Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A formal agreement; a compact.
  • noun An agreement between the pope and a sovereign government concerning the legal status of the Roman Catholic Church within that government's territory.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An agreement; a compact; a convention; especially, an agreement between church and state.
  • noun Specifically— In canon law, a compact, covenant, or agreement concerning some beneficiary matter, as a resignation, permutation, promotion, or the like.
  • noun In civil law, a composition deed.
  • noun A convention or treaty between the see of Rome and any secular government, with a view to arrange ecclesiastical relations. The most celebrated modern concordat is that concluded in 1801 between Napoleon Bonaparte as first consul and Pius VII., defining. the restored privileges of the Roman Catholic Church in France, and regulating in detail the relations between the ecclesiastical and civil powers.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A compact, covenant, or agreement concerning anything.
  • noun An agreement made between the pope and a sovereign or government for the regulation of ecclesiastical matters with which both are concerned.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A formal agreement between two parties, especially between a church and a state; specifically, an agreement between the Pope and a government.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a signed written agreement between two or more parties (nations) to perform some action

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Medieval Latin concordātum, from neuter past participle of Latin concordāre, to agree; see concordant.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French concordat, from Latin concordatum.

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Examples

  • Prescinding for the present from the exact nature of a concordat, and without giving an exact definition, we may say that a concordat is a law, ecclesiastical and civil, made for a certain country in regard to matters which in some way concern both Church and State, a law, moreover, possessing the force of a treaty entered into by both the ecclesiastical and civil power and to a certain extent binding upon both.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery 1840-1916 1913

  • To this day, the learned do not agree as to the important question whether or not the concordat was a personal agreement with Henry or with the empire as such.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability 1840-1916 1913

  • His concordat was the work of a real psychologist, who knew that moral forces do not use violence, and the great danger of persecuting such.

    The Psychology of Revolution 1913

  • For I am of that school of French traditionalists which has made a kind of concordat with the Republique, a la Leo XIII.

    Governor Palin de Brantigny........................ 2008

  • I have seen photos of Hitler and top Roman Catholic officials at a signing of a "concordat" and etc.

    Alex Jones' Prison Planet.com 2009

  • I have seen photos of Hitler and top Roman Catholic officials at a signing of a "concordat" and etc.

    Alex Jones' Prison Planet.com 2009

  • MUSEUMS across the east of Scotland have signed a new "concordat" designed to boost services for local residents.

    unknown title 2008

  • Hence it follows that it is utterly impossible to call a concordat an international treaty in the real and true sense of the word (cf. a pamphlet anonymously edited in Rome, 1872, under the title: "Della Natura e carattere essenziale dei Concordati", whose author was Cardinal Cagiano de

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery 1840-1916 1913

  • And the salient point for our wider discussion is that there is no useful way of talking about 'Britishness' without telling a specific story – a story which is about how both invasion and foreign adventure created a flexible and hybrid language, how a particular kind of concordat between royal, feudal and ecclesiastical power outlasted a brief experiment with royal absolutism in the early modern period, how the reaction against absolutism moulded a set of legal standards and protocols (habeas corpus, jury trial), how lessons were learned and not learned in the treatment of subject societies through England's relations with its Celtic neighbours ... and so on.

    Multiculturism: Friend or Foe 2007

  • And the salient point for our wider discussion is that there is no useful way of talking about 'Britishness' without telling a specific story – a story which is about how both invasion and foreign adventure created a flexible and hybrid language, how a particular kind of concordat between royal, feudal and ecclesiastical power outlasted a brief experiment with royal absolutism in the early modern period, how the reaction against absolutism moulded a set of legal standards and protocols (habeas corpus, jury trial), how lessons were learned and not learned in the treatment of subject societies through England's relations with its Celtic neighbours ... and so on.

    Multiculturism: Friend or Foe 2007

Comments

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  • "It was true he had made possible the concordat between Church and government that permitted the Church to have a say in its own affairs. It was also true that the promises made in that agreement had been consistently broken."

    - Brian Moore, 'The Colour Of Blood'.

    January 3, 2008

  • "All the goodwill, the billions of pounds and millions of hours poured into conservation work, the global treaties and concordats seem to be no match for the amplification of our presence on earth."

    - George Monbiot, The Naming of Things, monbiot.com, 15 March 2010.

    March 16, 2010