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[German Version] The expressions ius in sacra and ius circa sacra came into use in the 17th century but were not clearly distinguished until the 19th century. They denote the legal authority of the territorial ruler by virtue of his supervisory authority over all corporations and religious bodies (Secular supremacy: ius in sacra), grounded in his secular authority, and his authority as summepiscopus (Summepiscopate of the princes) of the Protestant church ( ius in sacris). Episcopalist theology (Episcopalism: I) developed a graduated theory of secular authority, in co…

[German Version] (“it pleases”; also placetum regium, exequatur regium) is the formula expressing assent by the local prince to ecclesiastical legislation, especially papal legislation. It was both a requirement before the law could take effect in the ruler’s territory and authorization to promulgate it (Publication). First put into practice in England and in French Gallicanism, it was introduced after the 17th century in many countries of western and southern Europe. In the German Empire, initially onl…

[German Version] (May 27, 1818, Zellerfeld – Dec 25, 1893, Hanover), Protestant teacher of constitutional and church law. After studying law in Göttingen, Berlin and Jena, Mejer obtained his doctorate in 1841 in Göttingen; he became a lecturer there in 1842, and a full professor at Königsberg in 1847, Greifswald in 1850, Rostock in 1851, and finally Göttingen from 1874 to 1885, after which he was president of the Hanover Evangelical Lutheran regional consistory until his death. As a pupil of A.L. …

[German Version] The Prussian Civil Code ( Preußisches Allgemeines Landrecht) went into effect on Jun 1, 1794, as a law code for the unified Prussian monarchy. It was drafted at the behest of Frederick the Great by the new chancellor, Casimir v. Carmer (1780); among those contributing to its content, Carl Gottlieb Svarez and Ernst Ferdinand Klein stand out. Completed in 1791, after Frederick’s death, it was to have taken effect in 1792 as the Allgemeines Gesetzbuch für die Preußischen Staaten [Civil code for the Prussian states]. Not least in reaction to the French Revoluti…

[German Version] refers to modalities of the medieval and modern Catholic claim to ecclesial (and esp. papal) authority in temporal (worldly) matters ( in temporalibus). Invoking older doctrinal tra-¶ ditions, the medieval papacy in particular claimed papal supremacy over all secular powers (most strongly articulated in the Unam sanctam bull of Boniface VIII [1302], doctrine of the two swords), and thus not only the supreme legislative authority in spiritualibus et temporalibus but also a right to intervene directly in the legal order of states through the repeali…

[German Version] 1. History. The concept originated in the rational Enlightenment doctrine of natural law (IV), and especially in the state-church law theory of collegialism. “Religious societies” is thus a short formula for the outside view of the churches, and later of all religious confessional societies from the vantage point of the religiously neutral state, which no longer concerns itself with the issue of religious truth and is therefore committed in principle to equal treatment. It was in this form that the concept found its way via the Prussian Civil Code, the Paulskirchenverf…

[German Version] (Aug 31, 1904, Wülfrath – Nov 29, 1976, Göttingen), teacher of constitutional and administrative law. After studying in Marburg, Berlin, and Bonn (doctorate under C. Schmitt), Weber entered the Prussian ministry of education and cultural affairs, initially in the religious division, later in the division for national culture. In addition he was appointed lecturer at the Berlin School of Commerce in 1931 and promoted ¶ to full professor in 1935. In 1942 he became a professor at Leipzig and in 1949 at Göttingen, where he served as rector from 195…

[German Version] (Feb 15, 1808, Stolpen – May 8, 1864, Berlin), Protestant teacher of church law. In 1835 Richter became assistant professor in Leipzig, in 1838 full professor in Marburg, and from 1846 in Berlin; he was a member of the Protestant High Consistory between 1850 and 1859, and thereafter senior privy councilor in the Prussian ministry of culture. Together with K.F. Eichhorn, Richter is regarded as one of the founders of the church law branch of the history of law school. When he was only 31, he published a new critical edition of the Corpus iuris canonici. Alongside numerous oth…

[German Version] I. In international law, neutrality is the legal status of a state that is not participating in a war involving other states. This status carries various rights (e.g. territorial integrity, armed resistance to violations of neutrality) and duties (esp. no military, financial, or other support of any belligerent, sufficient military potential to defend against attacks in peacetime, willingness to allow ships on the high seas to be searched by belligerents, and equal treatment of the…

[German Version] I. Protestantism – II. Catholicism I. Protestantism In the 16th and 17th century (before territorialism and collegialism), episcopalism and the theory of the episcopal system developed by its proponents represented the earliest justification of the ecclesiastical authority wielded by Protestant princes in their realms. 1. While the Reformers regarded these local rulers as mere fellow Christians, albeit as praecipuum membrum ecclesiae, and wished to invest them with this authority only as long as seemed necessa…

[German Version] In the Holy Roman Empire, reserved rights were the epitome of the (historically varying) rights enjoyed by the emperor without any requirement of approval by electors and the Reichstag. Borrowing from this usage, in the 19th century Reservatsrechte were those rights of church governance, rooted in the summepiscopate of the territorial prince, that he had reserved to be exercised personally (i.e. not by church officials acting in his name). The most important were: approbation of ecclesiastical legislation passed by synods, in ¶ some cases including the right to…

[German Version] ( appel comme d’abus) is an appeal of civil authorities against an abuse of power by an ecclesiastical authority transgressing the boundaries drawn by civil law; it was thus (along with the placet) a particularly effective instrument of secular supremacy. It achieved its distinctive form in France in 1539, when it served primarily as a defense against encroachments on Gallican liberties (Gallicanism). The French model also inspired its use in Spain and the Netherlands. Initially legal title was vested in royal church advocacy (Church advocate). The recursus came in…

[German Version] The term Constantinian Era is a headword known more in the context of “the end of the Constantinian Era” (Constantine the Great) than as a period delimited by precise historical criteria and is supposed to characterize the symbiosis of church and secular authority that began with the “Constantinian change” (312) and lasted into the modern era, indeed into recent history. It is meant to refer to an alliance in which each side uses the services of the other to reach its ¶ goals: the church uses the state for recourse to secular force and privileges; the st…

[German Version] The term state religion denotes a religious element unifying the collectivity of subjects, considered indispensable for the existence of the state (“un roi, une loi, une foi”). It was taken for granted as the foundation of nearly every early form of the state. To the extent that religion is considered an element of public order, religious pluralism is perceived as a threat to the unity of the state, since it bears the seed of civil war, or at least qualified loyalty on the part of th…

[German Version] (May 8, 1832, Gedern – Dec 30, 1895, Darmstadt), Protestant theologian and authority on ecclesiastical law. After studying at Gießen and seminary training, he served initially as a private tutor and Gymnasium teacher. In 1863 he was appointed professor of catechetics and ecclesiastical law at the seminary in Friedberg; in 1882 he was appointed chief consistorial councilor in Darmstadt and superintendent for Rheinhessen. Köhler considered ecclesiastical law a necessary function of …

[German Version] 1. Joachim (May, 1544, Pyritz, Pomerania [now Pyrzyce, Poland] – Jan 14, 1623, Greifswald). Initially (1572) professor of mathematics in Greifswald, in 1578 he was appointed professor of law, a member of the ducal council, and president of the consistory. With his younger brother Matthias (2. below), he was a leading advocate of the episcopal system (Episcopalism: I), appealing to imperial law to legitimate the evolving Pro­testant system of placing church governance in the hands of…

[German Version] (Apr 23, 1827, Winterberg, Westphalia – Dec 19, 1914, Obermais, near Meran), Catholic canonist and legal historian. He was appointed associate professor in Prague in 1854, full professor in 1855; from 1873 to 1906, he taught as a professor in Bonn. Although originally closely tied to the Catholic Church, in 1870 he became one of the most prominent critics of the dogma of papal infallibility and – with J. v. Döllinger – a leading organizer of the Old Catholic movement (Old Catholic…

[German Version] ( ius exclusivae) denotes the right of a civil ruler or state in Catholic church law to exclude as undesirable a certain candidate from being elected or appointed to church office. Papal exclusion, which the sovereigns of major Catholic powers (German and – later – Austrian emperors, kings of France and Spain) claimed for themselves with no formal recognition by th…

[German Version] Territorialism is a theory of the legal relationship between the state and the church, according to which the all-embracing sovereignty of the prince includes sovereignty over the church and the public practice of religion in his territory; this means that all leadership authority in the church derives from the territorial lord. Chronologically the territorial system gradually gave way to episcopalism (which was influenced increasingly by territorialist arguments as it emerged); i…

[German Version] (May 5, 1916, Wiesbaden – Aug 14, 1988, Erlangen), Protestant jurist. He served as an officer from the first days of the war. After 1945 he studied and completed his professional qualification, and then practiced as a lawyer for several years in state and church administration. In 1958 he gained his Habilitation. From 1960 until his retirement in 1984 he was full professor of public law and church law in Erlangen. Obermayer was one of the pioneers of administrative law founded on the rule of law, informed by basic rights and in co…