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[German Version] The legally impo…

[German Version] (Catholic Church). Among the departments of the Roman Curia, the congregations are on an equal legal footing with the Secretariat of State, papal tribunals, councils, offices, and other dicasteria. They exercise a pastoral ministry by supporting and representing the pope in the performance of his duties as supreme pastor and in the exercise of his sovereign juridical leadership over the universal church (cf. CIC/1983, c. 360). Nine dicasteria are expressly designated as congregations: the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for…

[German Version] I. Early Church The title patriarch appears to have been first used by early Judaism (I), with reference to the both the ancestral biblical figures ( 4. Macc. 7.19; 16.25; T. 12 Patr.; Ber. 16b) and the religious leaders of the Romans’ Jewish subjects (Heb. nasi ), throughout the history of that central religious office. The first such patriarch was probably Judah ha-Nasi, during the Severan dynasty (193–235); Cod. Theod. XVI 8.29 (May 30, 429) records the excessus (“termination”) of the Jewish patriarchate. In Christianity, the Montanists (Montanism; cf. Jerome, Ep. 4…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Voluntary promises to do something, either materially or ideally, in order to obtain the support of a divinity or ¶ some other metaphysical effects, are known as vows. Intended as an agreement in partnership with the gods ( do ut das, not always strictly), they are found worldwide as prominent forms of expressing partnership with the divine. They are to be distinguished from texts accompanying thankofferings for earlier gifts (notably in the Lat. ex voto or V[otum] S[olvit] L[ibens] M[erito]). They are made at times of personal or coll…