pope could collect all the income that the Catholic Church made in France, while the King of France was confirmed in his right to tithe the clerics and to restrict their right of appeal to Rome. The Concordat confirmed the King of France's right to make appointments to benefices—archbishops, bishops, abbots and priors— enabling the Crown, by controlling its personnel, to decide who was to lead the Church in France. Details of the agreement confirmed the papal veto of any leader the King of France chose that was deemed truly unqualified, and the Apostolic Camera's right to collect the first year's revenue from each benefice, called annates, a right which, when abused, led to shuffling of prelates among dioceses. On Francis's part, it was at last firmly conceded that the Pope's powers were not subject to any council,^[2] an affirmation of the papal position in the long-crushed Conciliar Movement, which was in the process of being condemned at the contemporaneous Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17), which confirmed the Concordat.

[edit] Results of the Concordat

The Concordat of Bologna provided the ground-rules for the limited Reformation in France: the sons of Francis and Catherine de' Medici saw no advantage to the Crown in any gestures towards Reformation in France. The king of France had enormous powers to direct the Church's wealth and provide sinecures in the offices of bishops and abbots in commendam, for his faithful followers among the powerful aristocracy. The Concordat ended any vestige of the elective principle, in which the monks or cathedral canons chose the abbot or bishop: there were some protests from these disenfranchised communities, whose approval of candidates had for some time devolved into a mere pro forma. It allowed the King to maintain control of the Church as well as the State. For many years to come, the Kings of France would struggle to keep the Catholic Church in power, as it was filled with supporters of their policies. This would lead to persecution of non-Catholics under Francis I, Henry II, Francis II, and Charles IX.

This religious intolerance would lead to the civil wars in France that are called the Wars of Religion, and finally religious freedom in the form of an Edict of Toleration, the Edict of Saint-Germain issued by Charles IX's regent in 1562 and finally the Edict of Nantes.

[edit] Notes

^ The Concordat explicitly superseded the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, (1438).
^ The previous French position had been to support the decisions of the Council of Basel.