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[German Version] ( fratres calendarii). In the late Middle Ages, Kalands Brethren were religious brotherhoods (II, 1; fraternitates), widespread especially in ¶ lower Saxony, membership in which was generally reserved for priests. One can divide the widely varied, guild-like alliances, named Kalands Brethren since the 13th century (after their worship assemblies on the calends of each month), into parish Kalands Brethren, Kalands Brethren founded by the nobility, and – only in northern Germany – the “Sedes Kalands Br…

[German Version] (Lainez; 1512, Almazán, Castile – Jan 19, 1565, Rome) studied at the University of Alcalá from 1528 onward (B.A., 1531; M.A., 1532), and later went to Paris, where he soon became the most zealous and closest disciple of Ignatius of Loyola. He did the spiritual exercises and took his vows on Montmartre on Aug 15, 1534. After further theological studies in Paris and Rome and ordination in Venice in 1537, he was dispatched to the Council of Trent in 1546, where he participated in all the Council's sessions. There, he strongly opposed the (Augustinian) doctrine of the duplex iust…

[German Version] 1. Nicolas Perrenot de (1484/85, Ornans, France – Aug 27, 1550, Augsburg) was a Burgundian official in the service of the Habsburgs, initially at the court of Besançon. After receiving the Dr.iur., Granvelle became chief councilor of the Franche-Comté in 1518. Charles V named him chief minister in 1524. After the death of his protector, Mercurino Arborio di Gattarina, Granvelle succeeded him as minister for the northern regions ¶ of the Empire in 1530. The emperor's great confidence in Granvelle, despite many accusations of bribery, made him one of…

[German Version] I. Church History – II. Church Law – III. Dogmatics I. Church History 1. Early Church Council (Lat. concilium, Gk σύνοδος [Lat. synodum]; the two terms were first differentiated in modern usage; see also synod) are meetings of bishops from various communities for binding clarification of disciplinary, organizational, or doctrinal questions, whose decisions, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, are not in principle revisable and claim validity for the whole church r…

[German Version] is the right of civil authorities to regulate religious affairs in their sphere of control. 1. With no direct roots in the reform powers of late medieval authorities (Patronage, bailiwick, papal privileges), the ius reformandi in the Reformation period grew out of the responsibility felt by the estates of the empire, the cities and the nobility for the church, a responsibility that was often prompted, but also accepted, in the 15th century. It consisted, first, in the right of the estates to decide for the Reforma…

[German Version] (c. 1320/1322, Gelnhausen – Apr 13, 1390, Heidelberg). Konrad is first mentioned in 1344 as a B.A. in Paris; he was appointed judicial vicar in Mainz in 1363. In 1378, after studies in jurisprudence, he was awarded a doctorate in Bologna, became cathedral provost in Worms, and returned to Paris the same year. During the last years of his life, Konrad played an active role (among other things, as chancellor) in the establishment of the University of Heidelberg (Heidelberg, University of). He wrote an epistola brevis in 1379 in an effort to overcome the Western Schi…

[German Version] was the name first given in 1456 to a collection of grievances of the Holy Roman Empire and its church against the pope and curia. Not only the estates of the Empire that had opposed the Vienna Concord in 1448, but, especially, the high-ranking clergy complained in the subsequent gravamina about Rome's intervention in the affairs of the German church ( Reichskirche ) in the form, for example, of papal reservations of ratification, erroneous grants of benefice, exactions of payment, etc. When the Imperial Court expanded the…

[German Version] (Giovanni de' Medici, born Dec 11, 1475, Florence; pope Mar 11, 1513 [election] – Dec 11, 1521). The second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, he was made cardinal in 1489, but he had to leave Florence after the fall of the Medici in 1494 (G. Savonarola); in the north (Bologna, Germany, Flanders, France), he ¶ developed his interests in art, wealth, and power. Coming to Rome in 1500, he was able to use his wide-ranging relationships to restore his political influence and return to Florence in 1512. After election as pope on Mar 11, 1513,…

[German Version] from Nov 1, 1503 to Feb 21, 1513 (birth name: Giuliano della Rovere, born Dec 5, 1443 in Albissola). Sponsored by his uncle, Pope Sixtus IV, Julius received several bishoprics and became a cardinal in 1471. As the main rival of the Borgia pope Alexander VI, he was forced to seek refuge at the court of the French king Charles VIII. Later, elected pope through simony, Julius sought to consolidate the Papal States internally and to fill them out externally (reconquest of large parts of Romagna).…

[German Version] (1506, Langenenslingen – Sep 30, 1561, Vienna) studied in Tübingen and, as an M.A. (1528), became headmaster of the cathedral school (1531), cathedral priest (1533), and suffragan bishop (1537) in Mainz, where he was awarded a Dr.theol. in 1543. Helding took part in the religious disputations (I; 1540, 1546, 1557) and in the Council of Trent (I) in 1545/1546, during which he called for systematic reforms in order to prevent a complete secession of the German church. He acted as th…

[German Version] Malta is an island group (Malta, Gozo, Comino) in the Mediterranean, south of Sicily. It has an area of 320 km2 and a population of some 409,000 (2007). Already settled in prehistoric times, in 480 bce the islands came under the control of Carthage. After the fall of Carthage, in 281 bce Malta became part of the Roman Empire, and then (after 494 ce) part of the Byzantine Empire. More than two centuries of Arab rule (870–1090) put a permanent stamp on the islands and their culture. Later, as part of Sicily, Malta was subject to various overlor…

[German Version] (from Lat. nepos, “grandchild, nephew”) refers to efforts to place relatives in influential ecclesiastical or ecclesiastico-political offices, thus benefiting them by exploiting the power of appointment. In the bishoprics of the Holy Roman Empire and particularly in the Papal States, where celibacy prevented the establishment of dynasties, bishops and popes favored their own families in awarding dignities, offices, benefices, and fiefs. In the Curia, the support given weak popes by …

[German Version] Papal months ( menses papales) were initially the first two months in a quarter, then the odd-numbered months in the year, in which a benefice had to be settled, som that the pope would have the sole right to appoint, as opposed to otherwise legitimate authorities (esp. bishops). In the early Middle Ages the popes had increasingly succeeded in obtaining this reservation; it was contractually laid down for the empire in the Vienna Concordat of 1448. Papal months, modified by privileges…

[German Version] (Jul 5, 1512, Madruzzo near Cavedine – Jul 5, 1578, Tivoli) studied at Padua and Bologna, and after assuming several canonries (Trent, Augsburg, Salzburg, Brixen) was from 1539 bishop of Trent. In 1542, the year of his consecration and appointment as cardinal, he also assumed the administration of Brixen; he repeatedly sought other archbishoprics farther north in the empire. Madrutsch, a vassal of the emperor and close friend of the pope, tried, as a theologian tending towards ref…

By the end of the 18th century, most of the territories of the Holy Roman Empire were homogeneous in confession and religion (excepting the toleration of the Jews in many places; cf. Ius reformandi; Confessionalization). So too were most of the Swiss cantons and European kingdoms (Protestant: Scandinavian kingdoms; Catholic: France, Spain). As a rule, civic rights depended on membership of the one official confession or “religion” of the territory, so these can be said to have been “established churches”.Besides the free imperial cities (Augsburg, Biberach) that were o…

1. Introduction The reciprocal but never symmetrical relationship between Church andState in early modern Europe was the result of a historical development that in some respects remained indebted to the political ethics of the New Testament (Rom 13; Rv 13), while in other respects confronting profound changes in both ecclesiastical and secular political institutions, specifically the emergence of the early modern territorial and nation state. At first, the underlying assumption was that the Europe…

1. Definition and historical originsThe ius reformandi was the right of a secular sovereign power in the Holy Roman Empire to regulate (“reform”) religious conditions in his territory. It was a typically early modern right, because it presupposed the basic concepts of territorial sovereignty and the distinction between state and religion, while simultaneously promoted both ideas (Church and state). A corresponding right was exercised in other European states (in Scandinavia and England with the introd…

The term  episcopal system denotes a legal theory explaining why Protestant German princes governed the churches in their territories episcopally (Latin  episcopale). In the Germany of the Reformation period (1517–1555), hardly any incumbent bishops aligned themselves with the Reformation. At the same time, the Protestant estates of the realm insisted that the incumbent bishops were no longer allowed to exercise jurisdiction over Protestant citizens (Jurisdiction). Instead the Protestant political elites themselve…

A consistory (from Latin  consistere, “come together, meet”) is a collegial governing body, usually of religious organizations, especially Protestant churches. In the Roman Catholic Church, a consistory is usually a formal meeting of the College of Cardinals presided over by the pope. In French-language church orders of the Reformed tradition,  consistoire also denotes an ecclesiastical election body on the level of the congregation; similarly in the Reformed churches of the Netherlands, a presbytery is called a  consistorie. The term has also been used for Jewi…

1. General1.1. DefinitionUntil well into the 20th century, the term church order always referred only to the legal systems of the churches in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire in which the Reformation had been established, negating any continuation of canon law (Ecclesiastical law). Quite recently the term has also been applied to texts composed between the 2nd and 5th centuries that deal with questions of how life should be ordered in the Christian communities [3].To date there has been no agreed definition of the legal documents called church orders in P…

E. bezeichnet eine juristische Theorie, die erklärt, warum dt. evang. Fürsten die Kirchen in ihren Ländern bischöflich (episkopal, lat. episcopale) leiteten. Im Deutschland der Reformationszeit (1517–1555) schloss sich kaum ein amtierender Bischof der Reformation an. Gleichzeitig forderten die evang. Stände, dass die amtierenden Bischöfe keine Jurisdiktion mehr über evang. Bürger ausüben dürften (Gerichtsbarkeit). Stattdessen übernahmen die evang. politischen Eliten selbst, also Fürsten und Stadträte, die Leitung bei der Einfüh…

1. Allgemein 1.1. BegriffBis ins 20. Jh. bezeichnete der Begriff K. durchgängig nur die kirchlichen (= kirchl.) Rechtsordnungen der Territorien des Alten Reichs, in denen die Reformation durchgeführt und somit eine Fortgeltung des kanonischen Rechts (Kirchenrecht) negiert wurde. In jüngerer Zeit werden auch zwischen dem 2. und dem 5. Jh. verfasste Texte, die sich mit Fragen der Ordnung des Lebens in den christl. Gemeinden befassen, als K. bezeichnet [3].Eine einheitliche Definition der rechtlichen Ordnungen, die in den protest. Kirchen K. genannt werden, fehlt…

1. Definition und historische AnfängeDas I. R. war das Recht einer weltlichen Obrigkeit im Heiligen Röm. Reich, die Religionsverhältnisse in ihrem Territorium zu regeln (»reformieren«). Es war ein typisch nzl. Recht, weil es die Grundgedanken der Territorialhoheit und der Unterscheidung von Staat und Religion voraussetzte und zugleich beide entscheidend beförderte (Kirche und Staat). In anderen europ. Staaten wurde ein entsprechendes Recht zwar geübt (so in Skandinavien und England zur Einführung der Reformation, i…

Unter K. (von lat. consistere, »zusammentreten«) versteht man ein kollegiales Leitungsgremium zumeist religiöser Organisationen, insbes. evangelischer Kirchen. In der Römisch-katholischen Kirche bedeutet K. eine Zusammenkunft der Kardinäle unter dem Vorsitz des Papstes. In franz.sprachigen Kirchenordnungen der reformierten Tradition bezeichnet consistoire auch ein kirchliches Wahlgremium auf Gemeinde-Ebene, ebenso wird in den reformierten Niederlanden das Presbyterium consistorie genannt; bisweilen war diese Bezeichnung auch für jüd. Gremien in Geb…

Bis zum Ende des 18. Jh.s waren die meisten Territorien des Heiligen Röm. Reiches (von der Duldung der Juden mancherorts abgesehen) konfessionell, ja religiös homogen (vgl. Ius reformandi; Konfessionalisierung); Entsprechendes gilt für die meisten Schweizer Stände und die europ. Königreiche (evang.: skandinavische Reiche; kath.: Frankreich, Spanien). Bürgerliche Rechte waren i. Allg. von der Mitgliedschaft in der einen Konfession bzw. »Religion« des Gebietes abhängig, sodass von »Staatskirchen« gesprochen werden kann.Ausnahmen von der konfessionellen Homogenit…

1. EinleitungDas wechselseitige, aber nie symmetrische Gegenüber von K.u.S. im nzl. Europa ist das Ergebnis einer histor. Entwicklung, die einerseits an der politischen Ethik des NT (Röm 13; Offb 13) orientiert blieb, die aber andererseits tiefgreifende Veränderungen sowohl der kirchlichen als auch der staatlichen Institutionen, nämlich die Entstehung der nzl. Territorial- und Nationalstaaten, zu bewältigen hatte. Anfänglich war die Vorstellung leitend, dass die europ. Staaten in der Nachfolge des Röm. …

[English Version] (von lat. nepos »Enkel, Neffe«) bez. Bemühungen, einflußreiche kirchl. und kirchenstaatspolit. Stellen mit Verwandten zu besetzen und sie so unter Ausnutzung der eigenen Macht zu begünstigen. In den Hochstiften des Reiches und v.a. im Kirchenstaat, wo sich aufgrund des Zölibats keine Dynastien herausbilden konnten, bevorzugten Bischöfe und Päpste ihre Familien bei Vergaben von Würden, Ämtern, Pfründen und Lehen. An der Kurie war die Unterstützung schwacher Päpste durch begabte Ve…